VKC Whitewater Festival, May 2-4

Preparation is in the final hectic stage. This will be quite the party – lots of on-water and of-water activities (playboating and canoe polo sessions, fun-race, nature walks, boat demos), Chili for dinner, a band, tons of gear to give away and raffle off. Now if only the water levels co-operate during the weather escapades this year. But with water or without, this will be an excellent weekend! More info on the VKC website.

Winter is back. Part II. April 18-20

Wow – what a tease! A week ago temperatures climbed to 20oC. We made the best of the sunny weekend sending a couple of routes in Cheakamus Canyon and paddling our skinny kayaks over to Gibson.

Then on Friday evening a snowstorm hit Vancouver turning Central Park into winter wonderland in April.


Cypress only got skimpy 10 cm, but Seymour received 25-30 cm of cold fluffy pow! Made for a couple of nice turns before the sun came out and snow got heavy.

Powder Spring - March 29/30

This year brought spring ski conditions in February and now that spring is here the POW is back – yehaa! It was cold and rainy in Vancouver last week, but with a nice forecast we were off to the Duffey Lake again. Saturday was probably our biggest b/c day ever – over 2000 meter vertical. While south faces were getting cooked by the March sun, the north holds lots silky smooth POW. An avalanche path was visible from the road on a steep ridge line, so we keep exposure low on smaller features around tree line. Not wanting to repeat the chilly night experience in the tent from two weeks ago, we drove the short way back to Mt Currie and came back for another powder day on Sunday.

More pixs coming soon

Monashee Pow – March 24/25

Winter has come back to BC – so we signed up for a last-minute deal at Monashee Powder Adventures for some cat skiing over the Easter weekend. The Monashees are known as part of the powder belt. Just like two years ago when we enjoyed over 170 cm of new snow during our week at Sol Mountain Touring we were not disappointed.


Top of the World!

Our mixed crew (Kelowna, Kamloops, Burnaby, Friday Harbor, Florida) met in Cherryville. Since the MPA school buss had sustained irreparable damage Pete got to drive the more dependable company Suburban to the trailhead. But his hopes of also steering the cat up the hill did not pay out. Nevertheless – he got to ride in the co-pilot seat while the rest of the crew in the back watched the fun-o-meter pendulum indicate increasing levels of delight.


Co-pilot Pete


The Fun-o-meter


Pete is clearly exited!

What is else to report? Very friendly and helpful staff, fantastic gourmet food (never had an organic buffalo steak like this before), hot tub in the snow and most importantly endless flights through fluffy pow. Just enough time in the cat on the way up to rest our legs, eat a bite and get ready for the next run. And there is huge terrain to choose from – we didn’t even put a scratch in the snow. 17,000 acres for our tracks only (that’s more than twice the size of Whistler/Blackcomb). Too bad our time wasn’t really endless. The two days went by so fast and the season at MPA is over!


Cold Smoke - ready, set, go!


My line


Mr GS turns from Friday Harbor


Good Work!


On to the next slope


Yeah... looks good!


Pete stirring up some pow


That's what life is like with 70! Every day! Actually Jim is 71 and skis 90 days a season


Don't have to wait till 70!


Matt sampling the pow


Last run of the day


Apres ski after dropping some frozen waterfalls - no, not we... a bunch of kids


Snowmo lessons befor driving back down the hill, self-serve style