The drought is over!

The day after Christmas Jack joined me for some steep tree lines near Squamish. We were surprised to see nearly 40cms of new with almost no crust below! Bring on the annual Bralorne New Years trip!

 

Inversion Immersion....

The past few weeks have been disappointing in terms of new snow and the usual expected December dumps. November was a big tease with record snowfall but it's hard to complain. Danielle and I decided we should get out anyway and have a look up one of our favourite valleys near Pemberton. When I woke up to scrape the windows on Saturday morning I remembered the full moon lunar eclipse was taking place at 6:05am. It was certainly an interesting sight to start the day. After a few hours we arrived at the trailhead and headed up valley. We wanted to see what the 2 week inversion had done to the snowpack in the alpine so we headed up N Tenas creek and put a trail in the forest to the base on Mt Ronayne.

When we arrived we found all the N facing couloirs had cleaned themselves out and run full path. Good news for future missions but not ridable today.

After a lunch and some tea we headed down and hooked into Tenquille creek with a plan to spend a night in the new Cabin. The hoar frost along the way was spectacular with hand sized plates I'd never quite seen before.

We parked the machine and made out way to the lake.
     

We were greeted by an empty cabin where the beers went down easily.

Danielle suggested we go for a late night skin over Tenquille lake. What a night!

     

The next morning we made our way up Copper Mound and Fossil Pass and skied a great line down to the lake.

On the way out, much needed freshies started to fly....

Before the Storm...

Looking for a record perfect month of November, Danielle and I decided to try and beat the inevitable warming event that would hit us this week-end. The plan was to hit the steep and deep trees the Hurley has to offer.  

We spent the afternoon grabbing a few laps in a great stash of old growth trees. Trail-breaking was stupid deep as expected but well worth the effort.

After a few hours we decided to head north and hit up the Mine Shaft pub in Bralorne for a burger and some beers. Surprisingly there were only two other sledders who came over the Hurley that day. We almost has the place to ourselves. 

At 4:30 we geared up and headed back to Pemberton in the dark. A great way to spend a stormy day in Pemberton. 

Plowing Pow in Squamish....

My anticipation built up all week as this winter's first big storms blasted the Coast Mountains around Vancouver. As Saturday approached all signs pointed to a bomber weather day and a load of new snow. It's pretty rare to experience legitimate mid winter conditions in November but that's what was delivered in Squamish. Photos....

I'd also been raring to take out the new sled so it was time to fire it up. It had been a little too long since Aussie Dave had been out with me so I was pumped when he confirmed he would help me break in the new machine. We arrived at the trailhead early enough to beat the crowds and headed into the valley.

Just as we were leaving we ran into Toby and Matt who shared our opinion of where the goods would be. The snow was deep and cold..... game on!

The four of us made quick work of setting the up-track and were ready for our first deep run on the season.

What month is this again?

The alpine was beckoning so we decided to get high.

After spending an hour in the mountains shadow we emerged on the ridge and were back in the sun.

After a pair of two more big runs we arrived back at the sleds just before dark. Toby and Matt we're kind enough share some delicious Red Racer IPA's they had stashed away. After a day like that we agreed all signs point to a big season!