Broken Islands Kayak Trip (Late June)

Map of the area and where we paddled

For Mom's birthday, I organized a trip for us to go kayaking in the Broken Islands for a few days. Unfortunately Angela was unavailable for the trip, much to her dismay. It started with a ferry ride over to Vancouver Island on the Friday evening, where we stayed in a motel in Port Alberni. The next morning we drove to Bamfield to meet our Water Taxi that would take us out to the Broken Group of Islands in Barkley Sound. The weather was amazing and the seas were calm as we crossed Imperial Eagle Channel which separates the Deer Group Islands from the Broken Group.

End of School and Alberta Bound

Well, those last two months truly flew by! April was a blur of paper writing, studying for exams, and moving out of our house.

Studying for finals has never been more fun

Skywalker pitch

Birthday Touring

What could be a better birthday present than some fresh pow and (somewhat) bluebird skis? Pillows in the Duffy of course!! The following is a 10 step guide on how to have a great 23rd birthday in the middle of nowhere.

Step 1: Survive the sketchy creek crossing

Tunnel Creek

Turns out this was saved as a draft for a while, I thought I had published it. Better late than never I guess! This is the story of my reading break. Instead of taking full advantage of my time to study for midterms and write papers, I left the coast and headed out to Fernie, BC for a whole bunch of skiing. The week involved 3 nights at Tunnel Creek Hut, a new hut built in the Lizard range.

Tunnel Creek Hut

Whistler Slackcountry

Tristan went out for a tour a few weekends ago and came back pretty excited about a line he had scoped out off of Phalanx Mountain. One week later, we got lucky with stability, weather and were able to go ski it! I am impressed Tristan could remember where it was, considering he had only seen it from the bottom.

Climbing up the stairmaster

There and Back Again: A Brian Waddington Tale

This Christmas holiday, it was decided that we should try and avoid the craziness of Whistler and the long lift lines by escaping the the backcountry for a few days. Large amounts of snow before Christmas had us concerned about avalanche stability, weather and visibility but this turned out to be the least of our worries in the end. The skies were clear, the snow was stable and conditions were perfect for ski touring!

Getting stoked for winter!

Its November already! I don't really know where the last few months went but suddenly its dark at 4:30 and exams are looming. The good news is that the mountains are getting ready to ski! I have been building my ski stoke this month by getting my new gear all ready. Michael at Marker/Volkl hooked me up with some sweet gear that I can't wait to take out for a spin, including the 177 Volkl Nanuq with a Marker F12 binding for touring! Most excellent!

Some of the new gear