Wet stuff - Jan 9 and 16

Leave-less trees and sunshine on the Coquitlam

Too wet and windy for flying? Too warm for skiing? Load up the kayaks and go for an afternoon paddle on Capilano and Coquitlam River. Good levels, good fun. Pete got lots of playing in on the Cap. Even though the air was relatively warm, the water was a little too chilly for my taste and I decided not to do anything that would get my head wet. Gotta love Vancouver - something to do in every kind of weather!


The Coquitlam starts with a bang.

Backcountry at the Gorge and Revelstoke – December 27 to January 2

After getting into skiing mode at Mustang we spend 3 days skiing at the Gorge near Sicamous. Last year the road wasn’t plowed and access by car was not possible. This year we could drive all the way up to 1500 meters, so our plan was to make the best of it before it got snowed in. We explored a couple of new areas and skied lots of trees with more or less mellow slopes and a big open bowl further along the road. The snow conditions were nice.



Boot top pow on the north slopes, while the south exposed areas were getting cooked by the sun. Great weather, sweet snow – not much else one could wish for! After 3 days at the Gorge we met up with friends in Revelstoke and skied the NRC gullies. It was snowing pretty hard, and the slopes did not disappoint. The second day in Revy was even better. Our local friends led us to a stash well worth the 1200 meter climb to it.


Best pow ever! Light, 'crotch' deep, with a nice (hero) base. Every turn sent snow flying over our heads, in our mouth and face. It took me a couple of turns to get the timing right: breathe in when rising; breathe out when weighing the skis. Too bad the days are still short and there was only time for two runs.
More snow fell the next day so we chickened out and left the intimidating avalanche slopes of Rogers Pass for the trees at the Gorge. Nice skiing, but the snow was getting a little heavier each day. On the last day shooting cracks all around us in the low clear cuts. A sign that the buried hoar was very active and a warning to stay in low angle treed terrain. A great week (9 days) of skiing, with a total of 19750 meters elevation gain (includes 9450 m cat-skiing, as warm-up to get our skiing muscles in shape ;-)

Mustang Pow – December 25/26

Yeah – powder time! After checking the snow conditions and forecast I started looking for some last minute cat skiing spots and found an opening at Mustang Powder in the Monashee mountains.

Why cat skiing? Well, I always complain about limited vacation time, so we have to put our days off to good use! Cat skiing gets you way more vertical than muscle power. With a good guide it also gets you the best pow without having to deal with crappy snow. Last but not least, I was skiing runs that I would find rather intimidating without local knowledge.

Our guide Matt and the tail gunners JP and Heidi definitely delivered the goods! Excellent service at the lodge where everybody made us feel at home. Amazing dinner after the days of hard skiing. Relaxing hot tub in the snow.

But be prepared to get up early – to make the most of the short days, we switched our watches to Mountain Time, got up in the dark, had a good breakfast and climbed in the cats just before sunrise. But the pow was well worth the alpine start.


Getting up at the crack of dawn


Guide Matt points out our next line


Boarder Bliss


Steep pitch


Pete enjoying another run


Racing down to the cat


Pete made new friends

Hawaii Big Island, December 12 - 19

In December we visited friends who had moved to the Big Island. What a treat to escape the wet and cold Vancouver for a few days! We kept ourselves busy with something different every day and there was a lot more to - we could have easily spent another week. Here is what we did:



Snorkeling/diving: definitely my favored activity. Cool corals, countless colorful fish, clear water. In many places the reefs are close to the surface and unless you are Pete and want to see how deep you can dive, you can just float and watch. Big sea turtles gliding by. Moray eels poking their heads out of holes. Went to Richardson and Kukio (?) on the Hilo side. This is the wet (east) side of the Big Island. Fresh water from creeks mixes with the salty ocean water in bands of limited visibility. Once past (or below) these bands the water was clear and warm. We saw quite a few sea turtles. I almost didn’t notice one of these fellows on collision course while I was scanning the bottom for interesting sea live. Quite the surprise when I looked up and saw the turtle just a couple of meters in front of me. On the Kona side we explored Captain Cook (Kealakekua Bay) and the Place of Refuge. Amazing. We also went on a guided manta ray night dive near Kona. The dive was spectacular as well, but the rays didn’t show. An excellent excuse to come back next year.




Hiking, high altitude hiking, scrambling: A few hikes, including one that left us rather breathless on top of Mauna Kea (4200 meter). Even the little car had some problems getting up that high (the road goes almost to the top). Another hike lead us close to the active volcano, pu’u oo and involved some interesting scrambling over hollow lava (aa and pahoehoe).



Caving: we explored the long Kaumana lava tubes near Hilo

Other activities included riding mountain bikes (great that our friends have such a good selection of gear!) to Green Sands Beach at the very south tip of the island, body surfing, swimming, kite-flying, sailing at Hilo Bay, and paddling. We even managed the make use of our wings at Captain Cook. Local pilots were very helpful to get us in the air. Unfortunately a combination of smoke from a local wild fire and ‘vog’ (volcanic smog) prevented the formation of good thermals and we had to content ourselves with a couple of sled rides (short flights without altitude gain).

What else? It was great to spent the days with our friends and have them as tour-guides and to stay at their place. Nice to soak up some sun and heat before returning to the cold Canadian winter. Excellent views of stars at night (street lights are dimmed to reduce light pollution for the observatories on Maua Kea). Delicious food (for example at the traditional Manago Hotel in Captain Cook). A pre-Christmas trip to some place warm needs to be permanently added to our yearly schedule!