Cement Mixers - Vancouver area ski touring group.

[bad dancer]

Very sad indeed!!
We skinned up to 2nd peak on Seymour on Saturday and coverage was quite good.
I have to admit I was a bit surprised.
Cypress does have many dangerous areas indeed.
Can't speak of coverage up there but have been told it is minimum at best.

[ROCKS]

I'm very keen to get going on some touring, I need more experience under my belt and figure going with people who have it is a good way to do that. I have the gear, and some course knowledge. Let me know when I can join in on some adventures.

PM me some contact info please!

[n0t1ap]

Turns out the deceased is buddy's friend...RIP, and be careful as you can out there guys!

[Turnipking]

Hey, I from Calgary but will be in Van over Christmas. Wouldn't mind trying to fit a tour in if folks are willing to show me around the area

[Schemeboat]

Quick morning lap (very surprised i made the afternoon conference call) up hburn. First one of the year... shame on me.

Good conditions. Snowed 5cm from 9 am to 11am at the bottom. And the top hst was around 25-30 cm's in sheltered areas. 5-10 in exposed areas. We were all over the map. Foot pen at (exposed) peak was 35. Ski pen was anywhere from 5-30.

new snow bonding well to old surfaces in well supported terrain. Surface sluff was moving at a very median rate, on par with most north shore storms. kind of switched to graupel at times, and that wasn't bonding as well, derrrrr.

Who's out there?

[bad dancer]

Late season bump. Snow has arrived. Anyone "mixing concrete" lately ?

[shirk]

It wasn't actually coastal cement on Sunday. Super dry pow compared to what I've skied up there before.

But pretty sure it's back to cement now. Good while it lasted. Hope we get another good cold storm.

[shirk]

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/rescued-out-of-...ssed-1.2708918

Okay who done got themselves lost and rescued off Hollyburn?

Wasn't there a thread on here about the ongoing NS lost skiers? Did a quick search but could not find it.

[pureantigravity]

Someone got bored with maintaining a sad list of generally avoidable events that never came with good photos of helpless subjects and lacked accurate GPS locations.

And last year was a bit boring apart from a solitary incident when a backcountry skier was seriously junked doing a drop in the Hollyburn -- the snow coverage was just not sufficient to counter the short term application of gravity to said skier.

It remains to be seen what tragedic excitement will pass as news this year, given the popular rise of backcountry risk taking.

Astutely, many are better equipped and trained, leading to a possible decline in incidents, and a great increase in good Instagram photos of poached ski lines.

How is the snow on the shore this week?

[Jesse]

I was up cypress today and had a great day. Upper half of the mountain skied really well, bit heavy lower down. I don't regret skipping my planned trip to whistler, in fact, one of my more fun days in recent memory. Didn't know how good the tree skiing is up there. If it stays cold it's worth your time

[shafty85]

It remains to be seen what tragedic excitement will pass as news this year, given the popular rise of backcountry risk taking.

Astutely, many are better equipped and trained, leading to a possible decline in incidents, and a great increase in good Instagram photos of poached ski lines.

I'd disagree. Many people take basic avalanche training, but many rescues in recent memory are from injury (few people are equipped or capable of handling and extricating a person with a serious injury, or one that eliminates the ability of a person to ride out, in the bc). Also, many take a basic course, such as the AST1, then never practice or refresh again and promptly forget most of the knowledge they gained, wrapped in the safety blanket of 'knowing' how to save someone caught in a slide. The ones who do practice and refresh/increase their knowledge and abilities are also often the ones who don't take as much risk/put themselves in poor situations due to their increased awareness. Just my thoughts, but it's what I have seen out there.

[Schemeboat]

It's tricky terrain to manage, I can't ever fault someone for getting lost, especially with no formal training or even ad-hoc backcountry knowledge.

[Schemeboat]

http://www.avalanche.ca/forecasts/north-shore

[shirk]

I don't think it's been cement up there the last few days. Sitting at work day dreaming that it's likely pretty fucking epic today

[gramboh]

How easy is route finding off the W/NW of Mt Strachan at Cypress? On Google Earth looks like you could traverse back to the resort on the snowshoe/Howe Sound Crest trail without much effort. Seen some pics/videos of people skiing in that area that look fun. I've done Hollyburn a few times, good exercise but too benchy skiing back down the OG to the road.

[pureantigravity]

How easy is route finding off the W/NW of Mt Strachan at Cypress? On Google Earth looks like you could traverse back to the resort on the snowshoe/Howe Sound Crest trail without much effort. Seen some pics/videos of people skiing in that area that look fun. I've done Hollyburn a few times, good exercise but too benchy skiing back down the OG to the road.

What happens if you miss the traverse?
I mean, apart from the free chopper rides and mandatory North Shore Rescue news coverage!

[pureantigravity]

I've looked at that route quite often on google earth and wondered
just how easy it is to find the right spot to cut left.
It looks so much fun just to keep going.
Even if I felt comfortable with it, the risk-reward ratio seems a bit off.
But it always looks enticing at the top!

[gramboh]

What happens if you miss the traverse?
I mean, apart from the free chopper rides and mandatory North Shore Rescue news coverage!

Put on skins and get back up to the resort. Or just smash it down to the Sea to Sky and hitchhike back like this dipshit must have thought he would do: https://www.nsnews.com/news/out-of-b...lly-1.24057012

[shirk]

Continuing to go down is never the right option on the North Shore.

It's not too hard to find your way off Strachan and down to the Crest trail. Best recommendation is to explore it in very low avy conditions to get the lay of the land.

[kalisto]

go do the Howe sound Crest trail in the winter. it'll tell you all you need to know.

[Dhelihiker]

cement comes in a bag concrete comes in a mixer

[pureantigravity]

Grouse has probably more pleasant exits.
But still, a free chopper ride is still
a free chopper ride!

https://www.nsnews.com/news/out-of-b...lly-1.24057012

[gramboh]

Thread res, is Seymour skinnable yet? Guessing no based on recent rain/warmth but I've been out of town for the last week and a half. Don't care about skiing, just need to get some fitness and break in the touring legs.

[oetk2]

Haven't tried yet this year but based on some MIN reports I saw the trail was still in need of snow and that was before the rain this past weekend. I keep seeing people up there on the webcam though so it's doable.

[gramboh]

Thanks... looks like it's snowing a bit up there now and should be more this weekend. Does look a bit warm next week again though.