Beaver
03-15-2004, 10:45 AM
Thursday A.M. I awaken to clear skies. The truck is loaded so all I have to do is hop in and blow town. Met the rest of the group in Salmo and picked up a passenger. Bombed up and over the pass, stopped in Cranbrook for food & fuel then pressed the throttle hard for another hour & half. Called the office on the cell and had the avalanche report read to me. Not what I wanted to hear. Turned off the highway at Radium and followed the dirt road to the 20km mark where we unloaded the trucks & loaded the sleds.
An uneventfull 24km sled up a groomed road ride reaching silly speeds. Rode right to the Dave White Hut. Scoped out the route up to the glacier and noticed some sled tracks on the slope we were to climb the following day. Apparently the slope was fairly stable. Dinner of curried chicken rice & green salad (no point eating freeze dried crap if you have a sled to haul heavy stuff for the first night) A few beers and off to sleep. Awoke for a squirt in the middle of the night and it was blowing and snowwing. Not what I wanted to see.
Awaken to a whiteout. Discuss options. Bail on the climb to the glacier. Go for a little walk get a 1000 vert run of dust on sun crust. Popped out a little slab about 10-15 cm deep. Slid back to the hut for lunch. Call the hut society to see if we can stay another night. Get one more night booked in the hut.
After a lunch of mostly chocolate 3 of us hop on the sleds to go reconoiter another route to the the glacier and another hut (RK? heli hut). As we are crossing the meadow in white out conditions I stop to scope out a good spot to cross the creek. Looks good so I punch it. Unexpectedly the ground falls away and the front of the sled comes up. WHAM. We pile into a snowdrift on the other side of the creek. Fortunately we are carrying enough momentum to push through and up onto the flat. Unfortunately I am thrown forward into the handle bars and my passenger is thrown onto my back compounding my impact with the bars. OOF! I got some sore ribs out of it but no worries. I figured we should find the good spot to cross the creek while we are around so I scope it out and try again. Pin it and it seems I am on a good line when I hit a wall and launch 10' straight up. YA HOO! Face shots! Giggles & shit! I'm feeling like motor head now.
We continue on our mission. Skin up a drainage and locate a possible route up the head wall. Steep nasty thick trees slow out progress. We look to the south and see a nice safe treed ridge that will take us where we want to go so we bail on our climb. Dig a pit and find a snow pack of facets & surface hoar layers that make us cringe.
Back to the hut for beer, dinner, scotch, beer, cards, scotch....
Awaken with the feeling that a truck parked on my ribs all night. The day breaks clear and calm. Sip tea as the sun hits the peaks to the south. SCope out the route to the glacier. It appears to have been wind loaded during the storm. We sit around and discuss our options. We have no home for the night as the hut we are in is booked by others that night. Eventually I decide to bail and head home as there is no safe skiing to be had and I would rather hang out with my wife & kids than wander around in the woods just for some thing to do. The south aspects were warm and slidy the north aspects were layered with shitty surface hoar layers.
Off I go. About 2 km out I see a slope in the morning sun that had already slid that morning. I get to my truck and start chatting with a couple local skiers who are heading up for 3 days. I confirmed thier fears and off they go. A half hour later as I am bombing down the road with the Doors blaring my cel phone rings. It's Andy on his sat phone checking to see that I made it out. They have bailed on thier plans to try to walk up to the ridge and are sitting in the cabin hitting the scotch.
An uneventfull drive home. Out to dinner at a friends house for roast leg of lamb, yorkshire pudding..... beer & wine. I wondered what freeze dried vegetarian crap Andy, Liz & Ken were having .
An uneventfull 24km sled up a groomed road ride reaching silly speeds. Rode right to the Dave White Hut. Scoped out the route up to the glacier and noticed some sled tracks on the slope we were to climb the following day. Apparently the slope was fairly stable. Dinner of curried chicken rice & green salad (no point eating freeze dried crap if you have a sled to haul heavy stuff for the first night) A few beers and off to sleep. Awoke for a squirt in the middle of the night and it was blowing and snowwing. Not what I wanted to see.
Awaken to a whiteout. Discuss options. Bail on the climb to the glacier. Go for a little walk get a 1000 vert run of dust on sun crust. Popped out a little slab about 10-15 cm deep. Slid back to the hut for lunch. Call the hut society to see if we can stay another night. Get one more night booked in the hut.
After a lunch of mostly chocolate 3 of us hop on the sleds to go reconoiter another route to the the glacier and another hut (RK? heli hut). As we are crossing the meadow in white out conditions I stop to scope out a good spot to cross the creek. Looks good so I punch it. Unexpectedly the ground falls away and the front of the sled comes up. WHAM. We pile into a snowdrift on the other side of the creek. Fortunately we are carrying enough momentum to push through and up onto the flat. Unfortunately I am thrown forward into the handle bars and my passenger is thrown onto my back compounding my impact with the bars. OOF! I got some sore ribs out of it but no worries. I figured we should find the good spot to cross the creek while we are around so I scope it out and try again. Pin it and it seems I am on a good line when I hit a wall and launch 10' straight up. YA HOO! Face shots! Giggles & shit! I'm feeling like motor head now.
We continue on our mission. Skin up a drainage and locate a possible route up the head wall. Steep nasty thick trees slow out progress. We look to the south and see a nice safe treed ridge that will take us where we want to go so we bail on our climb. Dig a pit and find a snow pack of facets & surface hoar layers that make us cringe.
Back to the hut for beer, dinner, scotch, beer, cards, scotch....
Awaken with the feeling that a truck parked on my ribs all night. The day breaks clear and calm. Sip tea as the sun hits the peaks to the south. SCope out the route to the glacier. It appears to have been wind loaded during the storm. We sit around and discuss our options. We have no home for the night as the hut we are in is booked by others that night. Eventually I decide to bail and head home as there is no safe skiing to be had and I would rather hang out with my wife & kids than wander around in the woods just for some thing to do. The south aspects were warm and slidy the north aspects were layered with shitty surface hoar layers.
Off I go. About 2 km out I see a slope in the morning sun that had already slid that morning. I get to my truck and start chatting with a couple local skiers who are heading up for 3 days. I confirmed thier fears and off they go. A half hour later as I am bombing down the road with the Doors blaring my cel phone rings. It's Andy on his sat phone checking to see that I made it out. They have bailed on thier plans to try to walk up to the ridge and are sitting in the cabin hitting the scotch.
An uneventfull drive home. Out to dinner at a friends house for roast leg of lamb, yorkshire pudding..... beer & wine. I wondered what freeze dried vegetarian crap Andy, Liz & Ken were having .