Great Blue Herons - March 27

On our way back from the highway we noticed herons in the tall tree along our route. During the week I went back for a photo session one evening. Several dozen birds were doing various heron things: their courtship rituals, fighting, nest building. When I came back a week later the short window of photo opportunity had closed: the spring leaves were out and hiding the birds and their nests.

March Powder Fest

This season snow coverage was sub-standard for a long time but in March the white stuff finally started flying. Pete and I took a day off to visit the Needle Trees on the Coquihalla. We started breaking trail in 50cm fresh snow, getting deeper as we got closer to the skiing meadows at 1400 meter. Because it was so good I went again with a friend two days later. In two days it had snowed enough to cover our tracks completely. Skiing was even better so I went for a third trip with yet another friend. Only one or two other parties had been at Needle during the week and there were still plenty fresh tracks left for us. Yea to the weekday warriors (and sorry to everybody on a fixed work schedule).

Baker Pow Day - Feb 19

After a very slow start to the ski season now comes the snow! Two friends and I head to Mt Baker for an exceptional day of powder, as good as it gets for a busy ski resort. 270 cm fresh snow in 9 days. The North Shore mountains in Vancouver get their share with well over one meter fresh fluffy pow. On the weekend we visit the big trees on Hollyburn mountain. Although the snowpack is still on the shallow side the quality of the 40-50 cm fresh powder was excellent. The last weeks of February feel like ski vacation skiing on 10 out of 12 days. But its even better than vacation; with my season pass at Cypress I don't feel that I have to put in a full day to make it worth the expense of a ticket, I can leave when I'm tired or don't like the snow anymore.

We got so much snow that some highway passes had to be closed due to avalanche danger, including the nearby Coquihalla highway. The area received over 3 meters of snow in 9 days. The highway department set of huge controlled avalanches and there were a few surprises with natural ones too (including one class 4), luckily nobody got hurt.

This is reminding of the weather four years ago when the Olympics were in town. For the first week there was only little coverage and snow was trucked to Vancouver. In the second week it started snowing and some events like xc skiing struggled with too much of the white stuff.

Four years ago the avalanche conditions were so touchy that we even considered cancelling our ski trip to Fairy Meadows. Strange enough like a small island of safety the immediate area turned out to be rather stable. The high hazard made us stay on conservative terrain but not a group of young skiers on the trip who decided to ski a bunch of steep couloirs and triggered a sizeable slide. All they got was a big scare but it could have ended much worse.