Late February Pow, Feb 28

Who would have thought! February ends with a big dump of snow (weekly total at Seymour almost 90 cm). Dawn patrol at Hollyburn to find 40 cm of well-bonded pow. The girl team out for a Thursday night snowshoe hike to Dog Mt through winterwonderland (sorry – battery dead – no pictures) followed by birthday celebration at the Raven. Yeha - girls rock!

And just in time before all the beauty gets washed away we sample the pow on the Coquihalla. After some exploring we head to the Needle Trees. Knee-deep, faceshots, and lots of smiles. Even the snow in the lower tress was quite acceptable. Unfortunately freezing levels are forecast to climb to 1700 m today (Sunday) - why do the fronts never wait till Monday?

Possibly more snow next week - March roars in like a lion!














Going under Coquihalla Highway


Ben's Tunnel

A Snowy Start for 2009

Pretty interesting weather this winter so far: barely any snow until mid December. Several huge snow dumps over Christmas. Usually temperatures warm up and snow doesn’t stay on the ground for long at sea level. Things were different this time when it stayed cold. Mountains of snow caused many problems for almost three weeks in town.

Looks like we hit the jack-pot with our week in the Valhallas just before the BC Interior got pounded by snow and avalanche conditions turned rather sketchy. After that we had some great days of skiing close to home on the North Shore while giving the usual stomping grounds a wide berth (where a loose and unconsolidated layer is lurking close to the ground).





Skiing above Vancouver




Howe Sound


Mt Baker in the distance




Playing near Red Heather






A good day when friends are where you need them!

Finally! SNOW! Mt Baker, December 14

Snow levels were dismally low this year, but finally a good dump at Baker gets the base to around 50 inch and the ski season begins. We don’t take part in the official opening. Instead we explore the Baker BC. Excellent weather, temps a bit on the cool side (especially after just being back from Mexico) and great knee-deep pow! Definitely ‘Best First Day of the Season’, possibly even ‘Best Baker Day, Ever’. Big grins and the occasional face-shots.

Lady Peak Hike - September 7

Lady Peak - Route follows scree slopes to ridge line on left

What a great hike up Lady Peak! Several plus points: You can drive to the alpine (albeit a 4WD is needed). Short approach. Exciting scrambling on the ridge. Excellent views over the Chilliwack Valley peaks, Mt Baker and down to Jones Lake. Everybody else hikes Mt. Cheam. Quite the crowd – the trailhead parking lot was full and vehicles were parking on the logging road.


Excellent ridge scramble on Lady Peak


Fraser Valley and Harrison Lake below


Mt Cheam

Needle Peak in Summer - August 24

Due to lots of paragliding (and parawaiting), we haven't done much hiking all summer. Finally the forecast was so bad for the valley that I could convince Pete to leave the wing in the car for one day.


Needle is the highest point to the right



Sampling berries on the way up.


Pete scrambling up the summit block. Flatiron Mt in the back.


On Needle summit. Yak Peak right above my head




You can see the front of dark clouds approaching but we were lucky and got off the granit slaps before it started raining.

Visitors from Germany: June 30 to July 14

Wow – halfway through the summer already!
The first half went by way too fast and has been very very busy.

My parents visited from Germany for the first two weeks in July. We got to do lots of hikes in and near Vancouver. First we wandered up the snowy slopes of Mt Seymour ski area to Brockton Point – watched even a few die-hard skiers and snowboarders!



Still lots of snow in the mountains - even for Canada!


A few days later we found an amazing patch of yellow glacier lilies just below Mt. Cheam.




My parents even came and watched us paragliding at Bridal Fall on the other side of the Cheam ridge – and as added bonus I finally got some pictures of myself in the air!


That's me in the air at Bridal (photo H. Schwab)


Kiting at Steveston (photo H. Schwab)


During the second week we spent a couple of nights at Tyax Resort in the South Chilcotins and explored a rough trail to Ault Lake. Rather impressive signs of bear activity everywhere – judging by the size it must have come from grizzlys!


By the way, this is PADDY, my new ride


My mum was much more happy back at the car and greatly enjoyed fields of orchids, lupins and indian paintbrush by the side of the road.




Jill and Robin (Pete's parents) came over from the Island for a family reunion and a Howe Sound cruise with circumnavigation of Anvil Island and seal rock visit.






But just like at home, my parents couldn’t sit still and spent every spare minute working on our garden – it has never looked that nice before!

Spius Creek: June 29, 2008

Nice to be on Spius Creek again, this time at a pretty low level. The good thing about the lower level was a much more leisurely pace and lots of time to enjoy the canyon scenery. The bad thing was that the run took 5 hrs vs a short and sweet 3.5 hrs last time. Last year with levels on the high side more focus was needed for the whitewater and I didn’t appreciate the amazing scenery quite as much. “Turbine” was the exception – it was a lot gnarlier at this low level and was portaged by half of the group.

Spius flows into the Nicola west of Merritt. The run is about 20k through an inaccessible canyon. More info can be found in my book....

Post from last years run.

Back in Vancover, BC

From shorts and T shirt to snow in less than 24 hrs! Quite the shock for the system. At least the sun is out - and we enjoy this during a short snowshoe hike on Mt Seymour, December 24.

Larches and Snow in Manning Park, October 14

Did a day trip up Frosty Mtn. (2406m). It’s a 7 hrs round trip; half of the trail was on snow already. After 7 or 8 km one gets into open larch groves. Larch needles change into a vibrant yellow before they drop in fall. Larches are the only trees that can grow at this elevation, but very slowly only.



A tree with a trunk of 40 cm diameter may be 2000 years old – supposedly the oldest trees in BC. They are more common in the Rockies; Manning Park is the western end of their range.



From the summit excellent views of countless snow-covered pointy Cascade peaks.