Magnificent Monday

Today was the best day of my life.


I seem to be saying that more often nowadays, but when the powder, terrain, company, food and even weather are as good as today, thats an equation with only one possible outcome. 


Yesterday, Ben decided it was time to determine a snow scale by evaluating how much was falling outside

1. Snowing - Normal steady snow
2. Dumpin' - Getting pretty heavy
3. Pukin' - About as good as it gets
4. Nukin' (exceptional) - 'Snowing so hard it gets in your ear!'

Last night, it was pukin'. All night. We woke up this morning already grinning. Everybody knew, we just didn't know how much. 15cm? 20cm? Nope. Try 35cm! The report from Mark was that the layer from yesterday was still powder too. The reason why? The snow we had last night was only 3.6% water, and for the record, thats about as light as it gets. It's so light it just sat on top of the existing snowpack, giving us about 65cm of blower pow to smash today. WOW.

The awkward moment when you have to kick down the snow barrier to leave the house.

After a top notch breakfast of porridge, eggs ole and fried potatoes courtesy of Shirley we kitted up and headed out. The plan for today was to get out a bit further out and maybe touch on a bit of the alpine skiing (above treeline). 

The sun broke through on the first climb to reveal the stunning mountain paradise we were in

Top of the first hike. Sun, snow, skis. What more could you need?

The first run of the day will be one i remember for a long time. The group split in two and i ended up being the first to go after Mark, meaning the fresh tracks were ALL mine! Words cannot express what i felt just then, but it was the best moment of my life all over again. You stand about knee deep, but add the slope angle and your easily waist deep, then add momentum you've got faceshots baby! The holy grail of powder skiing. Here's the GoPro of the conditions:

Its quite hard to tell how deep the snow is from a helmet mount. Luckily James was on hand with his camera and although the whole album is pretty incredible, here are a few gems: 

Steep and deep! Will in action

Matt likes his pow buttered

Matt's in there somewhere, honestly!

Wickham does it again, insane photo! Neck deep baby!

And the winner of the best snow beard goes to...

...Our very own Martin Vaivods!

Live for the faceshots, less than a second away!

Ruben pretending to be a snowplough

The rest of the day consisted of more of the same. On one pitch the snow was like a bouncy castle, launching you out of the snow on each turn before plunging back down into the depths of the white room. It was immense fun. Unfortunately, a little bit too much fun. Midway down that run we had been ordered to traverse left to cut over the top of some ice falls. I was skiing down trying to make sense of the tracks crossing all over the place when out of the corner of my eye i saw them all bunch together and take a sharp left. I'd missed the traverse. I slammed the anchors on and cut across, i was only the other side of a tree to where i should have been, but that was enough. As i made my way across to where i thought i could rejoin the traverse, i crossed over the top of a convex roll, which then avalanched the whole slope beneath me. A strange sense of calm washed over me, which was the opposite of what i could have expected, so i made a turn away from where the crack had propogated to and stopped out of the way, watching it roll down the hill. It was then i heard Ben yelling my name. He hadn't realised the slope had slid and thought i was merrily skiing off an ice fall. With a bit of communication we sorted out that the best plan was to cut across the top of the slope and down the gully we skied earlier in the day. After a private conversation with Mark, i turned around to see the damage, only to witness Leon skiing down the gully, having made the exact same mistake i did. At least i wasn't the only one! The assessment was that it was only a level 1 avalanche and only the new snow from last night had slid (enough to knock you off your feet, burial unlikely), but it was the hazard below that made it dangerous.


We skied out the day and Mark, who was not one to hold a grudge ensured we all learned a lesson from what happened, and was soon smiling and having fun in the powder again. After getting back to the hut, and with a little banter going down about the days events i ended up with a brand new nickname, courtesy of the one and only Mr Attwood. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce 'Trig':

'You're such a f**king trig!'

The Powder Pig is a special award for dedication to powder skiing. It is presented to the person who displays the most piggy behaviour on the mountain with no remorse or shame. It can be given for a number of reasons, but the main one is for the sly manouvres undertaken to worm to the front of the group to ensure that they get first tracks. Looking back over the entirety of the trip, there was only one person who fully deserved this award. Mark and Ben both mentioned that never before have they seen someone have to actually be physically restrained to prevent them from going first. That person was Will, who was presented with the pig tonight, and was forced to carry it on his pack all day today tomorrow. The pig also provides its holder with certain privelidges though, meaning Will would be able to go first again all day tomorrow. DOH!

I am ashamed to reveal that i have no idea what Shirley cooked for dinner tonight, but i know it was good. So good infact that me and Matt felt compelled to offer to do the dishes tonight. Another day at the Boulder Hut nearly done, there was just enough time to seranade my compadres before heading out to the casa for some well deserved shut eye

One more thing. Its dumping! Goodnight.

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!

Ich bin kaputt!

Nothing much really happened today. Most of the buses were empty with a lot of the guys from the 11 week course still in bed or nursing their collossal hangovers. We met Dwight for the lesson and headed up the mountain for a few runs. We stayed on the old side all morning  and hit some fresh lines through blueberry trees etc. It was very strange skiing. 4cm fell overnight and gave just enough of a dusting to give the authentic powder feel, but then you would hit patches of old hard snow and your technique would be all over the shop. It was like going back to week 1 again! More of the same followed until a lunch in Corner Pocket.


After lunch we had a few more runs before traversing into Upper Easter. This pretty much broke the group. After a week of touring, cat-skiing and jumping we were all feeling the burn, so headed down for a cheeky beer with Dwight before the bus home. The Old Nurses Home was hosting tonights entertainment, but the plan to hit the town quickly deteriorated as the sleep deprivation kicked in and several people started staring at their eyelids. Oh well, there's always next week. We leave for the boulder hut in 2 days so tomorrow will be a chillout session with the possibility of a walk up to one of the towns surrounding peaks to avoid the vast crowds utilising the Alberta family weekend and heading to Fernie for some pow.

Skin deep

Three days ago our Latvian representative Martin hulk smashed his way through a touring binding, so he made another attempt yesterday with the snowboarding group. Likelyhood is that the binding was faulty, but EXACTLY the same thing happened to him again! Martin was also set to be touring today, but due to the second equipment malfunction, i've taken his place in todays group.


The day didn't get off to the best start...

IDIOT!

It wasn't too bad as you get two forgotten pass freebies before you have to start paying for them. The day quickly got better though as we dropped out of bounds into the huge boulder field at the foot of Mammoth Head. We skinned up through the boulders- some of which are the size of houses - and upon crossing one, a loud 'whumpf' broke out of the snow and a crack split about 20m across. It definately scared Will who was pretty much on top of the slab at the time! It was still safe to continue up the pass, and after we summited we deskinned and ripped our first fresh powder line of the day right into the bottom of Mongolia bowl. Great fun, no going back now!

The complete ski touring route, tracked with GPS.

Time to go up again, and Steve had thoughts of some first descents further afield into Outer Mongolia bowl. We were all pretty keen today and making good progress up the climbs - our technique has improved massively from the first baby steps of only 3 days ago - so were all up for heading out into the wilderness a bit further from the civilisation of the ski area boundary. It was a pretty long hike out but rewarded us with some great powder lines. The end of this took us to pretty much the furthest point we were going to go, it was still a very long way back to resort!

We skinned up the first pass back out to Mongolia bowl and hugged the tree line we spotted on the way over this morning. It was a great shout and before long we were slashing powder lines through the trees like we owned the place

One more skin up and we're back within the reaches of Fernie Alpine Resort. It was a long ascent but we managed to reach the pass in 40 minutes, ahead of schedule, so we decided to get some extra vertical and reach the highest point of Mammoth ridge that you can ski from. Turned out to be a great idea and gave us some awesome fresh turns on the way back into resort. In reality, the avalanche risk was quite low, but in the backcountry you take EVERYTHING seriously, and i have to admit, standing on that ridge ready to drop in and watching sluff coming off the cliffs above, i was pretty nervous!

Once we were down we headed straight for Corner Pocket for some apres ski entertainment. The 11 weekers have had their level 1 instructor exams all week and get the results today, so there was plenty of beer going down and some live music to kick things off. Its been an exhausting but awesome day in the backcountry and looking out the window at the snow falling with a beer in hand and a smile on my face, i sat there a very happy man. Congratulations to all the newly qualified ski/snowboard instructors, good job!

Hot Chocolate!

I never had high hopes for this morning. I got the late bus to make a few transatlantic phone calls and headed up to meet some of the guys that weren't touring today. I had it in my mind that it would be a fairly steady day so i'm still fresh for the weekend. We did a few runs on the old side, taking in some awesome groomers which absolutely ripped today from the fresh snow, before moving onto some runs down Cedar bowl to try and find some virgin powder left over from yesterday. It was pretty slim pickings! The guys in resort have done a pretty good job of covering the ski hill with brand new tracks.


In the afternoon we stumbled on James and Will, who were spending the day with Matt, one of James' friends who did a Nonstop program last year and is now working as a ski instructor in Fernie. A quick mention of a photoshoot on the 'Hot Chocolate' jump (decent size tabletop - a good 20ft to clear) had me interested straight away so i switched groups and went off to try my hand at some jumping. One sighting run later i skied in and sent it, clearing the knuckle by a good few feet. The choices for sessioning the jump were either bootpack back up the run in, or drop down to the White Pass chair and do some skiing on the way. We did the latter, meaning we only had a total of 3 attempts each. The last two were all about style points though, i don't think i did too badly!

Love this shot! Credit to James for the photo

Tucking it like a boss

Afterwards, we did the rappel down Corner Pocket to ski some fresh lines in the top of Lizard bowl, which was pretty good fun and a great way to finish the day. A well deserved beer in the sun on the balcony of the Griz bar was in order and so ended another great days skiing in Fernie Alpine Resort. I love this place.

FWA - The perfect valentine

Today was the best day of my life.


Thats quite a statement. I'm pretty sure that its correct though. The atmosphere was even apparent at a sleep depriving 7am breakfast, the gods had decided today was going to be a good day.

Early morning bus ride to the FWA lodge. BUZZING!

The FWA Lodge

As soon as we arrived we were welcomed and beckoned inside. The lodge looks exactly how i remembered it, and nothing could make me happier to be back. The van was loaded and tranceivers issued, and as we came round the corner into the main bowl of the cat-skiing area, all the cloud had vanished and we were left with a beautiful bluebird sky. We parked up and looked at our ride for the day, and it was one bad ass piece of machinery. 14 people in the cab, quite an achievement!

The pimp wagon

The lodge, the ski area and bluebird skies. It does not get much better

Ready to go get some boom boom pow!

First off we we taken up to a small pitch to get our powder legs back having skied groomers and moguls for the last 2 weeks! We were taken through a few house rules and then clipped in and went for it. At this point, we knew 20cm had fallen overnight, but we weren't quite prepared for just how good those 20cm were. The silence was broken by whoops and hollas from every direction and when we regrouped the high fives were thrown and stupid grins beamed across every single face. The photographer, Courtney, thought this was hilarious and was laughing at us the whole way down. She obviously didn't know just how hungry for powder we are!


The next few hours were an eclectic mix of powder slashes, hucks off cliff bands and windlips, tree lines and furious GoPro defogging. Instead of trying to find words to describe today, its probably best to relive it through some of the many photos and GoPro edits that were taken throughout the day. The full set can be found at FWA Cat-Skiing Feb 14th 2012 Photos Here we go!