Metal Dome

December 3rd
Daily Vert: 1200m
Total Vert so far: 5200m

A fun day skiing on Metal Dome with Rico.  We drove up the access road to the brandywine cabin, as far as the steep corner, about half way up.  Took about 20 mins to skin to the cabin from there, and then just over 2 hours to the top of the line, including breaks.

Wind was absolutely howling so it was pretty cold, and due to the arctic outflow the wind had changed direction so lots of things were reverse loaded.

Took 2 short laps on the North Face, which was mostly wind hammered by found a few sheltered sections, then skied back down the south ridge, which was ok but quite variable due to the reverse loading.

Was able to ski all the way back to the car pretty easily, coverage in the woods was mostly pretty good, although did put some bad rock rash on my skis near the end as the snow on the road was pretty thin plus had been churned up by the sleds.

Metal Dome Bowls (round 4) from Dan Cudlip on Vimeo.

November Touring Summary

Wow the skiing sure has sucked so far this year!  So far I've been on 7 trips, and by my count I've had somewhere in the region of zero half decent turns.  Here is the summary of my season so far.  God I hope it snows soon!

Nov 4th Brandywine Meadows
Daily Vert: 600m
Total Vert so far: 600m

This trip is written up in full below.  A nice sunny day but crappy wind blown pow and pitiful coverage.

Nov 7th Red Heather
Daily Vert: 800m

Total Vert so far: 1400m

Skinned for an hour and a half in the pissing rain to ski some flat rained on slop.  Great trip.

Nov 21st Elfin Lakes
Daily Vert: 1400m

Total Vert so far: 2800m

This was a half decent day, some great views in a cool area, but we skinned past the better snow and better terrain on the front of Paul Ridge to go all the way to Columnar Peak.  This was way further and the skiing was way less good.  Should have stayed closer to home!  Got some nice shots thou.

 DPS representin'

Skinning near the cabin

Mt Atwell

Mt Mamquam

Skiing home. Time for a Howe Sound Brewery Burger

Nov 22nd and 23rd Flute Laps

Daily Vert: 500m + 700m

Total Vert so far: 4000m

Did a few laps in bounds and out to Flute with Lee and Sharon.  Probably the best turns I've had so far this season.  Lee got this nice shot of me on his phone.

Photo by Lee Lau

First trip of the new season. Brandywine, Nov 4th

Daily Vert: 600m
Total Vert: 600m

There was a brief and intense storm on Friday and Saturday so we decided to jump straight on it and head out to Brandywine on Sunday, which was looking nice and sunny.

We only managed to drive about halfway to the cabin even with 4wd and chains, but it still beats the hell out of walking all the way from the bottom.

When we parked the car we were pretty excited as the snow quality was excellent on the side of the road, but it must have been extremely windy during the storm as the snow in and around the meadows was horribly wind affected and had a breakable crust that made it extremely difficult to ski.  There wasn't really enough coverage on anything other than slopes with nothing but grass or heather on either.

There were about 20 people up there in 5 or 6 groups.  One group of 6 were going for the summit.  We turned around about half way up the headwall because the snow was so bad.  There were also snow shoers and even a group who had boot packed up the summer trail to the meadows with their skis (with alpine bindings) strapped to their packs!

All in all this was actually a pretty disappointing trip as we didn't really get in any half decent turns.... Not really any turns of any quality really.... But it is only Nov 4th, and it was nice to get out there and see things shaping up for the new season.

Nice shot of Wedge from near the cabin

Just some of the 20 or so people who were heading up Brandywine on this day.

September Skiing-Wedge Glacier

Skiing on a sheltered area of the Wedge Glacier in September.

This was the only trip of the summer that felt like quite a lot of effort.  The hike to the cabin wasn't too bad, but it is always further than you think from the cabin to the glacier, plus we had to climb quite a long way to get off the blue ice and onto the summer firm.  Still a fun trip, but not one I would immediately recommend.

August skiing- Metal Dome

Skiing in August on the Metal Dome Glacier.

This was a great mid summer ski trip.  Only 7 hours car to car, and that included 3 laps of skiing plus a detour to bag the summit.  This would make a great summer hiking trip too, although there is a little bit of bush whacking close to the car at either end.

Locomotive

Daily Vert: 1200m
Total Vert: 69,800m

After the success of the Brandywine trip at the end of June we decided to try and knock out the July trip as soon as possible while there was still a chance of good snow coverage.  For this trip we headed past Pemberton and up the Hurley towards Bralorne to the Semaphore lakes area. The road travels all the way up to around 1300m, and I knew from a previous summer trip to the area that access to the alpine was quick and easy.

Arriving a Semaphore Lakes, 1hr from the car.  There was a tent in the area but no sign of its inhabitants.

Heading up the East ridge of Locomotive

Overseer Mountain (I think) off in the distance.

Looking back down the Pemberton Valley.

Steve on the Summit.

On the summit with my trusty DPS Wailer 99's.  Face Mountain behind.

The ski down was a teeny bit sketchy, as the peak had been in cloud when we were scoping it, so we couldn't tell that the line didn't actually go all the way.  There were a few tense moments of sketchy down climbing, but once we gained the main snow field it was happy days.

Back at the meadows.  My DPS can take me no further!

Looking back at the line we skied.  Hoji skis this line mid winter in Claim, and Macintosh hits it in One For The Road.

Walking back down.  Very few signs on winter remaining.

Back at the car, 7 hours round trip with limited ball ache.  That journey time would have been smaller without the sketchy down climbing section in the middle.  Another great trip in the bag.  And yes, it was 'worth it'.

Brandywine Meadows

Daily Vert: 1200m

Total Vert so far: 68,600m

So unfortunately it seems as thou my target of 100,000 vertical meters will not be reached this season, but it was good fun all the same.  As a secondary objective, Steve and I decided to try and ski at least one day every month throughout the summer, and so far its going well.  For our June trip we ventured to Brandywine, which I suspected would still be holding a decent amount of snow.  Doing the approach for this trip on bikes added a fun extra dimension, and made the exit and the end WAY quicker and more enjoyable.  If you have a 4x4 you can drive all the way to the snowmobile cabin, which would eliminate the need for the bikes (some nice improvements were made to the road about a year ago, it is still steep obviously but a lot smoother and less rocky than it used to be)

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Biking along the flat part of the road between the snowmobile hut and the meadows.  The bikes made a huge different here.

At the bottom of the meadows.  Summit in the top right hand corner.  Still plenty of snow!

Steve skins through the meadows.

Approaching the summit ridge.

On the summit ridge, Mt Fee behind.

Checking out Mt Fee

Skiing back down.  The snow was just about soft enough to be enjoyable.  I've certainly skied worse snow in my time, in-bounds and out.

Back at the meadows.  We skied the line just to lookers right of the tree sticking out from Steve's head.

Heading back down.  10 minutes on the bike way more fun than 2 hours of downhill slogging!

Back at the car around 2pm.... there is even time for a nap before starting work at 4!

GPS track of the route.

People often ask if it was really 'worth it' to try and go skiing at this time of year, or just come straight out and label us sadistic lunatics. Sure we weren't skiing blower pow, but like I said before I've certainly skied worse snow before, in resort and in the back country.  Besides, not every ski trip has to be about the quality of the snow.  Sometimes it's just about exploring a new zone, enjoying the mountain air and checking out some awesome scenery.  And at 6 hours round trip, this was most definitely 'worth it'!