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.

Cayoosh Mariott Loop

December 5th
Daily Vert: 1200m
Total Vert so far: 6400m

Yesterday Vince and I skinned up the road to Cayoosh, past the hut and to the bottom of the North Glacier, then up a ridge and over a shoulder in order to come down into Mariott Basin.

The forest/creek section between the cabin and the bottom of the glaciers needs WAY more snow, it took hours and was a total pain in the ass.  The snow on the SE aspects looks and felt quite good, but we did see a pretty substantial natural slide from a few days ago.

The skiing down into Mariott basin was pretty rancid and totally wind hammered, and the ski out was boney, technical and sketchy.  Even in good conditions that must be the lamest ski out in the Duffy.  Unless maybe you are on snow shoes.  Anyway, I'm not going back to the Duffy until we get at least a meter more snow!

Low road to Cayoosh. A bit bushy but otherwise ok.

Sketchy, slow and annoying creek bed skinning.

Fairly large natural on SE aspect

Bottom of Swivel Rocker really needs some work

Cayoosh North Glacier

Un named (I think) sub peak of Cayoosh

Slalok and Stonecrop Glacier

Vince at the top.  Temps were between -25 and -20 all day.

Sunset over Cayoosh

Looking into Mariott Basin.  The skiing was shit.

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.