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08-31-2019, 11:52 AM #1376
I hear ya on that point in general as it's somewhat applicable to T town as well, A.P. It's a matter of personal preference. In my case, I've degenerated into a grumpy old 'get off my lawn' hermit...therefore, less is more, and more isn't better. Pretty sure if the calendar was rolled back 20 years it would have been a completely different perspective and who knows, with neuroplasticity being what it is, perhaps will be again?
It's always a deep, full lung exhale of relief and relaxation rollin' into Stewart for the start of my 4 month winter work window up there. No people, zero traffic, and the same basic town that hasn't really changed much in the past what, 40 years? Really appreciate that part of the scale of balance in life.Master of mediocrity.
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08-31-2019, 01:25 PM #1377
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08-31-2019, 01:57 PM #1378Registered User
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Northern BC 2013/2014 Stoke, Conditions
^^^^Mt Moresby???
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08-31-2019, 02:18 PM #1379
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08-31-2019, 03:35 PM #1380Registered User
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08-31-2019, 04:46 PM #1381
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08-31-2019, 08:11 PM #1382Registered User
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09-01-2019, 06:03 PM #1383
hmmmmm.....dunno what happened but somehow a bunch of words have been cojoined. sorry for the shitty readability.
Okay, so found enough pics to get this done.
Skiin'over at Haida Gwaii
Myoutings were spent schralpin' powdies then corn up on Mount Raymond and SlatechuckMountain (Sleeping Beauty Mountain), just west of Queen CharlotteCity. Did two separate trips. One for deep pow during a forecastedcold storm cycle on march 20,21,22 in 2001. The other trip was a cornharvest on the first few days of may in 2002. Both years were bigsnow years. Going by memory, snowpack was over 350cms deep inprotected areas just below treeline on both trips.
Toaccess the ski zone, there was a well maintained logging road (in 2002) that beganat the outskirts of QCI and ascended about 1000 vert feet to a hikingtrail. From there, a bit of steep dry land hiking brought skiers tosnowline a few hundred feet up. If memory serves correctly, we gotlucky with the fact that the snowline was pretty much a line ofdemarkation of no snow/snow then very quickly gaining in depth over arelatively short distance so that there's wasn't much posthole hikingmisery before skis/skins were donned. This also happened to coincidewith a relenting of the terrain steepness and an opening in thespacing of the trees so that a pretty intuitive, reasonable gradeskinning route was established.
Thestorm skiing terrain is quite limited and doesn't offer the greatestvertical drop but from what i recall, the steepness was sufficientfor satisfying deep pow turns with the relatively skinny skis of theday (92mm underfoot). I think the vert of the runs were between 400and 900 feet with some nice fun technical old growth forest treeskiing lines that extended the vert another 300ish feet for reallypushing the potential to the max.
Headingback in may the next year, we got super lucky with hitting a threeday mostly bluebird window. Had one day of recent new snow transitionschmoo then two days of corn. Skiing in the same basic eastfacing terrain as the previous trip, total vert was extended to about1500 feet with the true summit start in the alpine off the nose ofsleeping beauty.
Exploredsome short but authentic 'extreme' lines on both the alpine bits ofthe north quadrant backside and west facing btl and had fantasticexposed sphincter tightening laps there. Total vert of those lineswas about 1000 feet on the north aspect stuff and a coupla 200-500feet on the west facing tree chutes.
Allin all the ski experience was super fun both for the quality of techyturns and for the magic of skiing there.
Challengesover skiing over on the rock;
Theferries. Prone to delays, cancellations due to storms bothpredicted and emergent. Good idea to have a generous timewindow to allow for variances on both ends of the planned travel dates.
The Weather: usually shitty.
Thesnowpack. Some years there is no skiable snowpack. Someyears the window of skiable snowpack is small. Some years theskiable snowpack may exist but offer limited windows of decentquality of skiability.
(speculating here...) Basedon previous experience livin' in Rupert, the good years for skiingfeature cold storms through feb, march and april and much of thesnowpack accumulation can occur in those months. Having aHaida Gwaii contact that monitors things in real time and can berelied on for up to the minute reports would be optimal for tripplanning.
Access: Open question...for Sleeping Beauty Mountain, don't know if thataccess logging road has been maintained. Same goes for thehiking trail.
Options: Based on visual obs, google earthing, and a few reports from otherbackcountry skiers gettin' after it, there are quite a few optionsfor good terrain in the island chain. A heliski guide I workedwith up in Bell 2 did some heli drops on Louise Island. Another buddy skied up on Mount Moresby. Another crew did acanoe access trip a bit further south on Moresby Island. Theywrote an article about it. I think it was titled "Soaked".
Withcreativity, willingness to suffer and a few extra benjamines in thebank account, some pretty neat ski objectives could be attempted.
Forexample, rumor has it that there's a rough hiking route up MountMoresby...but being somewhat close (32kms) to the heliport inSandspit, a heli drop/pickup during a good weather window wouldn't bea huge cost with the right group composition. Moresby has somegood potential for bigger vert (2000ish feet) lines and would offer astunning mountaintop view from a high perch camp.
Acombo boat ride, bushwhack, canoe, bushwhack approach could get askier into the terrain south of Mount Laysen...which IIRC was theobjective of the hardy canoe crew previously mentioned.
Links/pics and stuff
Northword article by Steve Ogle containing a brief trip report by the canoe guys. Crew including Rupert's own Dean Wagner and Nelson Rocha. Quick googling didn't find the actual extended magazine article. It was a good one, iirc.
http://northword.ca/winter-2005-06/the-ultimate-skiing-road-trip
another bit of writing about that trip from Mr. Ogle:
"Describe some times when things went wrong.
Trying to be first to ski the San Cristobal Range on Haida Gwaii was a total gonger. We dumped a kayak in the North Pacific in February trying to get out there. Then we spent 10 days in pouring rain bashing four miles through a flooded swamp—which on one occasion froze solid overnight—up to a summit that we only knew existed because of a map. At the top, we had the only half hour of light on the entire trip."
A ski of Mount Moresby in the non snow year of 2015
https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2015/last-run-on-haida-gwaii/
G.E.images:
Sleeping Beauty Mountain ski zone
Mount Raymond/Slatechuck/SleepingBeauty Mountain. Hiking trail-blue, lines skied-red. Skin trail routes....can't remember.
west facing stuff off ridge connecting raymond/slatechuck
mount moresby zone
fun minigolf steeps
perfectly fine feeling pow turns in march, 2001
Master of mediocrity.
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09-01-2019, 08:28 PM #1384Registered User
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..., and the winner of the Best Beta Provided Award goes to ....... swissiphic. Above and beyond sir. much gratitude!
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09-01-2019, 09:46 PM #1385Registered User
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Northern BC 2013/2014 Stoke, Conditions
We went out to Rennel Sound on our trip and those views to the south (in addition to your previous Haida Gwaii skiing pic) got me thinking skiing. I shared a house with Nelson Rocha in Nelson way back in the day btw. Small world
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09-26-2019, 12:39 PM #1386Registered User
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Hi all, I'm new to the TGR forum and was pointed in the direction of this thread by LHutz Esq, after I told him about losing a (brand new) ski and (brand new) binding and (brand new) skin up in Smithers back in April.
Bit of a stab in the dark, but has anyone heard of a stray 4FRNT Hoji 2019, 190 cm with a shift binding on it being found in the vicinity of Hudson Bay mountain by any chance? Full story below, along with image of where it went down...
Me and my buddy went up and past crater lake, to the top of Hudson bay mountain. The conditions that day were awful (super icy), so we had planned to just ski down the way we came up. At the top of the mountain, my ski popped off and flew down the Henderson couloir (still in hike mode, so the brake wasn't engaged). Because of the conditions, the fact that I was on one ski, and our lack of knowledge of the area, we decided to take the easiest and safest way back down to the car. Came back the next day to inspect the face from below with binoculars, couldn't see anything there and so skied all the way down the avalanche gully to open water, but couldn't spot it. It's a 4FRNT Raven 190 cm, with salomon shift bindings and a zag climbing skin on it.
Any info that leads to its capture will be generously rewarded!
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09-26-2019, 01:45 PM #1387Registered User
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PtP - when you say open water - you mean the creek or crater lake? Crater lake may be one couloir over?
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09-26-2019, 04:02 PM #1388
First off, damn, PTTP, that's a rough go. Sending 'find the ski' vibes to ya and any searchers.
AP; holy...small world indeed! Nelson Rocha; funny how he ended up in his namesake town which imo is the Prince Rupert of the Kootenays. Hilly, Victorian homes and lots of toque 'n' dog people.
September turns.
The past few days have been cool and rainy in Terrace. With freezing levels hovering just above treeline and a pretty good whack of precip falling, hopes are for some freshies over glacier ice up at Wesach in the next few days. Figured I should probably perfect the new ski drag system for steep bootpacks and test ski the new ski boot liner mod. Resounding success with both. Ski drag system alleviates the ski carry weight on the back issue and the new ski boot liner mod dramatically improves ankle area ski boot fit tension, responsiveness and smooth, even, progressive forward flex for gravel turns in the beat to shit Dynafit Mercuries. Snow testing will involve same liners in the snow specific Dynafit Vulcans. Can't wait to shred some Sept powdies.
Last edited by swissiphic; 09-26-2019 at 06:28 PM.
Master of mediocrity.
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09-27-2019, 10:48 AM #1389Registered User
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I mean the creek. We skinned up to crater lake from the resort and then all the way to the top (or nearly) of Hudson bay mountain. Basically until we were at the top of Henderson couloir, which is where my ski popped off and went down the face of the Henderson couloir. The next day we skied all the way down to the creek in the hope of finding it, to no avail. Hope this makes sense!
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09-27-2019, 11:15 AM #1390Registered User
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Yep - unfortunately I was out of town all week - and it snowed:
http://www.sandrah.biz/hudsonbaymoun...er/weather.php
But if it melts I’ll take a hike on the Sunday
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09-27-2019, 08:01 PM #1391Registered User
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It makes total sense.
Here’s what i can offer to your investigation;
I hiked down the Henderson drainage from about 1700 meters down to the road twice this summer. Both times i accessed Henderson drainage from the eastern shoulder and not the top. I took a group of 16 summer camp kids through there as well and never saw thing. Granted, it is unlikely that the ski would have traveled that far, but i can say with a high degree of certainty that there is not ski below that point.
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09-27-2019, 08:28 PM #1392Registered User
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Is 1700 about treeline AP? Was thinking of hiking over from the green t and going up- maybe Sunday if you want to go for a walk on a beautiful fall day?
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09-27-2019, 08:38 PM #1393Registered User
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Tree line is at about 15. We came in above that on a shelf feature. Would love to go look on Sunday but I am cutting for the ski hill. Thanks for the invite, that would actually be a fun project and heading that way beyond Crater is a super nice walk
If you come in from side like we did and head up the drainage, I would think the chances of finding it are pretty good.
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09-28-2019, 01:48 PM #1394Registered User
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Thanks AP for the detailed info.
So when I came back the next day to look for the ski, my mate and I did not access the drainage from the top of the couloir (conditions were way too crappy for that), but rather from the eastern shoulder too. On that day, we hiked up to crater lake but instead of going up and past it, we travelled west and did more of a traverse without much elevation gain. That led us to the bottom of the face/top of the drainage, from which we inspected the face with binoculars but couldn't see anything. That's when we skied down to the creek, but had no luck finding the ski.
It sounds like we didn't miss anything then, if you didn't see anything either!
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09-28-2019, 01:59 PM #1395Registered User
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Yeah so it sounds like the face itself is the place where neither me nor AP have really been. And I'm guessing not many people skied the Henderson couloir after April 1st (which is when the ski was lost)? Correct me if I'm wrong though.
I don't know how doable it is when there's no snow to actually hike up the Henderson couloir? It was pretty steep from what I remember... Or were you thinking of coming in from the top? Or neither?
Just a final clarification, if I haven't made this clear before: the ski flew down what would be slightly skier's left of Henderson couloir.
Hope this all makes sense
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09-28-2019, 04:05 PM #1396Registered User
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Ok so I just got hold of my buddy who I was with at the time. Using contour maps, here's the best retracing of the itinerary we could do. In red, our uphill itinerary of the first day, up to the point where the ski was lost. In green, the trajectory of the ski (as best as we could make out on the day). In blue, the itinerary we followed on the following day, when we went looking for the ski. I think this is more or less the itinerary that AP followed, if I'm not mistaken. You'll see we hiked up the ridge for a little bit on the second day, to get a good look with binoculars at the skier's left side of the face (where the ski is presumed to have gone).
Hopefully this map is consistent with the photo I uploaded earlier. Please let me know if that's not the case. I do trust the actual contour map more than the photo as a description of our itinerary. Cheers!
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09-29-2019, 10:22 AM #1397Registered User
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Northern BC 2013/2014 Stoke, Conditions
Your blue line is pretty much exactly what i did this summer. So i think that low ground has bern covered. A good strategy would be to follow the blue line into the drainage but turn upslope instead of down.
It would be possible to come down from the spot you lost your ski but it would not be very pleasant (steepness, loose rock etc.)
I think hutz’s plan is to folliw the blue line and head up the drainage
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09-29-2019, 10:36 AM #1398Registered User
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.. will likely yield positive results.
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09-29-2019, 10:41 AM #1399Registered User
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If my weekend allows it next week, i’ll head in there and look. That’s if Hutz doesn’t find it today
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09-29-2019, 10:43 AM #1400
From gravel to glacier.
First recent new 'snow' turns of the season were made up at Wesach yesterday. The gut feel forecast prediction of about 15-20cms on the glacier was kinda right...it prolly started out as such but the winds redistributed it into 5-50cms of hardpan, styrofoam or breakable crust with exposed sections of blue ice and lots of rock. The positive was that enough snow blew down to lower elevations that a magic wand extended skiing down to about 5000 feet which resulted in a pieced together run of about 1500 vert feet. Not bad at all. Alas, it is only september.
Some very interesting observations. I haven't skied up there in low tide in about 4 years. In the meantime the glacier has been slaughtered by the previous few summers of catastrophic firn and glacier ice annihilating thermonuclear meltdown. New crevasses, one story deep meltwater channels ending in black hole like moulins and a new Khumbu Icefall at the top of the glacier really tore at the heart strings. The section where the new icefall is has historically featured just one long transverse crevasse/bergschrund and was always easy to negotiate and typically either got filled or well bridged with just a few snowfalls and some good wind.
Near the col at 6500 feet, quick guess is that about 30 feet of ice depth was lost...and perhaps even more with descending elevation. Almost brought a tear to my eye.
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