Hemlock Lady's Day

I lucked out on my latest visit to Hemlock, a small ski resort near Harrison Hot Springs. The North Shore Mountains got rained on, but Hemlock had +30 cm fresh snow. I took my sweet time to contemplate if the conditions warranted the longish drive. But when I drove up the last bit of steep and windy road to increasing amounts of fresh snow I regretted not coming earlier. To my relief the lifts were not moving. And one of them didn’t run all day. So with a little walk over to the side of the closed lift I enjoyed powder turns and face shots all day. On my last two runs just before 6pm I only crossed a couple of other tracks. Almost too good to be true!

A shame to leave all this untracked pow behind, but it was 6pm! My tracks are the two wiggly lines ;-)

All Pow(d)er to March

So this Pineapple express finally cooled down enough to turn the wetness into snow. Up to 80 cm of it dropped on the Coquihalla (Whistler only received a meager 10 cm). After much studying of snow/weather/temperature reports I (reluctantly) joined friends for a day at Needle Peak. My resistance against inertia was rewarded! It wasn't quite effortless hero powder and skiing required a bit of work but there were deep turns and plenty of face shots and lots of smiles. Welcome back, winter!

Yours truly stirring up some pow (BW picture)

More Pineapples - March 12

We are in the middle of another pineapple express, or atmospheric river, as Cliff Mass calls the warm air masses laden with high water vapor that originate near Hawaii. For us in the Pacific Northwest it means days of heavy rain. Next glimpse of sun is forecast in 7 days. Oh well, its called Wetcoast for a reason. But couldn't the temperatures be just a little colder so it would snow on the local hills?

Atmospheric river

First Sping Thermals - March 10

Great flying on Saturday and lots of pilots out!

After an hour and a half I get bored of bumbling around launch and go crosscountry (although there is some excitement when a pilot loses control of his wing and lands in a tree). Cloudbase isn't that high, but I find a lifty line towards Agassiz Mt and from there across to Bear. There I climb to 1200 meter and head across the Fraser River towards Ludwig. Although I know that my chances of arriving high enough to climb out are slim, I have more than enough altitude to safely cross the river and land on a gravel bar next to Pete and Kevin. Great scenery, nice flight and first time for me to cross from Bear Mt (though next time I should stay a little more upwind on the crossing).

Landing with Pete on a Fraser gravel bar. Very left skyline is Bear Mt, where we came from.