Bonnington Half Traverse (Grassy and Steed Huts)

To kick off the Christmas holidays, we headed to the Kootenays to explore the Bonnington Range. Due to the technical difficulties of doing the whole traverse (car drops etc.) we decided to save a bit on gas by just do an out and back to Steed Hut, stopping at the Grassy Hut on our first night and on the way back out. We drove from Fernie, arriving at the Bombi Summit on highway 3 around noon. There were lots of sledders out and about, making the ski into the hut really easy as it was basically groomed. We followed the alternate directions into the hut by following the forestry road instead of going directly under the powerlines. It was a much more efficient way to get in, I highly recommend it! After passing the East Munson spur (just after 6km on the logging road - all the km's are marked), we turned right onto the next spur, following it up into the woods towards False Grassy. The book said that it was 9 km into the hut, but our GPS said we actually traveled 10.9 km. The climb up to the ridge was surprisingly steep, but once we got up there, it was easy to find the hut thanks to all the tracks from the guys that had come in the day before us. Having a GPS is a good idea - looking in the hut log it seems like it can be pretty tricky to find.

Skinning up the forest service road at 2:30 on the shortest day of the year!

Egypt Lake Shelter via Healy Pass Nov 30/Dec 1

I have been following Alex Wigley's blog (http://skitheory.blogspot.ca) for the last few months and a recent post really resonated with me. It was 10 tips on how to have the best season ever. One of the tips was to do one hut trip each month. With this in mind, we realized that November was about to end very soon! It was looking like the one hut a month challenge was going to be over before it had even started due to poor snow conditions and a lack of ski buddies that wanted to go ski hardpack all weekend. Resigning ourselves to a day touring trip, Kyle noticed that there was a Parks Canada shelter very close to our destination. Somehow, the stars aligned and we grabbed some of the last spots in the hut for the night of November 30th. I guess the challenge is back on!

We had a relatively leisurely start of around 9am from the Sunshine parking area for a ski out to Healy Pass with the CSMC. We had a big group of 10 plus a dog, but it also had not snowed in a while so we weren't too worried about getting fresh tracks. The trip was more of a nice walk in the woods with skis on.

Leaving the sunshine area en route to Healy Pass with the CSMC

Early Season Ski Touring - Fernie and Highwood Pass

Winter is here! As December draws closer, ski hills are finishing up their final preparation for the season and skiers everywhere are itching to get out and play. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to wait for the hill to open and was able to get out in the backcountry for some early season turns over the last two weeks (Nov 9, 10 and 16th). Although I have been sick with mono for the last 2 months, I got the go-ahead to return to activities a few days before a tentatively planned trip to Fernie. Since I hadn't really done anything for a long time, I was expecting to have a really hard time with the touring. Luckily, everyone was also fairly out of shape and more than happy for an excuse to wait up and take breaks. 

My first day of the season! Still recovering from mono but just happy to be out playing

Fall Activities

Somehow the fall zoomed by and it is already winter! Here is a bit of a recap of what I got up to before the snow started to fly:

Yummy Thanksgiving dinner with my parents

Three Sisters Hike (Fernie)

To celebrate the last day of summer and take advantage of the last few days without too much snow in the alpine, we decided to hike the Three Sisters Trail in Fernie. We were a pretty large group of 8, armed with many cans of bear spray, bear bangers, bells, flares and a shotgun, just in case a grizzly decided to get curious. Luckily we didn't have to use anything! We started up Hiko's Trail around 9:30 in the morning and it definitely did not feel like summer. Only when the trail suddenly started to rapidly gain elevation did the layers start coming off. About 30 minutes into the hike, we had already zig-zagged across a creek a few times and reached the top of a waterfall.

Looking up the creek and waterfall

Seven Summits

At the beginning of September, Kyle and I took the week off to go on a BC road trip with the trailer. We stayed in Fernie for the BC Cup DH final where we both had podium finishes. It was a pretty knarly course and Kyle killed it on his new hard-tail! I won't tell you how many people were in our respective categories but we had lots of fun racing! We woke up Monday morning to grey skies so we took our time making our way to Nelson via the Kootenay Ferry. 

Kootenay Ferry

Bugaboo Spire Trip Report July 12-14

Kyle had been talking about the Bugaboos since the spring, and it had been in the back of our minds ever since we took a multi-pitch and trad climbing course in Squamish in April. Somehow a free weekend emerged in our jam-packed summer and we jumped on the chance to get out and climb some of the amazing spires! We made a quick get-away from work Friday afternoon and arrived in the parking lot around 8 pm. After about 30 minutes of gear faff and setting up the protection around the truck to prevent porcupines from checking the brake cables, we hit the trail. It is amazing how much heavier the packs were with all the climbing gear in them!

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!