Bridal Falls, March 6/7

How is this for a rational: rivers too low for paddling, no fresh snow for skiing in the last couple of months and a crappy weather forecast – so lets do the most weather sensitive activity and go flying?!

Guess after the reports of excellent conditions during the week the need for airtime for us weekend warriors was too great, and we did a couple of sled rides before and after rain showers. And I finally succeeded in capturing some more footage with my wing-cam (both the Mino and Vado have intermittent problems with freezing and not recording when left to themselves for longer periods of time).

Fairy Meadows, February 20 - 28

Lunch on Granite Glacier - Fairy Meadows Cabin is on the small forested bench (moraine) above Greg's head and the icefall

We spent an excellent week at Fairy Meadows cabin (north of Revelstoke and Golden, BC); lots of luck with weather and avalanche conditions! Bluebird skies for the first three days provided ample opportunity to explore the high country (Granite, Nobility, Echo, Gothics Glaciers) and cols and passes (Friendship, Pioneer) including an ascent of Sir Williams and to get some nice runs in. Visibility went downhill when new snow started falling midweek - time to look for pow in Swan Creek and Outpost trees.

Before the trip we were somewhat nervous about reports of touchy and unusual avalanche conditions all over the place. Remote slides set off by helicopters, snow cats and skiers running on slopes as low as 20 degrees angle, skiers triggering slopes that had already slid. But the group ahead of us skied aggressively and had seen little activity. We took it easy at first and later skied intermediate terrain without major incidents. But of course there are always exceptions. Among our 19 cabin-mates was a group of four young and keen couloir-droppers who managed to ski-cut what was maybe a 2.5 after skinning/boot-packing up a line. The slide wiped out their entire uptrack. Fortunately the ski-cut went well, but the kids stopped dropping couloirs for the rest of the week.

In summary, a great week of skiing with excellent alpine tours and somewhat limited tree skiing. But Fairy Meadows is not the place where you want to be stuck in poor visibility and/or bad avalanche conditions, so spring trips are probably a better bet.

More photos here


Fairy Meadows cabin (lower right) with Granite and Nobility Glaciers in the background


Friendship Col


Looking north from Sentinel Shoulder to Granite Glacier


Pete disappearing in pow of Swan Creek Trees