I’ve been looking at Beaver Mountain for a while. I think I saw it from the Dogtooth Range in late season-July a few years back, and its north face looked like it should be a perfect steep canvas of white in winter. Of course, that isn’t the case, it’s a traffic jam of seracs trying to escape the face to join with the glacier below, but I didn’t know that at the time and it was a nice image in my head. Ever since, I’ve been interested in getting back there. The project has been on the backburner for a while, slowly becoming more tangible and less of just a ski bum’s daydream as I gained the skills needed to realize the fantasy. Last week, weather was looking good and stability was great, so two days before we were set to leave I asked Ian if he could make it out. He thought it was an awesome idea, so I booked a couple days off work to make an extra long weekend and started packing. Continue reading Beaver Glacier Camp
Tag Archives: pow
Sifton
After the last few weeks of high pressure and warm, I had written off skiing at the pass. But apparently a storm came and went without registering on my radar, and left in its wake great alpine conditions. OK, let’s go skiing! Continue reading Sifton
Rockies XXL
Today I skied the longest run on the Trans-Canada: Mt Vaux west face. Two thousand meters of vertical, straight down. No flat section, no traversing, no trees to dodge, just a massive run straight down. If you dropped a ski, you could potentially have a very very bad day. Continue reading Rockies XXL
Sorcerer Lodge
A few weeks ago, I was approached with an incredible deal on a week up at Sorcerer Lodge, so good that I couldn’t refuse. I was so stoked I hadn’t even cleared it with work before I committed to it! Anyways, things ended up working out, and before I knew it, I was on a heli ride into the heart of the Selkirks. Continue reading Sorcerer Lodge
Wisdom
I’ve wanted these lines since I first skied at KHMR. They stare at you, nice and close to the hill, but with a much higher skill level requirement than the rest of the easily accessed rad terrain just out of bounds. Yesterday I finally got the Wisdom Tooth and the Middle Tooth. Luke and I putzed around the KHMR backcountry the day prior and found excellent stability with only the very dormant mid-dec layer producing hard results above treeline on south aspects. So yesterday we went to tick off some lines. Continue reading Wisdom
Braaaap Assisted Touring
OK so short n sweet entry today. Just another fun couloir in Gorman done. Get off work, load up the sled and by noon be standing ontop of a rad 350m couloir in waist-deep snow; so this is why I decided living in the mountains instead of living near the mountains was so worth whatever financial hardships and professional cost. Continue reading Braaaap Assisted Touring
Ursus Minor SE Couloir (and others)
Damn, I love Ursus Minor! Such a cool climb up, from trees to a great bit of steep skinning up the S face, then scrambling up some difficult looking rock (emphasis on “looking”) to the summit. We went for the SE couloir, one of the lines I haven’t yet done on this awesome mountain. Based on previous adventures, I was expecting a super sketchy rollover onto the north face on our way to the couloir, but the NE ridge was perfectly well-behaved and straightforward, and with good coverage. Continue reading Ursus Minor SE Couloir (and others)
Gorman Early-season Shred
It seems like Gorman Lake is my own little playground. I punched the first skintrack up last weekend, used it again for the traverse last week, and again this weekend for some freeride-y lines around the lake. No other usage but myself and people I bring. It’s quite a burden to have to ski out all that pow myself!
So, this weekend I went up with Luke and Eric to ski some stuff. When I went through on the traverse, the stuff on the Holt Pass side was looking good so we headed that way. On the way up, we couldn’t help but notice how good the couloirs were looking too.
Northern Dogtooth Range Traverse
Who says you can’t do a ski traverse early season? I’ve been wanted to do a more gnarly version of this Northern Dogs traverse for a while, but dropping blind into the gnar isn’t a great way to do things. Thought by doing a Gorman-Quartz traverse early season, I’d get a good look at everything, without feeling I need to hit up everything at the same time. Continue reading Northern Dogtooth Range Traverse
Destroyer of Worlds
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