Skiing in the time of uncertainty

[LeeLau]

With a tip of the hat to Gabriel Garcia Marquez here's an attempt to put up some pretty and hopefully distracting ski pics

Late February - Rogers Pass road tripIt’s really no secret that the Whistler/Blackcomb season started poorly. That’s part of the reason Sharon and I left our home confines of the Coast Mountains and migrated to Interior BC, Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Kicking Horse for the best part of December and January. But there’s so much more than resort skiing and there’s the holy grail. The mecca of ski touring that we Canadians take for granted.

Of course that’s Rogers Pass.

Puff Daddy and Rogers Run

Sharon, Trace, Doug and I went up to ski off either Rogers Run or Puff Daddy on BC’s family day long weekend. It’s been a long long time since we’ve been up the Grizzly Shoulder skintrack and it’s about as rowdy and poorly set as I remember it with the strangest of terrain choices.

After no less than 82 kick turns and 6 veggie-belay assists on various steep sections we were at the top. Family Day long weekend is very popular and my decade-old memories of untouched powder appeared to be obsolete. Temperatures were mellow (just below freezing) and skies were broken so skiing was going to be awfully good no matter if we crossed tracks.

We eventually took a designer route that involved skiing down part of Rogers Run; coming back up over to Puff Daddy then sneaking pillows and pow that split Hermit West and Puff Daddy. After shaking a group of no less than six splitboarders that appeared to be stalking us in an attempt to figure out if we knew a “cool untouched line bro” we made it back to the Discovery Centre having dodged the unexpected objective hazard of groups skiing above us.

To make an entertaining day even better Doug then fulfilled a long-term dream of taking a picture with the Canadian Forces operating a howitzer for training. Thanks for such good spirits guys and hope we didn’t slow your teardown.

[Core Shot]

FKNA

thx for stoke

[snowaddict91]

Nice! Was just up there, spent three nights in the wheeler hut. We were limited on what we could ski due to storms/considerable avy danger, but what a mecca indeed. I will be back!

[danmelon]

Nice! Thx for sharing!

[ACH]

drool

[LeeLau]

Avalanche Crest

Even for jaded quasi locals this was an exceptional day. It was forecasted to be clear, cold and windless. It was all that and more. Alyn and Sharon came out for a day that started out cold. It stayed cold till early afternoon and the Eagle ascent went well accordingly with the skintrack setting easy and the climb turning over quckly.

As we broke above treeline into the bowls below Eagle Peak and Avalanche Mountain the views seemed to go on forever. The sun was welcome but so was the incredibly low density baby’s breath consistency snow that swooshed off our skis as we put one foot in front of the other on the skintrack.









With a stable fat snowpack and good skiing from alpine to valley we put laps into the Eagle Peak bowl. Then up we went to Avalanche Crest. Some groups had been there but inexplicably they all trended skiers left. What remained was a third of the Avalanche Crest face untracked with the exception of Chris G’s team (good to see you out there again Chris) making observations. Chris and his team skied first and we watched them carve contrails of quadruple overhead blower pow of Justin Trudeau’s wild-harvested tears hovering in the blue skies like angels wings reaching to dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings. Sharon, Alyn and I waited a respectful amount of time then we all gutted the slope hammering out wide turns deep down the kill zones and all the way to the highway slide path terminus..

It’s days like this for which you dream.

[Meadow Skipper]

Thanks, I needed that.

[CYJ]

Thanks for sharing Lee, looks amazing.

[yeahman]

Great pics Lee!

[LeeLau]

Whistler and Blackcomb

The Sea to Sky has had a massive issue with its underlying snowpack via a buried persistent weak layer from the early season. However massive consistent storms in January followed by consistent snow in February had us poking around on lower angled terrain in the Blackcomb area. Here are some randoms from around the Circle Lake, Spearhead Glacier, Vista, Decker area of the Blackcomb backcountry

[Vt-Freeheel]

Skiing is fun!!!!

[b0ardski]

wow... thank for getting some pics

[LeeLau]

Duffey – north of Pemberton

Rohr

We had the blessings of bluebird skies following a cold dump of snow in late January. This covered up alder nicely and made it possible to get top to bottom 1000m shots of the S-facing Rohr avalanche chutes. Timing is crucial for these lines and we got lucky with the timing for our two laps

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[Meadow Skipper]

^Severe jealousy.

[SB]

I like this

[LeeLau]

Heartstrings

Late February rolls around. Our friends from Vancouver Island come to visit. Their timing really couldn’t have been better. Temps were a tiny bit warmer than ideal but two mid February storms have laid even more base down. The week before they arrive two cycles put 10cms then another 10cms down on supportive stable snow.

[LeeLau]

Vantage

The Island boys were around for another day. Weather promised for visibility for the first bit of the day with a storm rolling in for the latter part of the day so we picked a zone to give us option. We made our way up Vantage Ridge and as we gained it; graybird set in and visibility went to cloudy soup.

We made up for this by laps in trees and then enjoyed yet another top to bottom ski where the snow was good all the way

[LeeLau]

Joffre Lakes

Joffre Lakes isn’t just about the free wifi or the naked yoga instagram log. It’s also about alpine terrain and treed skiing. Early March storms deposited up to 40cms of low density snow from peak to valley. Sometimes one explores and sometimes one gets the low-hanging fruit. We picked that fruit and it was sweet.

First for us was the Managerbod tour with old friends and sending off new friends as they had their last pow hurrah before making their way back to the mountainous gnar of Ontario. We lapped more pow and had faceshots

[Meadow Skipper]

Thanks for this pure little corner of lovely skiing in these trying times.

[Ottime]

Fuck yeah! Awesome stoke. Thank you.

[rickybobby]

Thanks Lee. You made my week.

[LeeLau]

No problem. It's been therapeutic. Stressing out over old parents both of whom us kids are preparing for assisted living & now the assisted facilities in North Van are the Canadian epicentre of COVID fatalities.

[Mike Pow]

Epic

[LeeLau]

Joffre Lakes again
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Joffre Lakes was so good and yielded so many instabangers we went back for more. This time we hit up a birthday mission for a triple lapper but found that pure Westerly slopes had a stout sun crust; skiable but not the overhead blower to which we had become accustomed. No matter. There were some north faces that required our attention and we did to those what needed to be done

[ACH]

A good way to start my Monday, thanks Lee!