Swivel Rocker

December 26th 2014

We wanted to ski the Million Dollar Couloir on Cayoosh, but heavy trail breaking up the glacier (not to mention getting off route around treeline slowed us down a bit, so we settled for Swivel Rocker instead… Not that this is a terrible plan B of course… Swivel Rocker is one of my favourite runs… So long and playful feeling, and the snow quality was top draw.  Probably some of the best snow I've skied in the past 2 years!  The approach to Cayoosh was just about OK… the road is kind of bushy, and the forest section between the lake and the bottom of the glacier could do with a little more filling in, but overall it is ok.  Actaully the worst part was skiing out from the bottom of swivel rocker.  That section in the creek needs a lot more snow.  Overall we made it fine, but it was annoying and took about an hour, where as in good conditions it should take less than 10 minutes!

Steve eyes up the approach.  Not the deepest snowpack ever, but but overall fairly straight forward

The Big Three of the Joffre group from the top of Swivel Rocker.

Swivel Rocker from the top. 1000m of fall line skiing in creamy pow.

Joffre Trip

November 8th, 9th, 10th 2014

Steve and I had aspirations for a roadie to Revelstoke before Xmas.  We were so keen to make it happen that we both booked time off work in advance, before we knew what conditions would be like. Although Revvie had better coverage than whistler overall, they suffered from a warm and windy spell, and there was no refresh insight.  So we two days to go, we pulled the plug on Revvie and opted for a 3 day duffy trip instead, as we were hearing rumours that the snow was good.  As it turned out this was a great decision.  Snow quality was quite acceptable, and we managed to find plenty of good skiing on the sunny and cloudy days.  There was 14 people in the hut on the first night, and 18 on the second…. busy busy...

Central couloir on Joffre was catching everyone's eye all weekend

Steve lets of some steam at the hut. We approached on the summer trail, which took about 2.5 hours and wasn't overly strenuous. There were mixed reports about the winter route, but some groups said it took them over 4 hours.

Steve and Matt skin up the Anniversary

Steve scopes the Aussie

Matt crushes the boot pack with his ascent plates.

NW face of Matier good to go...

Sunset over the Matier Glacier

Matt Shreds the Aussie

Keith's Hut by night

On the second day we were hoping to ski the howard couloir, but poor visibility and even worse coverage quickly changed our minds

Twin One also looking boney.

We had to set up a few bucket seats to find a good entrance into Vantage bowl

After Vantage we went back up the Anniversary shoulder and dropped into the 'Hidden Couloir' which I hear is sometimes referred to as 'The Dirty Indian Couloir'.  Don't know why!

Leo the snow dog

Day 3, and a quick lap on the Sunset Couloir and its back to Mile One for burgers.

Kim Kardashian Couloir

November 12th 2014

With limited snow low down, but adequate coverage up high, Steve and I headed out to the Black Tusk area, which looked like it was fairly filled in.  The original plan was to ski the steep north facing bowls on the front to the Tusk, but when we approached another objective caught our eye.

We bungied the skis onto the bikes at the end of the Cheakamus FSR. Reaching the Microwave towers took about 4 hours, which is longer than it has ever taken us before, but we attribute that to biking slower with all the added weight, plus there was a hefty section which was too snowy to bike but too rocky to skin, so that part had to be walked.

After 4 hours we reach the microwave towers and decide to ski this interesting feature here. Kim Kardashian had been all over the news earlier in the week, so we decided to name the couloir after her.

The line was short but pretty steep and cool looking.  There was 400m of skiable terrain below the couloir, but there was not enough snow to ski that at this time.  I doubt the couloir gets skied that often, as it is kind of out of the way, but there was a cairn on top of the lookers left buttcheek, so it has seen a few summer visitors at least.

Steve in front of the Tusk on the way home.  This shot was a real like-bomb on his Facebook….

Tenquille Ovenigther

November 5th/6th 2014

After a little bit more snow after the Sproat trip someone suggested that we try and overnighter to Tenquille, which is easier to access with a low snowpack.  So thats what we did!  We approached from the Birkenhead side, which is a REAAAAAAALLLY long drive from whistler, and requires HC-4x4, but was sweet to scope out some new zones. Coverage was better than in and around whistler and we managed to get a few good runs in, but overall snow quality was not the best due to frigid temps and high winds.

Coverage on the summer approach trail was minimal at best, and it took us about 2 hours to reach the shore or the lake where we started skinning.

The lake is very beautiful, and it took about 30 mins to skin around the edge to the cabin

On the first afternoon we climbed up to the Tenquille Finch col.  The views were sweet, but ski quality on the way down was not too hot.

Cabin at night.

On the second morning we took the 700m climb to the Tenquille-Goat col. We took a quick lap on the North facing Tenquille Glacier, and then skied back the way we came

The 700m south facing fall line shot (with vaguely acceptable snow quality) was the highlight of the trip.

Looking back at the run we just skied.

Sweet view of Sun God across the lake.

Sproat- First Trip of the season.

October 27th 2014

At the end of October, after the first snowfall, Steve and I drove up Sproat from the Callaghan side.  There was WAY less snow at 1700m than we were expecting- not really enough to ski on at all, but we did find this sweet pond skim. haha. Several people went up to the Blackcomb Glacier the same day and got some good turns, but our trip was only 3 hours car to car… a good warm up. Plus… you know… the pond skim…

Steve at 1700m. Not yet filled in!

Pond skim!!

Black Tusk by skis

In the Summer the Black Tusk is one of my favourite hikes.  Since we have been suffering through summer like temperatures recently I thought it might be interesting to try it on skis.  My usual preference in the summer is to bike up the microwave tower road, but seeing as that road is unplowed all the way from the highway that seemed like it would be a very long approach.  We figured skiing down that way might not be too bad thou, so we decided to start at Rubble Creek, go up and over the tusk and then down the microwave road.

We got dropped off at Rubble Creek and started boot packing up the very dry trail at about 730am.  After about an hour we switched to skinning, which wasn't really any quicker on the refrozen snowshoe trail, but was nice to get the weight of the skis off our backs.

It took about 2.5 hours to make it to Taylor meadows and we picked up a skin track from a recent campsite there.

Vince Skins through Taylor Meadows

Vince skinning up with Mt Garibaldi and Garibaldi lake in the background.

From the Meadows we aimed to roughly follow the regular summer route, although I think we ended up being a bit too far left, but this didn't matter at all as travel through the open glade was super easy.

After about 4 hours we were skinning up the scree slopes on the back of the Tusk

Once we made it to the ridge we switched to crampons, the snow was heavily rimed.

Looking over Helm Creek towards the resort.

Blackcomb getting dwarfed by Wedge.

Vince approaches the bottom of the chimney

The lowest part of the climb was the sketchiest on the way up and down. Neither of us have a lot of experience dry tooling, but we knew we didn't want to take off our crampons as we could see a lot of snow and ice higher up.

As we got higher and the snow got thicker the climbing became easier, probably easier than in the summer in these conditions, but I'm sure it can change a lot throughout a season.

The final part of the climb is quite exposed, but the snow was consistent and seemed trustworthy.

Standard summit stoke selfie.  Total time from the parking lot 6.5 hours.  Travel was generally fairly quick and easy going, but we ate a bit of time with transitions plus stashing the skis at the bottom etc.

How Sound catching the afternoon light.

Mt Fee and Brandywine

Suprisingly there was no wind on the top and it was nice and warm so we spent almost an hour chilling out and taking photos.

We considered rappelling for the last part of the down climb but it was hard to find any good anchor points.

The snow on the scree slope on the way down was pretty affected, but fun all the same.

Not too many people see the Tusk from this angle, near the microwave towers.

Vince skiing down

there is some fun looking terrain a little further over.  Anyone skied that open couloir?

Back at the towers and fully stoked.  Skiing down took a little longer than biking down, as it was pretty slow going on some of the flats, but from here we were back at the highway in 2 hours, making it a 10.5 hour day all told.  Totally love it up there, summer or winter, the Black Tusk is a firm favourite.