Destroyer Peak, BC rockies. A pretty small peak of 2700m and change, but somehow maintains a rather large glacier. And two steep rad ice faces on the N and NE flanks. Continue reading Destroyer of Worlds
The Friendship-breaker
Hewitt Peak, the friend-breaker, as I explained to Ryan last weekend. A long, brutal bushwhack to a south facing gulley on a peak that doesn’t have a lot of name cred and then all the way back out. Sure to break a friendship. So it was another solo trip for me. Continue reading The Friendship-breaker
Surprise, Powder!
The Rockies are known for surprises. Ski a scree slope mid-winter that you’ve been on all season, and you are surprised by the slab that pops from the depth hoar that developed. But spring, summer, fall, those surprises are usually a good thing. It’s been snowing -as I’m sure everyone knows- in Calgary. Well it snowed even more in the Rockies. Of particular note was a large storm I kept an eye on, that came in warm (snow level ~2800m), and kept getting colder till it was snowing down to valley bottom. So, what does this mean? Good times on glaciers that you wouldn’t normally have. How, you ask? Well, the sopping rain coats the ice and whatever snow is on it, till rain turns to slush. Slush sticks really well to ice. Then it gets colder some more and turns to snow. Now, snow usually doesn’t want to stick to well to ice, but with some transition layer of wet soggy snow, it will stick just fine. Then more snow sticks to the existing snow and all of a sudden, you’ve got banger conditions where there usually isn’t. Continue reading Surprise, Powder!
Olive Hut Summer Shred
This weekend I wanted to ski North Star Peak in the Purcells. For the longest time I was going to bushwhack straight up the North Star Glacier drainage creek, but then I learned of a hut nearby and started to think, maybe I can ski more than just North Star for the day. Continue reading Olive Hut Summer Shred
Mt. Athabasca/ Silverhorn
Yee haw! My first 11’er, Mt. Athabasca. Might as well wait till July to get it done, eh? After the summit, a 1000m descent via the Silverhorn. Continue reading Mt. Athabasca/ Silverhorn
Anniversary Peak
Don’t know why it’s taking so long for me to get around to actually writing this, but here goes. This weekend’s objective: Anniversary Peak in the Bugaboos, spotted during last weekend’s activities from Mt. Mollison.
The day started early; after a restless sleep due to the seemingly neverending heat, I was actually relieved to get out of bed at midnight and end the charade of sleep. I got up to the Bugaboos parking lot at 2:30 and started hiking. Continue reading Anniversary Peak
Still Got The Touch
June came and went really fast, it seems. Foster Peak took all the weather windows I had for the month. I wanted one more gnarly line to finish off the spring before firn snow skipping for the rest of the summer. The West Face of Foster beckoned and I was powerless to resist. At 3200m and change it is the biggest peak on the Rockwall, a worthy adversary. Continue reading Still Got The Touch
Season Edit 13/14
A little compilation of what my Gopro saw this year, at the hill and in the backcountry.
Trevor Sexsmith 2013/2014 Season Edit from Trevor Sexsmith on Vimeo.
Clamshell Corn
OK, so no super-gnar lines full of uncertainty and cruxes this time, just a straightforward ski that I’ve done a couple times already. My mom came out from Ontario for the weekend, so I intended to just skip skiing this time and make up for it later but the forecast was just looking too damn good not to ski today. So I went for a dawn patrol up the Clamshell, probably the most obvious and aesthetic line you see from town. Or driving up 95. Or driving to the hill… 1000m of vert straight down to the road, all one big avy path. Continue reading Clamshell Corn
Tumbling Mountain
After weeks of getting skunked by poor freezes, finally conditions line up perfect and a big line gets skied. Most likely a first descent.
I first noticed this while lounging about at the top of 3/3.5 couloir (commonly called 3/4) at Moraine Lake last year, waiting for the snow to soften up for descent. I didn’t wait long enough and got technical hardpack turns all the way down, but this striking line that I saw from the top stuck in my mind and got tacked onto my to-do list for this year. Continue reading Tumbling Mountain