The FIFTY

[LeeLau]

hey alka: what's the deal with calling it the "ne" face of swiss? was there a local's or first descensionist's tribunal that i missed hearing about? you on a unilateral side quest for naming accuracy in ski descents? (it should prob be the "nne" face then... ha!) or am i confused as to what you skied?

cause as far as i know what you skied down, after rogers, has been called the "n" face of swiss for as long as it has been skied...

i do agree that if there was a way to guarantee mint conditions, this is a line that people should drop everything for... i skied it a couple years ago and didn't get it in as good of conditions as you got... despite the more careful turning and less ripping result, it was still the sweetest line i've had the chance to ski down so far... hence the personal interest in hearing the rest of the story regarding your naming proclivities!

Technically the face is NE. I think we just get lazy and call it Swiss N. That's pretty much the reason.

[weibo]

I saw you throw a thanks out to Danyelle at the end of this episode. Are you scamming inside info?

[Alkasquawlik]

hey alka: what's the deal with calling it the "ne" face of swiss? was there a local's or first descensionist's tribunal that i missed hearing about? you on a unilateral side quest for naming accuracy in ski descents? (it should prob be the "nne" face then... ha!) or am i confused as to what you skied?

cause as far as i know what you skied down, after rogers, has been called the "n" face of swiss for as long as it has been skied...

i do agree that if there was a way to guarantee mint conditions, this is a line that people should drop everything for... i skied it a couple years ago and didn't get it in as good of conditions as you got... despite the more careful turning and less ripping result, it was still the sweetest line i've had the chance to ski down so far... hence the personal interest in hearing the rest of the story regarding your naming proclivities!

I dunno, just heard it referred as such. Or maybe that was written as such in the book and it stuck with me. Funny enough the book hasn’t been the most reliable for beta. Either way, yeah doesn’t matter and wasn’t trying to be all super accurate, just repeating what I thought it was.

But yeah man, such a damn memorable line. Was just blown away turning around and looking back up that thing right below.

[Alkasquawlik]

I saw you throw a thanks out to Danyelle at the end of this episode. Are you scamming inside info?

….maybe. I mean when you have known someone for 12+ years that works on the pass and pretty much runs the place, you go to them for info when ya can.

[weibo]

That is definitely the right move. I used to work with her, she is good people and an awesome resource.

[paulster2626]

Well well, a nice surprise drop at lunchtime. Episode ends on a cliffhanger - the suspense is killing me!

Sleeping in that cabin looked 10/10. Sleeping on a snow bed with soaked gear and moist air looked 2/10. But what do you want when you sign up for a torturefest?

[garuda]

Those packs looked brutal! Looking forward to seeing part 2 of the traverse.

How are the GFT liners working out for you, Cody? Speaking of liners, I can't believe Tobin went for such a long walk in powerwraps!

[Khrolar]

Nice work on E1! So excited for the new few to come! How heavy were your packs on average for the traverse?

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[Buzzworthy]

As always I thoroughly enjoyed it, looking forward to the next one. Keeps getting better each episode.

[powdork]

Well well, a nice surprise drop at lunchtime. Episode ends on a cliffhanger - the suspense is killing me!

Right?? It seems like two weeks is too long to wait for Part 2.

[Alkasquawlik]

Nice work on E1! So excited for the new few to come! How heavy were your packs on average for the traverse?

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We weighed and evened them out before departure on Day 1 and they were all about 54-56lbs.

[rod9301]

Interesting. I managed a sierra traverse with 45lbs, 8 gets of food.

But i was counting every gram.

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[Supermoon]

Interesting. I managed a sierra traverse with 45lbs, 8 gets of food.

But i was counting every gram.

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You probably didn’t have 20-30 lbs of camera gear with you.

I can’t imagine how many Sony batteries Bjarne had to bring for ten days of filming in the cold.

[Alkasquawlik]

Interesting. I managed a sierra traverse with 45lbs, 8 gets of food.

But i was counting every gram.

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Yeah you can go lighter than we did, but also a traverse in Canada is a lot different than a traverse in the Sierra when it comes to gear / weather / terrain prep. Also as others noted, we’re filming the whole thing so that brings another factor of necessity for equipment. Cameras, batteries, audio recorders, recharging equipment…it adds up quick.

[rod9301]

Yeah you can go lighter than we did, but also a traverse in Canada is a lot different than a traverse in the Sierra when it comes to gear / weather / terrain prep. Also as others noted, we’re filming the whole thing so that brings another factor of necessity for equipment. Cameras, batteries, audio recorders, recharging equipment…it adds up quick.

Yeah, forgot about the camera equipment.


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[alpinevibes]

Yeah you can go lighter than we did, but also a traverse in Canada is a lot different than a traverse in the Sierra when it comes to gear / weather / terrain prep. Also as others noted, we’re filming the whole thing so that brings another factor of necessity for equipment. Cameras, batteries, audio recorders, recharging equipment…it adds up quick.

Were you guys on the traverse at the same time as Simi, Linden and Ben or did you cross paths around that time? Any thoughts on your approach/decision making in comparison?

[CnRzG]

Yeah you can go lighter than we did, but also a traverse in Canada is a lot different than a traverse in the Sierra when it comes to gear / weather / terrain prep. Also as others noted, we’re filming the whole thing so that brings another factor of necessity for equipment. Cameras, batteries, audio recorders, recharging equipment…it adds up quick.

We were watching last night.... and were wondering about Bjarne(sp). How does he do it? Saw the fifty that you held the cam. But seriously, give the guy a huge props. I can only imagine he carries the most equipment... or do you share the weight?

[gtid]

Cody, for the sake of trip/story continuity did you consider making this trip one extended episode instead of a part 1 and part 2?


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[Alkasquawlik]

Were you guys on the traverse at the same time as Simi, Linden and Ben or did you cross paths around that time? Any thoughts on your approach/decision making in comparison?

Yeah was on at the same time as them and ran into Simi and crew on the Deville on Day 2. I have no idea about their approach/decision making because I really haven’t talked to Simi about their trip. Seems like they went decently light and fast but other than that didn’t talk to much to them about the specifics of their trip. Is there info out there somewhere?

[Alkasquawlik]

Cody, for the sake of trip/story continuity did you consider making this trip one extended episode instead of a part 1 and part 2?


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Yeah we did, but first cut was and hour and 45 minutes long and making something that is continuously watchable of that length is really difficult. So I cut it down to three parts so we could tell a lot of the story while also not feeling repetitive.

[alpinevibes]

Yeah was on at the same time as them and ran into Simi and crew on the Deville on Day 2. I have no idea about their approach/decision making because I really haven’t talked to Simi about their trip. Seems like they went decently light and fast but other than that didn’t talk to much to them about the specifics of their trip. Is there info out there somewhere?

Nice, yeah I've chatted with him a bit about their trip. They were def going light and fast and had some sticky moments up high.

[kootenayskier]

I understand that North -South is faster if you’re side hilling your way to a FKN, but in my experience doing these tours, South - North means climbing firm South faces early in the day and skiing powder on the North faces. What am I missing?

[Supermoon]

I understand that North -South is faster if you’re side hilling your way to a FKN, but in my experience doing these tours, South - North means climbing firm South faces early in the day and skiing powder on the North faces. What am I missing?

In the video they said they did north to south so they would limit their exposure on the south facing slopes. I think it was warm and they were worried about natural avalanches coming down on them.

[Alkasquawlik]

I understand that North -South is faster if you’re side hilling your way to a FKN, but in my experience doing these tours, South - North means climbing firm South faces early in the day and skiing powder on the North faces. What am I missing?

Yeah you're spot on but we addressed the exact reasoning behind our decision in the episode. It had to do with not only with warm afternoons but a massive forecasted warm up 7 days out from our start. So entering into the much bigger and more hazardous Selkirks during a warm up that was forecasting overnight freezing levels above 3000m seemed incredibly dangerous and stupid. The goal was the complete the traverse, so our direction gave us a far better chance of finishing. The day we left the mountains it was +3c at 3000m at 9am. If we were going up from the Glacier Circle cabin during that warm up it would've been sketchy as hell. Decision making in the mountains is all about giving yourself a lot of margin for error, going North to South gave us that. Going South to North would've been more pleasurable but more dangerous.

[Darren Jakal]

Hey Cody, can you tell us what you took for glacier gear?