Northern BC 2013/2014 Stoke, Conditions

[swissiphic]

Eastcoastdan; sweet edit, was thinkin' 'right on' all the way through, starting with the truck stuck and ending with the cheers beers. Had a few truck stucks meself this spring, full on had to jack up rear corners, make runway out of clearcut wood planks and shovel. All part of the spring thing. Thanks for sharin' the stoke.

Spring's offered some good weather windows around Terrace and there's a few locals still shreddin'. I got a good handful of cherrypicked days and though snowpack is way lowtide for this time of year, our usual hits still have the goods, just melting out earlier and faster than usual. Last day skiin' was three days ago and we had 5-15cms of fresh from 7000-5500 feet, moist but smooth before turning nice and corny. There was some threat that intermittent tree pollen discharge would wreck our spring shift but the bursts of snow/precip events either covered or rained down the stickyness and nothing catastrophic shut down the program yet... fingers crossed moving forward; we had some month long periods in the past where pollen followed by no precip made the snow surface so sticky it was unskiable. In any case, still skiing with a bottle of white gas and rags in the pack to remove the goo pitch by pitch, just in case for pure downhill survival.

[skiersteve]

Looks like you had one hell of a season swiss!

Anyone still out there? Corn season is upon us! Might even be a bit of fresh snow at higher elevations right now. This is a sweet little edit a friend of mine made from our day up Mcbride peak Sunday

Ran into some people going up Raven Lake with skis on Saturday. Looked like there could still be a few turns up top

[swissiphic]

Skied a run for Gord yesterday. Tough card to be dealt. Vibes to the man and his friends and family.

[Angle Parking]

Was doing a Backdoor shuttle on Friday (nowhere near as perverted as it sounds). We get to the chair and i notice that the road / traverse back from Chapman's, Dahlie's, Cold Smoke etc. looked really worked, as though they were turning it into a full on road. Moments later a full dump truck passes us heading up in the direction of said runs. Wondering what HBM is doing? Re-working the cat path back to get rid of the dead spots where the mouth breathers get stuck? Logging equipment was visible as well. Gotta give it to the current regime at HBM, they are definitely doing their best to improve the hill.

[Eastcoastdan]

The mountains in the Valemount/McBride area had quite a dusting of snow on them this weekend. Starting to get stoked!

The Valemount Bike Park is worth the drive btw, world class trails and more on the way by the looks of it.

[XXX-er]

Was doing a Backdoor shuttle on Friday (nowhere near as perverted as it sounds). We get to the chair and i notice that the road / traverse back from Chapman's, Dahlie's, Cold Smoke etc. looked really worked, as though they were turning it into a full on road. Moments later a full dump truck passes us heading up in the direction of said runs. Wondering what HBM is doing? Re-working the cat path back to get rid of the dead spots where the mouth breathers get stuck? Logging equipment was visible as well. Gotta give it to the current regime at HBM, they are definitely doing their best to improve the hill.

Hung out with Frank at the chainsaw course last sat, soon as things freeze/tighten up Conan is gona go in and log 2 more blocks either side of the 7 sisters glades which is probably gona piss seasons pass holders like it did last year but either the hill gets this winter logging done for free possibly even making a few shekels or no new terrain gets developed, gona head up there tomorrow to start the job of connecting up the top with the bottom

I've done a training hike into Red mtn, up to the Hankin hut to clean & inventory the shelter, been visting "the back whisperer" , been drinking hard, should be match fit by snow time

[Angle Parking]

Hung out with Frank at the chainsaw course last sat, soon as things freeze/tighten up Conan is gona go in and log 2 more blocks either side of the 7 sisters glades which is probably gona piss seasons pass holders like it did last year but either the hill gets this winter logging done for free possibly even making a few shekels or no new terrain gets developed, gona head up there tomorrow to start the job of connecting up the top with the bottom

I've done a training hike into Red mtn, up to the Hankin hut to clean & inventory the shelter, been visting "the back whisperer" , been drinking hard, should be match fit by snow time

Is Conan cleaning up the slash off the bottom of the Seven Sisters as well?

[XXX-er]

duno I kind of doubt it that might be up to the chain saw crews??

you know that Conan has to make money or he goes tits up,
the side benifit is the hill gets some ski runs cut for nuthin

so just like everything up here the $$$ part is tenuous

[Angle Parking]

So are you guys working the top tomo or are you cleaning up last years logging?

[XXX-er]

probably gona connect the top with the bottom, there is a 100 meter section of shitty old balsams that need to die

still got a month or 2 before we will be nuts deep in snow dragging our saws around

[Eastcoastdan]

Is nobody else getting out there yet?!

Near Mcbride it was skinny but fun!

Edit: Sorry for making you all turn your heads sideways. Will do better next time haha

[XXX-er]

No < 12" we are still working out with the saws

looks good !

[skiersteve]

Is nobody else getting out there yet?!

Near Mcbride it was skinny but fun!

Edit: Sorry for making you all turn your heads sideways. Will do better next time haha

Sweet planning on heading down to Boulder MTN tomorrow (Goat River) although after hearing you guys were at Belle that was another option.

What elevation did you guys run into decent snow? And how was the road into Belle? Did you make it past the sled parking lot?

Snow looks relatively dry still for it warming up a bit the next few days?

[moose pit]

I think it is time for a 2016/17 thread... Dan gets the drop on everyone by the looks of it. Gone are the days of the Tanks'Giv'er coreshot ski fests but I can appreciate you getting out there and skiing rocks and dirt

[Eastcoastdan]

Sweet planning on heading down to Boulder MTN tomorrow (Goat River) although after hearing you guys were at Belle that was another option.

What elevation did you guys run into decent snow? And how was the road into Belle? Did you make it past the sled parking lot?

Snow looks relatively dry still for it warming up a bit the next few days?

This was on Lucille. Road sucks, drove up to 7km. Snow was good, but it may have warmed up a bit since then, this was on Thursday. There was less than a foot at the cabin, we were only able to ski where the wind had deposited the snow but it was actually pretty decent in those spots. Worst part was skiing the road back to the truck... scary and rocky.

Looked to be more snow around the Boulder mountain area but don't expect to put your skiis on until you break out into the meadows by the old cabin.

[Eastcoastdan]

I think it is time for a 2016/17 thread... Dan gets the drop on everyone by the looks of it. Gone are the days of the Tanks'Giv'er coreshot ski fests but I can appreciate you getting out there and skiing rocks and dirt

I didn't feel I had the seniority to start a new thread haha

No core shots! Maybe I wasn't skiing hard enough

[skiersteve]

Right on sounds like you did pretty good with what was there.

Boulder was a little better probably 35cm at treeline. Pretty good early season turns the 5cms overnight definitely helped. Was one crust pretty close to the ground that was rather reactive so we kept it pretty mellow but there's some nice looking stuff up at Boulder. Managed to get the skins on a few hundred feet below the meadow.

[skiersteve]

[garyfromterrace]

Way to get at it Steve! Looks great.

[skiersteve]

Way to get at it Steve! Looks great.

Thanks Gary. Great to be back out there, finally got a tech set up so hopefully will get some more touring in this winter.

[Eastcoastdan]

Right on sounds like you did pretty good with what was there.

Boulder was a little better probably 35cm at treeline. Pretty good early season turns the 5cms overnight definitely helped. Was one crust pretty close to the ground that was rather reactive so we kept it pretty mellow but there's some nice looking stuff up at Boulder. Managed to get the skins on a few hundred feet below the meadow.

Looks like you guys had a nice day. I was back out yesterday and it was much better, probably close to 6inches had fallen since Thursday but it was still sharky. I've never skiied boulder I think I'll check it out this winter. Looks to be some nice lines!

[skiersteve]

Good to hear. Yea had some cool looking stuff. I'm hoping to make it back out Friday somewhere but we'll see if the weather cooperates

[Angle Parking]

I didn't feel I had the seniority to start a new thread haha

Gary is the godfather of this thread so he should probably have the final say on the new thread idea. We've had this discussion a few times over the years and the concensus has been that our backwater status in the ski world is well reflected in our outdated thread title. I'm easy.

Congrats on the early start gentlemen. 42 cm at treeline here in Smithers. Not quite enough for me. Snowing right now though so it coud be a go this weekend. F@ck would an early start be good!

[XXX-er]

yeah someone asked me if I had been skiing is there enough snow?

to which I replied "find someone you hate and see if you can borrow their skis "

[Angle Parking]

Smithers snow report from Crater Lake area. Thin, 35 or so cm depending on where you are. Supportive, variable, even sticky in some places, great base material. Did 1 run in the trees just outside the HBM boundary. Not very much fun. Did a quick lap into the drainage below Crater and Terminator Ridge starting from the Dahlie Memorial. That was decent.
Overall, if you want to fresh air and a bit of exercise , it's good to go. If you actually want to get some turns. We are nowhere near that point yet around here.