Too wet and windy for flying? Too warm for skiing? Load up the kayaks and go for an afternoon paddle on Capilano and Coquitlam River. Good levels, good fun. Pete got lots of playing in on the Cap. Even though the air was relatively warm, the water was a little too chilly for my taste and I decided not to do anything that would get my head wet. Gotta love Vancouver - something to do in every kind of weather!
After getting into skiing mode at Mustang we spend 3 days skiing at the Gorge near Sicamous. Last year the road wasn’t plowed and access by car was not possible. This year we could drive all the way up to 1500 meters, so our plan was to make the best of it before it got snowed in. We explored a couple of new areas and skied lots of trees with more or less mellow slopes and a big open bowl further along the road. The snow conditions were nice.
Boot top pow on the north slopes, while the south exposed areas were getting cooked by the sun. Great weather, sweet snow – not much else one could wish for! After 3 days at the Gorge we met up with friends in Revelstoke and skied the NRC gullies. It was snowing pretty hard, and the slopes did not disappoint. The second day in Revy was even better. Our local friends led us to a stash well worth the 1200 meter climb to it.
Best pow ever! Light, 'crotch' deep, with a nice (hero) base. Every turn sent snow flying over our heads, in our mouth and face. It took me a couple of turns to get the timing right: breathe in when rising; breathe out when weighing the skis. Too bad the days are still short and there was only time for two runs. More snow fell the next day so we chickened out and left the intimidating avalanche slopes of Rogers Pass for the trees at the Gorge. Nice skiing, but the snow was getting a little heavier each day. On the last day shooting cracks all around us in the low clear cuts. A sign that the buried hoar was very active and a warning to stay in low angle treed terrain. A great week (9 days) of skiing, with a total of 19750 meters elevation gain (includes 9450 m cat-skiing, as warm-up to get our skiing muscles in shape ;-)
Yeah – powder time! After checking the snow conditions and forecast I started looking for some last minute cat skiing spots and found an opening at Mustang Powder in the Monashee mountains.
Why cat skiing? Well, I always complain about limited vacation time, so we have to put our days off to good use! Cat skiing gets you way more vertical than muscle power. With a good guide it also gets you the best pow without having to deal with crappy snow. Last but not least, I was skiing runs that I would find rather intimidating without local knowledge.
Our guide Matt and the tail gunners JP and Heidi definitely delivered the goods! Excellent service at the lodge where everybody made us feel at home. Amazing dinner after the days of hard skiing. Relaxing hot tub in the snow.
But be prepared to get up early – to make the most of the short days, we switched our watches to Mountain Time, got up in the dark, had a good breakfast and climbed in the cats just before sunrise. But the pow was well worth the alpine start.
