November.... not quite Snowvember....

I'm going to be careful and not complain about early season November conditions. The fact is 365 days ago we were not making turns in the mountains because we had no snow at all. Fast forward to 2015 and we have snow so all is well in my world! For over a week the Sea to Sky has experienced a very strong temperature inversion. It's been near -5deg C in town and +5deg C in the alpine above 2000m. A fews days before the inversion, biblical winds took most of the fresh snow to who knows where? On the major plus side we have a solid base and the weather has been stellar so I decided to show Kurt Brohm Ridge for the first time.

       
We got an early Saturday start and were the first ones on the mountain. This is by far my favourite parking spot in Squamish.

We set off in search of the mother load?

From this place views of the Garibaldi Lake's volcanic features are outstanding....

The Whistler Peak chair area looked bony....

The impressive Castle Towers....

Our first lap was a scenic one on the Warren Glacier moraine....      

This is such a cool spot to check out Mt Garibaldi's massive volcanic debris trenches.... I can see this one from my house!    

The sleds are parked at the bottom right of this photo. The Tantalus range towers over the Squamish river valley.  

The Northwest slopes of Dalton Dome high above Squamish....

The Jim Haberl hut is clearly visible in the col below Mt Serratus. I had a memorable couple of days there back in April on a G3 2016 product photo shoot!        

The Brohm Ridge Chalet is visible on the bottom left of this photo.... No wonder they want to build a massive resort here!  

At about noon the sun hit us!

And Kurt made some nice turns on the Warren Glacier....

A jet airliner shot out of Mt Garibaldi!

Some more nice turns up high....

Kurt on the Warren Glacier with Parapet Peak, Isosceles Peak, Crosscut Ridge and Mt Luxor as an amazing backdrop.  

Later in the day we found some softer slopes on Brohm Ridge....  

After a solid day out we enjoyed a beverage back at the sleds....

And witnessed another surreal sunset on Howe Sound....

Brohm Fat-marking....

On the continuing quest to find the capabilities of the Norco Sasquatch Fat bikes we decided to head into the heavily motorized sled zone of Brohm Ridge. They proved themselves last week with the back-country skiers on Paul Ridge so this was the obvious evolution.

We managed to drive well above the snow line shortening the steep climb substantially....    

Juneau had her first day in the new season's snowfall....

Ross wasted no time poaching the sledders zone as soon as we were in the sub-alpine!  

High-marking and Fat-marking?

Where Piston Bullys go so do Fat Bullys....

 

After another fun day out we rode into the Squamish sunset....

Anticipation - Day one on the Duffey....

One of my favourite past times is the early season dance of where and when to hunt for the first pow of the season. The challenge of limited field information and no resorts reporting conditions in early November only adds to the anticipation and fuels the hunt. It's tough to put into words how much excitement is associated with this activity but it never gets old and I always feel like a kid on the first snow day of the season. The night before a bunch of texts are exchanged between buddies comparing data from various internet links of weather stations and web cams. The final decision is made and the early morning meeting time is set. Game on!

Zoe, Ross and Kurt headed out with me and after a 2.5 hour drive from Squamish we found ourselves in the eastern Cayoosh Range of the Duffey Lake Road. We were setting a skin track before 10:30am under blue skies and sunshine....            

The stoke was HIGH as we prepared to drop in to our first turns of true season. This was the first time I had a chance to use my new G3 Alpinist High Traction Skins in deep snow. The new tip and tail connectors worked better than any skins I've used to date with no snow slipping underneath. Nice work G3!                    

We found a meadow with some nice low angle cruising....

And as we neared tree-line it got deep!  

From this area we enjoyed some great views of previously shredded zones and some of the best New Year's memories....    

                         

After four solid laps we declared November 14 a successful day number one. Just as we were heading out the skies became dark and it started to puke! Go get it when you can!