From Roger's Pass back to Vancouver

As according to the plan, we stayed around Roger's Pass since the powder was soooooooooo nice and light!

We again teamed up with Piet to go towards Hermitt area to ski some fairly steep and nice powder.

This is quite a classic run and one of my Roger's Pass favourite so I was pretty stoked to head back this way.

As we expected, the run was steep and deep.

After a final night staying in our car up at the Pass, we now went for one of Amelie's favourite: Teddy Bear.

The 20-30cm that have fallen in the past days haven't been skied and we really had fun. 

We only had one lap since we were going to a family dinner with my cousin that are living in Kelowna. 

After having a lot of fun we had to tackle the road to drive back to Vancouver from where she was flying at 8h30 the following morning. We really had some crappy weather and what is usually a 3-4 hours turned into a 6 hours drive. 

We finally arrived in Vancouver at 3h30AM. We stopped at a gas station from where Amelie packed her gear. At 4h30AM we totally collapsed in the car for a 2 hours nap. 

I finally dropped her at the airport at 6h30 and after a short nap, I headed to the local mountain of Cypress with my friend JS that lives in Vancouver since some new snow has just fallen overnight. 

This mountain is located about 20minutes from town and while having a small size resort atmosphere certainly has a really nice and gnarly backcountry that certainly please the locals when the snowpack is nice. 

Unfortunately for us, the warm temperature from the past days has created a really hard crust keeping us inbound.

Etienne and Nic, two of my friends are arriving tomorrow night to join me and JS for a little roadtrip. There is a huge system coming around Mt Baker in Washington state and it looks that it might be our next stop.

Cheers, 

evans

Roger's Pass still delivering it!

As planned, we stayed around Roger's Pass. The nice snow, cold temperature and the hospitality of our new German friends, Piet and Joerg made it a no brainer to stay around. 

Living at the top of the pass is something I truly appreciate. The surrounding mountain, the snow, wandering around in the morning trying to figure what would be the best plan for the day while measuring the different options, being kicked out of the Roger's Pass Discovery Center at 17h00 to go out to the parking lot to cook or just moving out to the bar at the Glacier Lodge Hotel are all part of the daily routine.

Piet came with a nice idea that would involve hiking to the bottom of the Connaught Creek drainage to a pass and skiing down to the road. The weather was really nice and we figure this hike would be a nice idea. 

With the sun slowly but surely dropping, we start skiing down the west face of Cheops down to the Transcanadian highway. I was really glad that the German had this idea since it was a really nice run. 

It offers a steady long steep run and in bonus you got some free vertical as you just have to hitch your way back.

Piets and Joerg came with another great idea for the following day so we decided to tag along! We hiked up to ski a run called Frequent Flyer. This avalanche slidepath offer a really nice and steady pitch on which I have looked but never give it a go. 

The run was pretty much as plan and after Joerg assess the snow stability, we gave it a go!

Those non-stop days of skiing as led us to another classic of British Columbia: the Aquatic Center!!!! 

Japan may have onsen, but a lot of the towns of BC have an aquatic centre with hot tub, steam room and sauna for about 5$. There is no better (and/or cheaper) way to spend a day off the slopes and refresh the legs than this place.

                              

With new snow on the forecast, we figured it would be a better idea to drive up to the pass to spend the day up there than to try to drive our rental car with threadless 4 seasons tire rental up the pass in a snow storm.

On the morning, we had the great surprise to woke up with some really nice and light snow falling gently into the crisp morning air.

Piet as he was looking for ski partners since Joerg was nursing an old injury. We agreed to go give a try to McGill Shoulder since the visibility wasn't so nice.

After a rather long hike on which Amelie complains about the length, we finally got to the top. 

We traverse and got to a glade that was looking very good: wide opening with only few trees that was totally untracked. Seems like the hike was quickly forgotten by Amelie who was quite excited about skiing some of the nicest snow she hasn't skied in a long time!

We were all quite surprise about the amount and the quality of the snow! 40cm of 3.6% density of new snow had finally fallen windless where we were skiing. I guess you can't really hope for better snow.

We only have 2 more days left on this leg of the trip before having to drive back to Vancouver from where Amelie will fly back to Quebec. With prime skiing conditions, we'll most likely going to stay around Roger's.

Cheers, 

evans

New and old love!

A warm front was forecasted just as we were arriving in Vancouver, so first thing we did was to check at the airport which direction to take for the best snow. We finally made up our minds for the Duffey road area located about 45minutes north of Pemberton. 

After getting our rental car at the airport we headed to my friend JS' apartment for a little rest.

JS was to join us with two of his local friends from Vancouver, FX and Hugo. We left Vancouver at 5h45 in the morning to start the 3 hours drive. 

The skiing domain around the area is really extensive and it looked a bit as the Roger's Pass of the West Coast. The plan was to hike up Rohr ridge and find some lines.

The hike was quite straight forward and not too long for a first day out. 

Excited as we were, we skied late in the day on some really nice and creamy snow. I was really stoked to have my first turns of the year out in the backcountry. 

                             

Since the warm temperatures weren't too present, we decided to stay around and camp at the top of the pass to ski another day. 

The area definitively got some nice terrain. There is also a bunch of cabin were one can stay (Keith's Hut, Wendy Thompson Hut)and use it as a base camp. 

Our second day brought us a bit more warm temperature. As we got to the car, the snow was almost falling as rain. 

                             

                             

Amelie and I splitted from JS who needed to go back to work. We drove towards Lillooet to check out the weather forecast and buy some food. The forecast was now calling for colder temperature around the Duffey area and 15-25cm of snow. 

We made a plan to go back up there since the weather was quite promising. 

As we got to our trailhead, we realized that the weather forecast might has been a bit too optimistic for the freezing level to drop down since the temperature was about 1deg. We slapped our skins on nevertheless and start climbing towards Joffre shoulder. 

As we were climbing, water drops were coming down from the trees and the snow was really wet. The ski didn't look so good but we kept going anyway. After an hour or so, trees stop raining on us and the snow started to look a bit better.

We finally made it up to the top of the run with a bit more motivation than previously expected. That motivation quickly disappear as we struggled finding good lines on the way down. We hit heavily treed area, cliff band and hard-to-ski pillow lines. The early season snowpack didn't cover much of the obstacles and I had some early season skill to ski it!!

                                            

When the terrain eased up, we finally hit the really wet and massively tree-bombed forrest. 

We were both disappointed by the run we just made and the absence of the new snow that was forecasted and the persisting warm temperature cut our love story with the Duffey area. I am really looking forward to come back in more decent temperature to further explore this area.

I haven't hit Roger's Pass for 2 years now and I figured it would be a great way to celebrate my 30th anniversary so we drove East towards arguably the best backcountry spot in Canada.

We were rewarded with some rarely seen weather at the Pass: -5deg, blue sky, no wind…. and about 40cm of light powder! 

Damn I have miss this place!!! The mountains, the terrain…. and the light fluffy powder! As a starter, we played it safe and headed to Teddy Bear Trees. We silently carved turns in the bottomless powder until we were too tired to climb. 

I had expected a classic Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce for my birthday dinner cooked in the parking lot of Roger's Pass, but that was before meeting Piet and Joerg, two Germans who were living in a RV up at the pass and invited us for dinner! 

I certainly had one of my best meal ever up at the pass!! I certainly couldn't have ask for a better way to spend my birthday!

The forecast looks promising for the next couple of days so we will most likely stay around for few more days!

Cheers, 

evans

Kick-off of the 2012 snowchasing season!

Seems like 'real' life start catching a bit on me! Various obligations has delayed this year start the latest since I started snowchasing 7 winters ago. A real busy fall both at work and at school have combined for my most out-of-shape early season ever... To help things up, the warm temperatures brought in the Northeast by La Nina has brought some really bad early season skiing conditions in Quebec cutting a bit my motivation to train... Goodies from the sponsors did get me a bit more pumped up at my upcoming season but it still didn't put me in decent shape....

Nevertheless, I finally catch a plane with Amelie today that would get us to Vancouver. I will stay around BC and Washington for about 3 weeks depending on the precipitation. I am quite stoked to be back after not skiing in North America for 2 years. Revisiting some of my favourite area and trying to explore new spots are on the plan.

Following this journey, I will catch a plane to Kyrgyzstan where I will be joined by my dad for a three weeks trip. This ex-soviet republic is surrounded by China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and more than 60% of his landscape got mountain over 3000m! This should be quite an experience and I am really looking forward at this stretch of my winter!

On the way back from Central Asia, we'll stop for about 2 weeks in Europe for another little roadtrip depending where the snow will be. The only thing sure for now is where we are landing and departing.

View SC2012- Destinations in a larger map

If everything goes well, this will get me to the last stretch of my winter to Alaska where I will be first joined again by Amelie for the first two weeks for a roadtrip around Anchorage. The 2 last weeks are still a bit uncertain, but a final plan is getting prepared with Babiche somewhere between Anchorage and Cordova.

Kicking off another world tour!

Stay tuned, 

evans