Friday, December 19, 2014

Digging a little Deeper on the Duffey....


Playing the patience game the past few weeks has been challenging to say the least. Over the past couple of weeks I've heard a lot of locals say "There's no way it will be as thin as last season". It's pretty rare to see warm and wet conditions two years in a row but it's happening all over again. Each time the forecast looks right and everything lines up to help our December dumps, the freezing levels rise and heavy rain soaks the alpine. I'd been hearing rumours that some local zones had near normal snow levels and received snow when other close by zones had received rain at the same elevations. This seemed improbable but with a little effort we needed to find out. The one thing every zone has in common is low down there's next to nothing so we took advantage of the machines for a long approach. After nearly 18kms and at 1800m the snow suddenly became deep! We had found the right zone!                                                      



En route we took a good look at what the past month of high and low freezing levels, rain and snow, and mentally strong winds had done to the snow pack. Here we found a base of 225cms with a couple of troubling layers that would need some special consideration. With this information we selected some manageable terrain and headed for the high country.                








We spent the day farming some great north facing pow pockets where a light wind crust was soft enough to throw down some really nice December turns.    




 
Back at the machines we celebrated a killer blue bird day in paradise. Pray for MORE snow!

Monday, November 24, 2014

AlpenShralpen....


The tradition of pow anticipation is my favourite November past time. Each morning I go through the steps of checking weather reports and forecast outlooks. Then browse the weather stations and web cams of the coast mountains looking for the white stuff. This process can be taxing and frustrating when things aren't shaping up. Then there's a morning when all signs are go and it's time to move into action. This Sunday was that morning and my plan was only 20 minutes from our front door in Squamish.


There's always a balance of early season access to "skiable" snow but on this day we managed to get the truck to 1260 meters!      






I've decided that Juneau likes face shots more than any skier / boarder I've ever met. The moment we opened the truck door she escaped into the deep.        






The coolest thing about this zone is we can see it from our house!



It was a better than expected legitimate first day of deep pow!  



                                   
Here we go winter!

Garibaldi Snow Ride....


With winter taking it's time arriving this fall it opens up the possibility of some high alpine rides where we're usually making our first pow turns. Drey and Paulo joined us the day after our annual slide-show evening to head up the only legal Garibaldi Park mountain bike sanctioned trail. Our heads were a little fuzzy from the night before so the cold weather was welcome.


The trail up to Paul Ridge was snow-covered and icy....    


After an hour or so the views opened up.  


The jays were enjoying some of the last good rays of the season.  


Killer views of the Mamquam....


And Alpha / Tantalus....  


I was riding a fatter than usual bike....  




We warmed up in the Elfin Lakes shelter....


It was pretty cool to see people ice skating on the lakes up there....



We caught the days last sunshine and paid the price of a very dark exit.  


Classic Mt Garibaldi alpenglow to the north....


Classic Sky Pilot Sunset to the South....  

       
Pray for snow!

Indian Arm Wrestling....


Juneau joined Danielle and myself for a long cold bike ride to the Indian Arm Nov 11. Such a unique perspective on a seldom visited valley.



Watersprite Lake....


There are some peaks I can see from my front door and nessled below them is a lake. I heard a rumour that some great individuals took the time to upgrade the trail and help make the access better. We finally made the short journey up to this beautiful treasure and it was well worth it.