Mountain life

Dec. 15 Kicking Horse

2010-12-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

Nice wind sift today at KH, with some fresh. Skiing very nicely. Still sharks lurking to watch for. Perhaps one day we can start hucking stuff without worrying about season ending rock hits.

Dec. 14 SSV Rock Isle Lake

2010-12-15T21:12:00.001-08:00

Went for a walk with Dave to Rock Isle Lake. Didn't ski the slope we wanted today, although smaller terrain, but steep enough to slide. Lots of very large collapses in the snowpack consistently. Noticeable "cakey" slab, punching through on skis into facetts below. Mod - High winds to the NE direction. Cohesive slab on top of facetts. Watch for this when buried....

Dec. 13 Kicking Horse

2010-12-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

Coverage is getting better and better with each snowfall. Hazards are starting to get covered over, and soon after some more snow it will be game on. Avalanche conditions on the other hand seem dicey, with alot of recent activity.

P is loving the new skis.

Dec. 12 SSV

2010-12-12T13:40:00.000-08:00

Snowing all day at SSV. Really shitty up there at the moment. Lots of rocks still even after the recent snow. Shallow areas are going to be shit for a long time unless SSV closes some of the runs to let the fucking snow build up....lol...not bloody likely. Yeah yeah...they need to open the runs to let people compact and stabilize the snow. Well...won't have to worry about that for alot of areas since it keeps getting scraped to ground.

Dec. 11 Crowfoot

2010-12-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Lake crossing is currently sketchy. Water came shooting out of my pole hole, slush coming up, cracking ice.... Going to wait for colder weather before crossing again.

Snowpack sketchy. No support. Storm snow on facetted base on rain crust. Some whoomfing / cracking noted. Approx. 2020 metres skier triggered size 1 slab confined to small gulley feature. North aspect. Convexities reacting easily. Stayed to easily managable terrain.

Dec. 10 Kicking Horse resort

2010-12-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

Awesome day. Coverage is improving big time. Still plenty of sharks, but getting much better. Lots of faceshots.

Plenty of slide activity on various aspects from control work noted. Also noted a wack of natural activity outside of the resort.

Dec. 6 / 7 SSV

2010-12-09T14:58:00.001-08:00

Sunshine Village definately needs more snow. Lots of rock showing through on even the most compacted areas. Plenty of surface hoar growing at and below treeline. Didn't get a good look at the alpine, but will be some thing else to watch for when the snow starts to fly again.

Slide on Hilda Ridge Dec. 4

2010-12-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

Not much mentioned in the avy bulletins as far as slab activity. Took a pic of these new slabs that cut out on Hilda Ridge today....didn't notice them in the morning looking up there, but sure did on the way out. Looks like a skin track heading into them aswell.

Def. plenty of slab up high in the open terrain sitting on top of facets. Have also been able to get convex lee terrain to react to skier cuts quit easily for the past while. Also have been getting very poor results in pits on similar features IE lee / cross loaded...convex slopes.

Dec. 4 scoping mission

2010-12-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

Went for a peak to hunt for more areas to ski. Found some good turns for the future when ski conditions are better. Lots of fun terrain around here, alot of which is not pictured.

Dec. 3 Kicking Horse opener

2010-12-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

Little bit hungover. Didn't make it to the hill until about noonish. Only made 2 laps. Still some very thin areas there. Both J and I feeling like crap and it took us forever to make it back down to the car.

Dec. 2 Rogers Pass

2010-12-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

Hit Rogers Pass today. Good turns up at 1900, really shitty and thin below about 1700ish. Nice to get turns in decent powder.

Typical Rogers Pass hotel shenanigans, this time it was the food. Going to call it the Rogers Hotel effect....always an interesting experience there.

Dec. 1 SSV

2010-12-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

SSV with Petra, Jason, Don, and Wins. Good times. Ripper laps. Shallow areas abound, will probably remain thin in certain areas all season due to snow scrapers. Too bad they don't just leave it closed until there is good coverage.

Nov. 30 SSV

2010-12-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Solo laps up at SSV. Decent, needs more snow.

Nov. 29 Hilda Ridge again

2010-11-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

Today @ Hilda Ridge...very noteworthy going on's.

35 degree NE slope @1040 am -18c scattered cloud

lee convex test slope open

95cm HS at test site pit dug in "start zone" just under roll beneath expected break over

Extended column propogation test and layers as follows

New surface hoar on top widespread to above treeline where observations were ended (high point) hoar size approx 2-4mm depending where

-------------95cm surface

1 finger hard slab

------------76cm possible burried surface hoar layer Q1 clean sudden shear across entire block ECTV on back cut

4F slab

------------65cm

fist facetted / facetting snow

------------30cm top of rain crust Q2 shear clean across entire block sudden failure on ECT1 on rain crust

fist facets

_______ground

Tested by digging extended column pit, the upper layer @ 76cm top slab fell off on the back cut clean across the block sudden planar Q1, I then placed shovel on side and on the very first easy tap from wrist the rest of the snow down to the rain crust collapsed and fell off all the way clean across the block with a slight jump upward through the mashy facetts Q2.

We cut the slope 2x and both times where able to easily trigger off the surface slab....very touchy. Cracking, propogating.

_____________________________________________________________-

Also on the SW aspect the snowpack was nothing more than 20-50cm's (variable depth) of facetts. Where the pack was closer to 20cm's the facetts were fucking HUGE all the way through. No support at all. Higher up in the open pads there was a solar crust forming up that was behaving like a slab as it's sitting on nothing more than sugar shit.

Alpine was garbage and nothing more than a mix of wind fuck and slab on facetts. Repeated a quick test just above treeline in a more supportive wind compressed spot on a breakover convex slope, not as abrupt of a convexity with some "supportive" wind fuck. ECT22 but it went clean at Q1 sudden planar....didn't bother recording this one.

Nov. 27 Crowfoot Glades

2010-11-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

Jeff, Jason, Don and myself went to check out the progress of Crowfoot today. Conditions are great up near treeline. Still alot of sharks waiting to bite the p-tex lunch, but no one hit any today. It's scrappy down low still, but the upper stuff is nice. Watch for slab in the alpine that is now covered in fresh snow. Put first tracks in to one of of the chutes, and then did a lap in the glades.

Will be adding more pics later when Don sends them. Pics are of Don, Jason and Jeff.

Nov. 26 Parkers Powder

2010-11-26T18:54:00.000-08:00

Jason and I found some nice snow @ treeline in Parkers Ridge today.

Class 1 NNE 35 degree wind loaded convex lee slope natural +1 sympathetic release of same size. Crown approx 60cm, run 25m, 10 metre wide at crown. Moderate wind gusting to strong north easterly. S+1 2130metres elevation.

Nov. 25 Helen Lake area recon

2010-11-25T19:25:00.001-08:00

Went up to Helen Lake area to have a look at some stuff, and see what conditions in the alpine are like. Lots of cracking and collapsing in wind exposed areas above treeline. SW aspects were looking wind slabbed. Wind slab on top of facetts...yummy. Skier reactive. Should be fun when the snowpack sees an increased load. Very warm up high....inversion??

Best skiing in the subalpine treeline....although scrappy.

Nov. 24 Sunshine conditions

2010-11-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Still limited terrain that's open at SSV. Standish, Wawa, Jackrabbit and Wolverine. Moguls are getting bigger and more snow is getting scraped off. Harder packed, but supposed to start snowing again tommorrow to hopefully freshen things up. Packed runs are skiing nice with most obstacles showing. Be weary of fresh patches.

Nov. 21 Hilda Ridge

2010-11-24T20:13:00.001-08:00

Went up to Hilda ridge with Pete, Jason, Darren and Don for some mellow laps today.

Temps were cold at just below -20c. Some isolated small slabs above tree line. Not much for wind.

The lower angle stuff was skiing quite slow, so on our second lap we went lookers left down the slide paths to steepen things up a bit. Very nice run with good snow. Felt the rain crust below treeline. Some cracking on a small lee feature next to the morraines.

Nov. 20 Sunshine Village

2010-11-23T09:50:00.001-08:00

Day 2 of Sunshine Village being open. Went up with Jason and we weren't expecting much. We were both pleasantly suprised. Great skiing on the packed snow. Still pockets of fresh, but due to the thin snow pack our tendancy was to ski around them. Were able to open it up a bit in some areas, much fun was had. Ski out was open. Wawa, Jackrabbit, Wolverine, Strawberry, Standish were all spinning. Short laps, but much fun. Ski out was in suprisingly good shape.

Nov. 19th Bow Summit laps

2010-11-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

A cold day at Bow Summit. There were about 6 other people skiing there. Jason and I poked around a bit to see what was what as far as snowpack. Went up the wind swept ridge to have a look at the lee slope to see a. how thin it was and b. if it was reactive. Didn't like the look of it, and there were pockets of wind slab above treeline so we skied (punted) our way back down the ridge and had some laps in the "standard" zone.

Good thing the gaper had to pipe up and say "that ridge is always thin". No shit sherlock...it's a windswept ridge, of course it is. Mentioned that we were having a look at the lee slope. "that slope is avy prone". No shit doctor, it's fucking lee slope, early season in the rockies did you see us ski it? People need to not make assumptions and mind their own business. Anyways....can't expect much at Bow Summit.

Skiing was really good below treeline, although still choked with saplings further left.

HS 50cm Light westerly wind @ 2360 and northerly @ridge top raincrust near ground - facetting S-1 air temp -19c @10:30 HST poor bond to crust below treeline

Class 1 avy out of 40 degree east aspect @ approx. 2400m approx 100m run 20 metres wide about 40cm? deep @crown. Scrappy sparse small sapplings cross loaded pockets

Nov. 7th, skin up Kicking Horse

2010-11-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

Still a total lack of skiable snow close by the roads so we decided to change it up a bit by checking out kicking Horse.

Carried the skis up the bare runs and eventually were able to skin. Some nice turns were had up near the ridge top.

1. Jeff wondering where the snow is.
2. Jason responds to "dance, monkey!"
3. Looks easier to skin up thataway!
4. Still needs some more...it's coming along though
5. 6. 7. Ahhh yes...worth the effort for sure. Jeff and Jason:

Nov. 4th Mt. Gordon in a day

2010-11-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

After failing on Mt. Rhonda and a lack of snow anywhere else, we decided to go have a go on Mt. Gordon as a day trip. The weather was perfect and the views couldn't have been better.

The approach was scrappy and we were just barely able to skin from the parking lot. There were 25cm's fresh on the ground at the parking lot, however above treeline the winds had pretty much taken it all away. All open areas above treeline were wind hammered sastrugi. The lee zones were forming slab and we noted a class 2 on the NE side of Mt. Olive and the same on Mt. Saint Nic.

We arrived on the summit at the late hour of 4pm and enjoyed some of the best views around. Spent 15 minutes taking in the views and then off we went back towards the car. I had forgotten my ice axe near the top and didn't realize it until we were too far down. Thought I would never see it again, however, when I got back from my work hitch I had an email waiting for me with news that my ice axe was waiting for me in Revelstoke. Sweet.

The total trip took 13 hours car to car. Significant time can be shaved off if you wait for enough snow to be able to ski all the way back down through the canyon. We took the summer trail up and the canyon back down. There was still lots of open water to cross on the way down which added time. A fun trip and a very long day.

Oct. 29 failed attempt to bag Rhonda in a day

2010-11-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

On Oct. 29 we tried to do a day trip of Mt. Rhonda on the Wapta. We were stopped and turned around by some one needing to be back in Cowtown at a certain time. Oyyy! The weather wasn't ideal anyways. We did have some nice turns back down the slope above the hut.

new video

2010-11-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a video from September and October, more updates to come tommorrow.

Vids are getting better each time. Keep in mind this is very early pre season skiing, and as such it's more about the hunt for turns in shallow snowpack, as opposed to ripping fast lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZSxImMNBA

Oct. 26 turns attempt gear hike

2010-10-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Went to go for laps at Rae, but with anemic looking conditions we pulled the plug and went to check out Robertson Glacier instead. We hiked the 17ish km's with our skis on our backs, and didn't really get any turns. Poor snow cover on the glacier. Followed some large grizzly tracks in the snow, and saw a crazy moose and young one in the parking lot. She wouldn't let us out of the car for about 5 minutes.

Going to head out on Friday to hunt for more turns.

Oct 22 turns...bring the snow!!

2010-10-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

When the snow doesn't fall it's time to go to the snow, rather than sit around and wait for it to come to you.

Went up to Bow Hut for a couple days to see what conditions are like, and to get some turns in and scope out some terrain for later. 20cm on the glacier, breakable crust. Approx. 1.5cm of graupel on evening of 22nd.

Shennanigans and good times.

the colours

2010-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Temple and then some random shots in Grande Cache. I normally don't like Grande Cache, however in the fall it's quite nice.

Eiffel Peak

2010-09-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Plenty of snow last week, but wanted to get out on one last day trip before coming up to work. Was suprised by a grizz and 2 cubs when I came out of the outhouse. Lucky for me she didn't seem bothered by me popping out of the outhouse only a few metres away.

September 22 POWDER DAY!!! Really?

2010-09-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Wow...not much else to say. Winter quality powder on September 22nd while most people are still whining about summer coming to a close. Jason forgot his skins and had to bootpack on foot. With the forecast highs or 13c for the day we had to leave the house at 4:30 am in order to get the goods before things warmed up and ruined the winter quality snow. No rocks were hit as the previous snow had a supportive crust on it to smooth over the rocks.

September 9 ski day season day #1

2010-09-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

So what to do after a fresh snowfall this early in the season? Shoulder the skis and start looking for turns of course. We didn't expect much, but ended up getting some good turns in. Much fun was had. Visibility was poor.

slacking off on the posts

2010-08-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

I didn't take the time to update a lot of the trips for the winter so I will leave it at that as there is just too much that I did. I will start updating this blog in the fall at the start of ski season and possibly start adding conditions ect. Perhaps next year I will keep it going through the entire year to include climbs and hikes ect. Will see then.

Bow Hut

2010-05-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

After hitting some resort and odd back country day trip over the past week, Jason and I got a chance to hit up Bow Hut to check out what kind of skiing is offered in the Wapta Glacier area, having never been there before. Apparantley Bow Hut can be quite busy, and when I called to check on bookings, there was no one booked in for the 2 nights we wanted to stay there, so off we went.

First day headed up there and spent a lazy afternoon at the hut enjoying the views. Second day we went for a jaunt up the glacier without any real plan as to where we were going. We found a lot of really cool lines in the area that I want to hit next time, but not today. It was way too hot due to the later start. We ended up heading to the Mt. Olive / St. Nicholas col, and then had a nice run down the opposite side of St. Nicholas in sun softened snow. The day was stellar putting out top notch views of the icefields.

The last day we planned to get up early, and hit a line off of the side of Mt. Olive, off of the summit. Woke up to flat light, and it was lightly snowing with high cloud and the snow was frozen solid. Rather than head up to wait for conditions to "maybe" soften up on the summit, we spent the morning loafing around the hut, and then headed out.

It was fantastic to get out and do some glacier travel again. We found some lines up there that are now on the to do list, and perhaps I might even want to do the full traverse.

Yummy

2010-04-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Gotta love those upslope storms. Hit Nakiska today with good company and had some nice deep snow. Spring time in the rockies baby!

spring storms a comin?

2010-04-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

The past week has been more of the same. Finally got into a melt freeze cycle. Been skiing mostly resort, but did manage to head up to Quartz ridge. We ended up getting stormed off of it in a white out. Very strong winds and driving snow. Welcome back winter!! Also got some good footage for the upcoming video.

I'm going to rest up for a few days and recover from my shin bang, in preperation for a forecast that is looking promising for the upcoming week.

couple days resort, couple days back country

2010-04-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome the spring and the first real big avy cycle of the spring. Ski conditions in the back country are shit. Not enough melt freeze yet to glue things together. Every thing seems to be on a hair trigger right now. No expectations of over night freezes either. Things started moving shortly after 9:00 this morning in the Bow zone. Not even going to bother wading through the isothermal snow again tommorrow. Going to check out the resort for some spring skiing over the next few days until things start freezing up over night again.

Above. Photo 3 is a very very very large settlement that occurred in a meadow. The fracture propogated and collapsed the cornice. There's a reason why we weren't exposing ourselves to overhead hazard today, and kept our skin tracks no more than the low 20 degree range. Photo 1 and 2 is a very tiny slab that we cut loose while skiing. You can see that it's very small and isolated to a convex roll, the little fucker did manage to actually break up and slide about a foot.

happy fun times

2010-04-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Got back from my 2 week stint at work and went on an 8 day skiing blitz. Mostly have been hitting the back country, but also got into Wild West, and were the first ones into Delerium when it opened with much storm snow in there. Has been an awesome week for sure.

Avalanche conditions have been quite touchy, and we got a remote trigger to go...from a safe area of course. Also have been skiing some nice chutes at crowfoot that we have been keeping skier compacted, and have been skiing the crap out of the surface hoar in that area since it first started forming up. Also got a nice run in at Purple Bowl today.

I am going to try to start updating the blog on a more regular basis...maybe it's time to start sharing snow condition info on here too. Will see.

Gone to work for rest

2010-03-29T06:34:00.001-07:00

Have to work eventually right? Glad i'm only up for 2 weeks instead of 3. I didn't miss anything the 1st week as far as snow conditions, but it's supposed to snow through this week, so there should be lots of fresh for when I get home. Can't wait.

family and powder video

2010-03-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

Last week was great. Had some family over and we skied a few days as well as other tourist related activities. They even brought a good dump of powder with them.

Here's a video of the day after they left. Will be working on some footage from their visit when I go to work.

Untitled from Kevin A. on Vimeo.

Some random footage leftovers

2010-03-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

We have made the move to HD video for the remainder of the season and will be working on some thing a bit more interesting as far as line difficulty goes. Here's the left over standard def footage that I had no where to put it.

http://vimeo.com/9940515

Bow Peak no go

2010-03-08T07:20:00.000-08:00

So we ended up going for the couloir on Bow Peak. Didn't make it as we just weren't comfortable with the temperatures and sun beating on some of the cornices. We did get up into the alpine, and traversed a line across the fan to get a better look into the gut of the couloir. We had a fantastic run down the trees...who says there's no good tree skiing in the rockies? Definately will be coming back for this one, with a much earlier start next time.

a week later

2010-03-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

The past week has been more of the same. Hit Bow Summit and found some decent snow. Did a couple days at Sunshine Village since my back country partners were away. Hit Crowfoot glades today and did a few laps in ok snow. There is finally some snow in the forecast for next week. We need more big time.

Went to check out Flower Couloir for tommorrow and there were 4 people in there tracking it up....people are getting into every thing lately with stability being how it is. Going to go take a "look" at Hidden Couloir on Bow Peak in the a.m. before any one hits that one too.

Snow? Anyone seen some?

2010-02-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

Spent the last couple days flying solo up at Sunshine. It's good to get on some harder packed variable snow to keep your skills up. However, I really can't wait to get some new fresh deep powder. This drought has to let up some time right? On the plus side, all the high pressure did make for some stable conditions to hit some really cool lines, but right now with the recent wind we're in a bit of a transitional time. Been touching off some slabs off of ridges lately, which makes me not really want to go boot pack any couloirs that go to ridge tops lol.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow.

Big Bee Hive

2010-02-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

Went to check out some possibilities at Lake Agnes (Lake Louise) with James. Very popular trail in the summer time, didn't see a single person up there today. Plenty of tracks heading up to the touristy tea house, and only a couple heading over to the back bowl. We found some nice chutes coming down from the ridge off of Big Bee Hive. It was a bit of work getting up the 40 degree chutes but it made for a really nice run back down. No other tracks anywhere in sight. I don't think these chutes get skied very often at all. Nice consistent pitch. Lot of sluff (surface snow) running down the slope with us.

Face plant and avy conditions: Good or bad? You decide.

2010-02-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

Once ever while your reminded of how easy it is to really fuck yourself over. Thursday brought one of these reminders for me. Decided to do a quick lap out to the low angle (since I was solo) shoulder of Twin Cairns. As I was skiing down, I knew the snowpack was shallow in that spot, but rather than stop the run and traverse out skiers left, I held my line in the interest of testing my helmet cam. I hopped over a few rocks but managed to hang up a ski on a shallow section that I couldn't clear. My ski was grabbed and I pitched forward superman style and came down hard on a rock right to the face. The rock put a hole right through my bottom lip. It also compressed my jaw back into the joint a bit. I could have sworn that I broke my jaw at the time, and it was bleeding like mad. Even had the pleasure of seeing a couple peices of skin fall onto the snow. Not having a mirror on me I pretty much thought it was worse at the time. Got out of dodge and went back to the resort to visit ski patrol. They put a few stiches in on the spot, and that's that. Went for a lap with one of them after ward in Delerium Dive, which was skiing quite nice. Had to recoup for 2 days after that incident.

Got pretty lucky on that one as far as not getting knocked out, or a broken or dislocated jaw, or having a tooth knocked loose as it would have only needed another cm higher to do so.

Monday:
On the plus side, avy conditions are good, on the other hand they are also quite touchy in the right (wrong) areas. All the good skiing right now is on the N / NE aspects. The ridge tops on this aspect are also quite touchy at the moment. Released another slab avy remotely on a NE slope off of ridge top today. No suprises though as I was fully expecting it and traveling some what close to the edge (in safe areas duh) to see if I could get one to pull out. Had lots of whoomfing and settlements on the ridge again. Had a great run back down into the trees and out. It's been quite warm out lately. Feels more like spring than winter. Where the snow is sheltered from sun and wind there is still some really nice snow to be had.

Fernie Thunder Meadows video

2010-02-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

Finally finished editing the video from Fernie. 5 days in the back country in a hut. Good variety of terrain and lines.

return to thunder meadows from Kevin A. on Vimeo.

conditions

2010-02-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

Was at Bow Summit today. The wind has picked up and we got 2 small results in the snowpack. 1 cornice bomb that resulted in a small pocket of slab coming out above treeline, and 1 ski cut soft slab that cut out at treeline. Fun lazy day.

Mt. Patterson couloirs

2010-02-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

Don and I went to ski a couloir today off of Mt. Patterson. Turns out some other people had the same idea within the past few days. Suprising given that it's Febuary, and I hardly ever see tracks in there. Gives you an idea how well the snowpack is holding up this year. Usually lines like this are saved for spring in our snowpack.

We bootpacked about half the couloir before turning around. The last party in there sluffed it out and it was quite hard and scoured as a result. So do we beat our legs into submission, or save them for the next few days and get back in there when ski conditions are a bit better? We went with the latter option.

Conditions ect since Fernie

2010-02-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

After getting back from Fernie we went to hit up some more laps near Crowfoot Glads and on the Helen Lake ridge area again. Crowfoot was holding some really stellar snow and made for nice turns.

The following day Don and I went up to check another chute we were wanting to do off of the NE side of the Helen ridge. We went to check out our old tracks to try to get an idea of how much wind transport there had been and off the top our old tracks were filled in. Much different conditions wise this time. Travel along the ridge resulted in wide spread whoomfing and settlements. I also managed to remote trigger a size 1-ish slide from about 40 metres away. We also had some of the smaller side slopes release quite easily. Many shooting cracks ect...needless to say we ended up not skiing the chute we were after. I had one crack shoot out from my skis (on purpose) and it released a length of cornice about 30 metres long. Touchy stuff.

2 days after that (day after Crowfoot) Sean, Jason, Don and myself went up the southish shoulder on Dolomite Peak. Travel on the ridge top in the alpine was a repeat of the days previous. Many more huge settlements in the snowpack. We ended up skiing back down the ridge, which held some really nice turns, and did 2 laps in the "fun pad" on good snow. Jason got the rebate on a double drop he bailed on last time up, and ended up hitting it as a single drop. Nicely done!

Headed up to Parker ridge today and had some ok turns on wind hammered snow. We did manage to find some decent wind buff to ski, however getting out of there was a tooth chattering affair.

Looking forward to getting out tommorrow. Maybe check out some colouirs possibly, or there's a nice bowl to be had aswell. Should be good.

2010-02-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

I put some footage together of the early season out here. This video contains footage from Oct 4th up to about November from Rogers Pass, Kananaskis, Sunshine Village and Highwood Pass. The first 50 seconds of the video are all from early October. 65 days and counting!

Untitled from Kevin A. on Vimeo.

Thunder Meadows Fernie

2010-02-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

The past 5 days have been absolutely fantastic. Rob, Jason, Adam and myself started at Fernie ski resort, ducked into the back country and skinned in to Liverwurst bowl where Rob and Adam headed up over Liverwurst into the back, while Jason and I continued up and over Orca bowl, which gave us a really good look at the terrain to be had in the area.

Second day Rob and Adam hit some chutes and bowls while Jason and I took a mellow rest day hitting the slopes around the hut.

Third day the 4 of us headed up to the top of Big Steep Mother (BSM). We skied down the BSM bowl and then skinned up to BSM ridge and dropped into "Clitorous Chute" back down into Orca Bowl. Skinned half way up Orca Bowl and then dropped yet another fun chute down in to Cabin Bowl. Skinned up and ended the day with a short run back down to the hut.

Fourth day the visibility was not all that great so Jason and I did a few laps in the snow ghost trees on the south side of BSM. We hit the top of the ridge for our final lap of the day and noticed that the visibility had lifted some what, so we ended up doing a sweet line into Cabin Bowl called "Don't Worry". What a fantastic run. On the way back up over the pass we were tempted to hit a couple shorter steep runs but it was getting late so we decided to wait until the morning.

5th and final day. Woke up early to go hit those shorter steep shots into Cabin Bowl. Fun stuff. Back over the pass, packed up our stuff and skinned up to the top of Orca Bowl. Had a fantastic run down Orca to valley bottom and back to the car down the valley.

Hit some really stellar lines!! I'll spare you the details of the general silliness at the hut, but I will say that Jason did a fantastic intentional flying squirrel belly flop in to the snow out of the second floor of the hut.

Hopefully I will have some pics up soon.

more vid

2010-02-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

...some more vid from the past few weeks

Kicking Horse slack country from Kevin A. on Vimeo.

Kicking Horse, Revy, Rogers from Kevin A. on Vimeo.

2010-02-02T09:48:00.001-08:00

Snow stability has been fantastic over the past weeks. This has allowed us to get out and hit some fun lines, and even one that I had reserved for spring. Jason, Lorenze, Rob and myself headed out on the Sunday and skied the highway side, but not before I spotted some nice looking lines headed down to Helen Lake.

Don and myself returned on Tuesday to have a peak and ended up skiing a fun line and scoped out a nice chute from the bottom. The following day we hit a slope across the valley that I have always wanted to ski, and the day after that Don and I returned with Jason to hit up the chute we checked out from the bottom. Here's some vid from those few days.

Icefields fun from Kevin A. on Vimeo.

out and about

2010-02-02T09:35:00.000-08:00

Have the last minute running around and pick ups to do in preperation for Thunder Meadows hut. Looking forward to some good snow.

test photo

2010-02-02T09:33:00.000-08:00

just want to see how large the photo's come up.

Welcome

2010-02-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog, I will be adding content shortly.