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