BJ's, Birds and Boulder Hut

Right from the very start of booking this course, i remember it being emphasised that the highlight of the trip is the Boulder Hut. I've actually really enjoyed doing the touring sessions with Steve over the last week and felt suitably prepared for what lay ahead. It was an early start, so early that most of us chucked our bags on the bus, claimed a row of seats each and promptly fell asleep again until we were woken up by the unconcious knowledge that breakfast was near...

Breakfast at BJ's in Kimberley, great way to start the day

Svan looks on in bewilderment as she witnesses for the first time the importance of getting the food order right for the A-Team!!

Signing our lives away

With the logistics chat for the heli ride out the way we signed the legal waivers, finished our breakfast and hit the road to head for the heli-pad, which as it turned out was at a farm in the middle of nowhere

The bird about to take flight

The A-Team ready for an adventure!

The correct way to make any important life decisions is by way of rock-paper-scissors, so naturally the choices of front seat and 1st, 2nd or 3rd heli were decided that way. I ended up on the 3rd heli, but scored the front seat. Apparently i was pretty stoked about it... or maybe just in general... either way!

Although you couldn't see it very clearly on the ride in, the whole atmosphere of our surroundings told us we were in a pretty special place. The heli swung round the final corner and headed for the ground, straight towards the trees. It was then i spotted the landing pad. A platform about 20' square carved into the snow bank. 'Really?! We're landing there?!' Sure enough that was the spot and the precision operation to unload the bags and supplies began. Time is fuel after all!

We headed in and met the locals. Mark is the man behind the whole enterprise and lives here with his wife, Sarah and their two kids, Grace and Aldin. Ben is currently working alongside Mark as the other guide and is probably one of the coolest people i've ever met! Fernando is the helper and does everything from washing dishes to scraping rooves to looking after the kids. The best part was that he went there to do his week long AVI 1 course and loved it so much he never left! Touche! Shirley was the cook, who provided breakfast, packed lunch for the mountain, post skiing snacks and a hearty dinner each day.  Last but not least was Rosie, the family dog, who joined us on the mountain every day. 

Grace and Rosie

Mark

Fernando

Ben - ALRIGHT!

Shirley planning our dinner, what a star!

Aldin - gonna be looking out for him in the future, he's nuts!

After the formalities of meet and greet, equipment check, premises tour, bed selection (last heli, there was one bed left, the squashed up on at the top of the stairs, good start!) and the all important mug selection, we kitted up and headed out to polish our new avalanche companion rescue skills in the powder field below the hut. We seemed to do alright (both tupperware boxes were still alive when we found them) and by this point it was about 2pm so we skinned up our skis and got ready for our first hike of the trip!

Skinning up before round 1 - did i mention it was DUMPING!!  One of my favourite scenic shots from our time at the Boulder Hut

Although there's no piste map, Mark has named the runs down the mountain, as its basically his own private ski resort! We headed up City Park for our first and only hike of the day. It took us about an hour to reach the drop in point so we excitedly deskinned and stood awaiting orders. Mark explained the avalanche situation and the route down, then led us off by ski cutting the first pitch then beckoning for us to follow. Cat-skiing was great, but this time we were excited for a different reason. We'd walked up through the area we would be skiing down so got to assess what our line choices looked like. The conclusion was that it was very hard to make a bad one. Wide open pitches with big larch trees nicely spaced made for a superb introduction to the terrain we were going to explore for the next 2 days. We regrouped at the bottom and threw some high fives and fist bumps and I even remember making the comment 'forget cat-skiing, that was insane!' The powder was similar to FWA, but instead of 20cm of fluffy pow then old crust if you went too deep, here it was an accumulated total of 30cm that felt bottomless where everybody was getting effortless chestshots with each turn. 

Contented smiles lingered on every single face and odd glances were cast at each other to acknowledge the sudden realisation that it was still absolutely dumping it down with no sign of letting up. The silence in that moment meant everyone knew that tomorrow was going to be incredible.

Lovin' it!