TLH Work Shift: Exploring

A few years ago I remember starving, surviving on cans of soup, no money in my pockets, and weeks away from any decent sum of money that would help correct my starving belly.  I skied in white-outs on huge broken glaciers that week, while stressing about the snowpack on the slopes ahead, and training for guiding and avalanche exams in the future.  This week of guiding made me remember back to that week as I've given so much towards guiding, skiing, and especially the mountains; but know how they give back more than you could ever expect.  This week filled my craving for exploring new areas, that feeling of being way out there, the need for feeling small in big places, and the feeling of the ground moving quickly beneath my feet.  

(Photo Above:  Mathieu smashing pillows on Trinity, The Matrix)

Starting out our week we began by taking our guests to ski pillow lines, 1000m tree shots with hundreds of diving boards to launch on the way down, and some big high speed alpine runs.  The snow felt creamy, and had that fantastic feeling of never ending length to each run, even though we skied comfortably as fast as our skis would allow.  

(Photos Above:  Conny shucking Oysters for Lunch, the view out Jervis Inlet from our lunch spot)

Taking a step beyond the norm of eating lunch below or on top of some massive mountain face, we stepped outside of the large glaciers, and flew to Jervis Inlet to land on the beach and pick Oysters.  A completely different landscape than what we were skiing 20 minutes ago, complete with seagulls flying over calm salty waters with steep mountains fencing the inlet on all sides.  It was too hard to believe we had skied a 1200m run on Mazerati Highway moments before, and now were standing with the ocean lapping up against our ski boots, while we picked Oysters straight out of the water at our feet.  After eating our fill, we were out through the Clendenning Range and back through to the Manatee for more enormous runs and pillow lines.

(Photo Above:  Mathieu speeding through the side of Mazerati Highway, in the Manatee Range)

(Photo Above:  Conny Amelunxen cruising through an endless glacier of interesting snow bridges and remarkable features.)

On the morning of our first group of guests last day, we had been skiing big curling glaciers, with beautiful and stable snow.  Conny spotted a line between two regular runs, that had never been skied, but with the conditions at hand looked like it went without too much fuss.  Within 2 minutes we had flown by and dropped off the top.  We threaded our way down between two patches of exposed ice, and to the helicopter, naming the line "Treaty of Ghent".  Another first descent on the list, and weirdly done without punishing ourselves climbing it first, a first for me (so I guess to the true pure FD is still up for grabs!).

(Photo Above:  Alan dropping in through the ice on the First Descent of "Treaty of Ghent")

(Photo Above:  Conny Amelunxen leading the charge down The Fasp)

Skiing with another group of guests, on a bluebird powder day, we lucked out and ended up spending a day in "The Gods".  The Gods are a massive array of broken glaciers, summit to valley ski descents, spines, and everything a real skier could ever ask for.

(Photo Above:  Alex Wigley warming up on Nectar, before heading to the Gods.  Photo Credit:  Randy Lincks)

Spending time in the mountains away from home helps keep my demons away, and keeps others close, as perfect conditions allow us to step into terrain that force us to realize how small we truly are.  I'll always give everything I could ever give to the mountains, because they give back more it so many ways, and sometimes in ways you would never expect.  This past shift made me remember that.

(Photo Above:  Mount Athelstan, The Gods)

First Descent: The Camel Toe Couloir

Unicorn

Definition:  A Fabled Creature, impossible to catch.

From 2007 to 2011, I've been trying to ski a line that has been burned into my memory, and constantly takes over my thought process when stable sunny weather arrives.  This line has become my so called "Unicorn," and has thwarted five attempts to ski it, making it even harder to think about.  The Camel Toe Couloir, as named by Jaime Bond when the Doglotion crew went out to ski it's neighbor The Supercouloir, is in my mind a crowning jewel of Couloirs in the Coast Range weighing at just over 1000m in length (1km long!).  (Photo Below:  The Supercouloir (left),  The Camel Toe Couloir (right))

The line itself is a quagmire of factors, all which must work together in unison, in order for an attempt to be successful.  It's far, requiring either multiple days to get in and out of, or a single fast pace day which will be very long and requires a serious alpine start, during the course of which conditions may deteriorate.  The conditions must be stable, as large avalanche paths run all throughout the valley guarding it's entrance and exit, not to mention the paths throughout the entire couloir, never giving you any point where you are fully out of harms way.  Temperatures must be cold, as most of the couloir is at a higher altitude, it's neverending length drop it quite low and wet avalanches can create a problem getting to the entrance.  Add all these together, and now you have half of the complex equation.  You will also be required to ski it in the early morning, before the sun hits the upper slopes of the couloir and surrounding area, so you aren't taken out by avalanches, and cannot ski it later in the evening as there are few places to camp in the evening and snow conditions crust over.  And the wildcard?  There is a hanging glacier with some creepy seracs hanging over the bottom ski out of the Couloir.  (Photo Below:  Trevor Hunt breaking trail over Garibaldi Neve)

Trevor Hunt, and myself, headed out early at 4:30am on April 22nd up the Brohm Ridge access road.  At 5am, we jumped on sleds and started to head up into the alpine.  It's pretty rare that I get on a sled (and my skill to drive one shows), but saving the never-ending skin up logging roads and flat ridges made for a great treat.  With the sun just rising, and daylight just cresting over the horizon, we quickly made our way past the Sharks Fin up on the Garibaldi Neve.  From there, we could see the top of our line poking out of the morning valley cloud.  With an incredibly long rolling descent covering 10km down to the base of the line, we were there by 9:30am.  (Photo Below:  Trevor Hunt skiing down the moraine to the steep valley to begin our climb) 

We put in as many switchbacks on our skins as possible, moving quickly to get out of the way of the hanging glacier seracs above, and racing the sun from destroying the snow.  When it got too steep, we began to bootpack and climb, for a long time.  The climb up the Couloir, was a wallowing knee deep sufferfest, up probably the longest Couloir I've ever climbed.  The crux, a 70cm squeeze through two boulders and some deep rock wells which guard various portions of the Couloir, made for some interesting climbing combined with some hard snow over ice.  All in all, we made our way up to enjoy a short 5 minute break on the top before clipping into our skis and skiing down.  (Photo:  Trevor Hunt, high up on the Camel Toe Couloir)

The first few turns into the Couloir were great quality snow, but quickly turned into hardpack chalk as it steepened to a mellow 50 degree roll before the crux.  Trevor managed to make his way through the crux with his skis on, doing some insane ski ballet, making it through unscathed.  With no snow leftover in the 70cm tight section, I was forced to downclimb a short 4 foot section but with our footsteps already kicked into the hard snow and ice we were on our way again.  Skiing great snow, with some sections of gritty snow, from safe spot to safe spot was enough to make the legs burn.  The length of the Couloir just kept going and going, and the experience that much more gratifying.  By the bottom, our legs were cooked, and we faced an 11km skin back up to where we left the snowmobiles.  (Photo Below:  Trevor Hunt shredding the post crux powder)

Skinning back, the heat beat us up pretty hard.  We were forced to stop and cool down three times, our feet soaked from the heat and exertion.  I ran out of water halfway out, then food, the sleds still far out of sight.  After 14 hours of moving, eating snow and pretending not to be hungry, we were back at the sleds.  A fast exit, made for a solid 14.5 hour round trip, ready for dinner and bed.  

It was fantastic to get out, with all the conditions and external factors of work, transportation, fitness, rest, etc, lining up to get to go push the body into this great Couloir.  A huge weight has been lifted, and another lesson in the mountains learned:  Failing time after time, it's the perseverance to continue trying which ends up breeding triumph.  Next mission....

Note:  We believe this is the First Descent, as we have researched quite a bit, so speak up if you know of anyone who has skied it, as we don't want to call first descent if it's not warranted!  We will call it "Possible" until otherwise.

Update:  Summer 2014, no reports of this ever being skied still, we're calling it:  First Descent.

First McBride In A Day - Video Online For Real!!

After much playing around, Craig has managed to hook this great video up of our First McBride Traverse in a day.  

Enjoy!

First McBride Traverse In A Day

            Last year the goal we had in mind was to complete the Mcbride Traverse in a single day.  If you haven’t heard of the Mcbride it is one of the true Coast Range classics.  The 70km traverse begins on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, and ending at Rubble Creek at the base of Garibaldi Lake, boasts approximately 5000m of elevation gain.  Most parties complete the traverse in about 6-8 days, although some really fast parties may complete in 3-4 days.  It’s previous speed record was approximately 48 hours.

Map Courtesy of Google Maps

            We left at 1:00am on April 28^th, from the Horstman Hut (a Blackcomb patrol hut), to get the first part of the traverse we knew quite well done by sunrise.  We had had a fantastic weather window that froze the upper snowpack, so travel was fast, but required ski crampons.  We kept the pace fast, trying to stay warm for the first section, and partly from excitement.  We arrived at the Naden Glacier, the descent into the first crux of the route, just as the sun began to warm the horizon.  Filling up the water bottles in the creek at the bottom, we downed as much water as possible, and continued on our way up to Mt Sir Richard, a long and big ascent.

Crux #1 Naden Pass to Sir Richard

 

View of the McBride Range from Mt Iago

            With the sun beating down on us now we were feeling pretty good at the top.  Topping out as high as our route would allow us on Mt Sir Richard, we bumped into some friends just waking up after spending the first night of 3 on the Mcbride.  They laughed at the size of our tiny day bags being so far out already. 

            Moving on towards the next crux (Drop Pass), we traversed and climbed through large gaping crevasse ridden glaciers, barely even having a chance to take in the beautiful views as we hammered by.  The day wore on, but by Drop Pass, we had run out of water and were ready for the first break of the day to brew up.  After 11 hours on the move, doing race transitions to keep the pace, stopping to air our feet out was great.  But no rest for the wicked as we had to keep moving as soon as our speedy Jetboil was finished its job and our water bottles were full again.

            Continuing on up our second crux of the trip, Drop Pass, we climbed our next monster climb, to regain our elevation we lost after a long ski down.  We skinned a ridgeline towards Hour Peak and its unbelievably gorgeous North Face.  I love this face, and skinning right by it was hard.  Being on the move for a long time now, we had pretty much found that solid food wasn’t going down as easily, and liquid food was the fuel of choice.

Hour Peak North Face & Route after Drop Pass

            Quickly finding ourselves at another crux of the route, Grey Pass, we descended through a series of massive benched convexities.  Picking our way through these benches, and crevasses, we were at our last uphill of the day.  Skinning up felt like we were done, but not yet!  Reaching the top, the massive expanse of Garibaldi Lake was in front of us.  We had lucked out with our timing, as the Lakes surface had frozen, and we were able to skate ski across to the head of the Rubble Creek Trail.

            Finding ourselves in darkness again, we put our skis on our back, and continued walking down the trail to the parking lot.  Just as we came into the parking lot, we were greeted by Lori, and Marcia with stew, water, cookies and fruit, we were pumped to be home. Video here.

Photo:  Craig McGee

First Mcbride Traverse In A Single Day

Time:  18: 21: 23

Left 2 Right:  Keith Reid, Alex Wigley, Craig McGee

Thank You To:  Dynafit, Blackcomb Patrol and Bernie, Lori, Marcia, Heidi, & The Escape Route