Snow

Ice Climb Field BC

This is a frozen waterfall in Field BC. The Field area has a profuse number of waterfalls. Located on the 401 near Lake Louise the town in winter only sees the sun for a few hours each day. Its pretty cold there in mid-winter.

Lots of elk around on the flats and they frequently get hit by semi trailers at night.

Most of these waterfalls or seeps drain huge avalanche bowls and thats pretty standard for the Rockies….so there is sometimes an added challenge to the climbing……..use common sense and try to avoid the x-factor.

Ski Touring West Coast Style

Mt Ipsoot near Pemberton pretty easy trip just your average weekend ski-mountaineering 4000 vertical 15-20km weight haul maybe 40 pounds but if you loose the tent and just take bivy gear thats about 7 pounds off the back. If you loose he camera gear thats another 5 pounds. If you take a summer bag thats another 2 pounds saved. etc

However

If you like to carry weight over hills you can contemplate this….. a guy I knew carried two 1 pound jars of hot Thai sauce over the Lillooet Icecap on a 3 week ski-mountaineering trip from near the Lord river to Meager Creek….and really didn’t think anything of it. Extremely strong guy big thighs.

Storm Ski

The new year and skiing in storms. Wind whipping down the alley of dawn. High winds can deposit powder pillows and cornices on the leeside.

Climbed with a guy from Milan once (Guido Serra) told me a story of a group that skiied to the top of Monta Rosa in the alps around 5000meters just after a storm they gathered on the summit for a photo, 15 of them, the cornice broke and they disappeared leaving only the photographer behind. So if you’re a photog try to stand in the middle of the summit. eh