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.