New Years Goodness at Backcountry Snowcats

If the rest of 2011 is anything like the first two days then buckle up 'cause we're in for a wildly awesome ride. Think big tastey meals, 2 meters of snow consolidated into boot deep hero butter, blue skies, and, well you get the point. We were lucky enough to join a group of catskiers for an memorable Whistler catskiing weekend at good'ol Backcountry Snowcats.

After a mellow moonlit sled ride up to the lodge, the night ended with bowls of unfinished chocolate fondue and untapped champagne... the first hint of how keen everyone was to shred the next day.

As expected, we awoke to bluebird skies from horizon to horizon, so we moseyed our way up the cat roads for lap after lap of sunny pow and good times. The leisure shredders milked the mellow pow for all it was worth while the pillow hunters killed their daily quota of powder pillows. Somethin' for everyone.

Just in case that wasn't enough, day 2 yielded more of the same. How often do we get 2 consecutive bluebird days in January? No complaints, that's for sure, and looks like we're onto #3 today. In a resort setting you'd be begging for pow by now, but with 15,000 acres of terrain and 13 skiers, we were doing just dandy.

The secret is out of the bag and Backcountry Snowcats is now on the radar for catskiiers from here to Norway and back, but the vibe remains super casual and there's still a bunch of good date openings for winter 2011. Get on it while you can...

Pow, Fondue, and Sunshine - Backcountry Snowcats New Year's 2010-11 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

Freshies, Romance, and Rain on Mt Baker

Story written by Jamie Bond, Doglotion.com:

We've skied three times this month... the driest July on record... and it rained or snowed on every trip. How does that work? This trip we hit fresh snow on the last day of July, for real, atop none other than Mt Baker, Washington, USA.
Tired of the Squamish lake scene, Lotte and I were due for a couples retreat, and nothing says romance quite like a summer shred trip to Mt Baker. Horse flies, heavy packs, long hikes, freak snow storms, and an agressive 'learn as you go' intro to everything about ski mountaineering. I know ladies, jealous right? Oh, did I mention packing out your own poo? Need I say more, I think we have a winning combo here. All the magic ingredients for a good couples weekend.

Freshies, Romance & Rain on Mt Baker from Doglotion on Vimeo.

We made the call for a 2 day trip, hoping for a casual pace, some wicked views from the alpine, and of course some sweet volcano sunset action. The first we got, the 2nd was obscured by inpenetrable forest fire haze, making the third - the sunsets - out of this world. With blue (and orange) skies as far as the eye could see, we went to bed confident that Day 2 would be a sunny walk in the park.
Fail. Throughout a sleepless night of constantly finding new ways to hide the food from the mice, we couldn't help but notice a lot of headlamps working their way up the mountain. "Slow-ass mountaineers" we thought to ourselves. "Afterall, they need to walk all the way back down right? Suckers." Or did they know something we didn't?

We set out later that morning, continuing up goat path of the Coleman Glacier and up the Roman Headwall.

But just as we climbed the headwall, and all but 1 climber had worked their way back down, some ominous clouds rolled in for visit. Seemed like a good time to throw on more than a t-shirt, when baaam, it started snowing, pretty hard up top, to the point where it was accumulating and even covering our skin track and part of the bootpack. And probably raining on our gear below...
Debating if we should be stoked about freshies or getting the hell out of Dodge, we loitered up top in the storm, hoping it would subside, or at the very least leave us some good new snow. But alas, windy and snowy summits aren't the best places to kick back and relax afterall, so we gave up the wait and headed down for the goods.
Fresh snow on slush made for a funky 3 inches of snot glued to our skis for the first few minutes, but that eventually gave way to some fun but blind spring-storm style skiing the rest of the way down. We had lollygagged on top and in the fog so long that we didn't pass a single mountaineer!!! Ouch, who's the sucker now. But it sure was fun, with glory corn the whole way down the Coleman, minus some big suncup sections to keep you on your toes.

Like any good ski trip ends, we picked up our wet gear stash and... cough... bagged poo, and hiked back down Heliotrope Ridge to the car. Mission accomplished; a perfect text book execution of a romantic couples retreat eh?

No wait, we'd better seal the deal by camping 2 more nights in the same wet tent and gear, not showering, and scaring ourselves on some unfamiliar crack climbing at Index, Washington. Love is in the air. Can you feel it?

See full story at: http://www.doglotion.com/freshies-romance-and-rain-mt-baker

Half Nelson

Squamish welcomed a new mountain bike trail this past spring. "Half Nelson" is basically a 3km downhill pumptrack which can be ridden as fast or as hard as you like. Although it's rated difficult, intermediate and beginner riders will enjoy this trail just as much as an expert rider would.

You can find the trailhead just off the Ring Creek FSR, up the hill from Quest!

Here's a clip of the ride:

Half Nelson - Squamish May 2, 2010 from Lee Lau on Vimeo.

March 2010: Skiing

In March 2010 a group of friends managed to pull off a weekend of catskiing with Backcountry Snowcats once again up on the Hurley Pass, an hour snowmobile ride north of Pemberton. The snow conditions were a little firm to start, but a storm system came through the same time that we did bringing us some incredible snow. Here’s a little video from our trip:

Sweet Cat-Skiing at Backcountry Snowcats, Pemberton, BC from Doglotion on Vimeo.

A few of us girls have been riding on some new Rossignol skis this year – the Voodoo Pro BC 110. They are so incredibly easy to ski, I almost feel like I'm cheating. If you haven't tried them yet, you should! They ski well in all conditions and I recommend them 100%. But this recommendation comes with a warning - once you've tried them, there's no turning back! Here’s a little video of us testing them out on the west coast powder this past ski season:

Ski Review - Rossignol Voodoo Pro BC 110 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

February 2010: India and the Olympics

Three weeks in India made for an action-packed February 2010. Although my blog focuses more on the Squamish area, I thought I might as well throw in a few words about India since it’s a pretty incredible place you don’t get to visit all that often. Quest joined a 10-day Education Tour, which involved visiting schools in Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi. We had a successful recruiting trip visiting a wide range of schools and meeting some wonderful students along the way. I was also fortunate enough to visit the beautiful Mahindra United World College just outside of Pune.

A very warm welcome at Starex International School, New Delhi

What a beautiful country! I wish I had more time to explore the different cities, but instead, decided to finish off the trip with a vacation up in Northern India – in Kashmir of all places. Vacationing in Kashmir does indeed sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but that is indeed how I decided to spend my time off. My husband and I joined a group of friends who were spending the entire winter in Kashmir at a tiny resort called Gulmarg, documenting the skiing in the area along with life in Kashmir (www.b4apres.com). Unfortunately, an enormous avalanche had just come down a few days prior to my arrival killing 17 army men at an army base nearby leaving me a little frantic upon arrival in Srinigar. Luckily they had just cleared the roads the morning I had flown in, making my trip from Srinigar to Gulmarg fairly seamless. The drive up the mountain pass did however involve a few tea stops, a car tune-up and a chain-up stop, but that’s really about as seamless as you can get in this area!

Gulmarg, India

Gulmarg is a small Himalayan ski resort that lies on the border of India and Pakistan. It was just recently developed in the late 90’s and only has one gondola, which is divided in two stages: Stage 1 was completed back in 1998 and takes you up to an elevation of 2600 meters, while Stage 2 was only completed in 2005, bringing you to an elevation of 4000m (13,000ft) – making it the highest gondola in the world as far as I understand. Stage 2 was unfortunately closed for the entire length of my stay, with the exception of one day. The line-ups were of course a little hectic with everybody wanting to get at the untouched powder, but I finally made it up to the top, bringing myself to the highest elevation I have ever experienced. I couldn’t tell if my breath was short due to the altitude or due to the breathtaking views at the top! The skiing was incredible and well-worth the wait. With the alpine not being open the rest of our trip, we instead earned our turns in the backcountry hiking up to nearby hills, and then skiing down to various villages, running into monkeys and army men along the way. In the villages, we would stop for tea and then work our way on finding a ride back to Gulmarg which always turned into an adventure in itself (and often took longer than the actual skiing did). Every night we looked forward to our never-ending dinners of daal, paneer, butter chicken, korma, garlic naan, gulab jamun, just to name a few of my favourites. Mmmm, take me back to India for the food alone!

Phase 2, Gulmarg Gondola

Before flying out of Srinigar, we decided to explore the city a little and stayed on a houseboat for a night on Dal Lake. After checking into our floating hotel for the night, we enjoyed a late afternoon shikara boat tour which took us out onto the open lake looking straight up at the Himalayas, and continued through to the floating markets. Kashmir is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and I feel blessed having had the chance to experience it. With the Kashmir conflict still present, it may still be some time until the flocks of tourists come to explore this area. But in due time it will happen – no doubt.

Shikara on Dal Lake, Srinigar

After an action-packed three weeks in India and looking forward to some quiet time back in Canada, we instead returned to the madness of the Olympics! We jumped right into the action and attended a number of hockey games in Vancouver as well as 4-man bobsled up at Whistler. Having lived in Vancouver my entire life, I have never experienced the city so alive. People had come from the entire world to check out the Games. Admittedly, I was not all that excited about the Games after they had made the bid a few years back, especially since I had to deal with the never-ending construction on the Sea-to-Sky Highway almost on a daily basis. But now looking back at it, it was definitely worth it.

February was anything but a month lacking boredom (and people)!

Taj Mahal

Here are a few clips from India:

Kashmir Skiing Recon Mission – Part 1 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

Assault on the Senses - POV from India + Kashmir from Doglotion on Vimeo.

Here’s a quick little video highlighting the spirit of Vancouver during the Olympics:

Insane Crowd POV - 2010 Olympics Hockey from Doglotion on Vimeo.

Mid-Year Review of 2010: January 2010

Ah, where has the time gone? 2010 has been one busy year to say the least. Between recruiting students from around the world and reading applications back at the office, I have nonetheless still found some time to play in my Squamish backyard and also overseas. I figured the best way to catch up on my blog is to try and capture some highlights for each past month of 2010.

I suppose I should start with January! January 2010 included my first ski trip to Revelstoke, a town in the interior of British Columbia, roughly an 8hr drive east of Squamish. What used to be a sleepy mining town and railway hub has now turned into a mega ski resort. The resort has just been built up over the last few years and now boasts the longest vertical ski descents within North America. We went out to sample the record-breaking terrain, and were not disappointed, although my legs were definitely burning!

The Rad Boob Club was also out at Revelstoke selling their fabulous 2010-2011 Girls Freeskiing Calendar with 100% of the proceeds going towards breast cancer research. Although most of the sales took place before the new year, the girls were still selling their calendars into the new year like hotcakes! If you search hard, you can even find me hiding in the calendar! I was pretty honoured to be a part of this inspiring project.
Here’s more beta on how the project got started:

We are a group of female skiers that met in Golden, BC. While skiing together we realized that by combining our contacts and skills we could put together an amazing women’s ski calendar and raise a significant amount of money for Breast Cancer research. We are ski coaches, professional skiers, big mountain competitors, nurses, young professionals, students, and more. We are all passionate about mountains and live to ski. We are constantly inspired by the people around us and hope that as skiers we can still make a difference in this world by raising money for a great cause and inspire others to lead healthy and active lives. Check us out at www.radboob.com

Another reason we had gone out to Revelstoke this particular weekend was to check out the 2nd stop of the 2010 Subaru World Freeskiing Championships. This was the first time Revelstoke had been used as a venue for the championships and the final venue took place in a backcountry area which involved all skiers being flown to the top of the run by helicopter. The terrain looked incredible, and based on the skiers’ reviews, it sounded like a pretty enjoyable run, especially for a freeskiing competition where conditions can often be less than ideal.

Here's a video from the competition:

Revelstoke - 2010 Freeskiing World Tour Stop #2 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

January 2010 also saw the 5th Annual Deep Winter Photo Challenge held up at Whistler. The competition was tough, but without a doubt, Jordan Manley, reigning champion “King of Storms”, stole the show once again. Here are a few of his pics:

Over 9.6 meters of snow (31 feet) this season!

See it to believe it! Check out some of the videos below:

Bringing in the New Year at Great Canadian Heli Skiing from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.

An Early Winter Surprise!

November is usually a great month for watching movies, catching up on crafts, reading good books and trying out those new recipes you've been saving for a rainy day - all in anticipation for the ski season to start. Sure enough, Mother Nature called for an early winter this year. It's only mid-November, and the mountains already have the snow coverage you would expect to see in January! Whistler-Blackcomb opened this past weekend, two weeks early with a record early season base. That recipe is just going to have to wait.

Even the backcountry in the Squamish is good to go. But we weren't the only ones to realize that - Remembrance Day saw a full parking lot at Garibaldi Provincial Park, just up the road from Quest. But that didn't stop us from reaping the goods! The clouds parted and the sun peeked out, exposing a marvelous winter wonderland totally unexpected for this time of year.

And it ain't stopping! Check out the Whistler forecast below:

Whistler Alpine Recreation Forecast

Alpine recreation forecast for the South Coast Mountains issued by Environment Canada at 2 PM PST Monday 16 November 2009. The next mountain forecast will be issued at 5 AM Tuesday. Synopsis.. A very intense front will remain stationary over the South Coast giving heavy snow and strong winds through Tuesday morning.

Whistler - Blackcomb.

Tonight..Snow heavy at times. Blowing snow. Alpine low minus 5. Snowfall accumulation 20 to 30 cm. Freezing level lowering to 1000 metres. Mountain top winds southeast 60 km/h gusting to 90 increasing to southwest 90 gusting to 120 around midnight giving near zero visibilities in snow and blowing snow.

Tuesday..Periods of snow. Alpine temperature falling to minus 7. Snowfall accumulation 5 to 10 cm. Freezing level 900 metres. Mountain top winds southwest 90 km/h gusting to 120 giving near zero visibilities in snow and blowing snow. Winds diminishing in the afternoon to southwest 30.

5 Day Trend.. A series of frontal systems will move across the South Coast through Friday.

Extended forecast for Whistler - Blackcomb. Wednesday.. Cloudy with flurries. Snow beginning late in the day. Snowfall accumulation 15 to 25 cm. Freezing level 1200 metres. Thursday.. Periods of snow. Snowfall accumulation 25 to 35 cm. Freezing level 1200 metres. Friday.. Snow. Snowfall accumulation 15 to 25 cm. Freezing level 900 metres.

Copyright 2009 Environment Canada.

How the time flies!

view from the top of Joffre Lakes

Time flies when you're having fun... I guess that explains where the summer went (and why I haven't updated my blog in ages)!

Looking back, this past summer all seems to be a blur of mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, gardening, visiting the farmer's market, swimming at the local lakes, BBQing and away on island weekends and friends' lake cabins (...plus getting ready for the 100 students we welcomed in the Fall!). Not a bad way to spend a summer!

Squamish town center

East Indian festival in Squamish - celebrating Guru Arjun De Ji with loads of free, tasty food.

Quest summer students enjoying dinner on the residence balcony.

Nothing beats a summer weekend at Savary Island, BC!

Savary is also known as "BC's Hawaii"

Climbing at the base of the Grand Wall on the Chief

at the top of the Chief

kite boarding at the Spit in Squamish

Mountain biking in Squamish (kiting and biking photos courtesy of Sabrina Horak - thanks Sabrina!)

Squamish was also just featured in the New York Times last week: http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/near-whistler-a-place-to-play-for-less/?ref=travel. Uh oh - the secret's out!

Squamish Summer Solstice

I love the long nights this time of year. After work it feels like I have another entire day in front of me! We've been taking advantage of the long sunny days these past few weeks by getting out climbing, hiking and mountain biking most evenings. You can even kiteboard into the evenings on the windy enough days.
Diedre: 7-pitch climb up the Apron of the Chief - super popular route, but we had it all to ourselves in the evening!
biking in Crumpit Woods
Kiting at the Squamish Spit One evening we even pulled off climbing "Rock On" a 6-pitch 5.10a classic on the Chief just before the rain and darkness kicked in.
Gorgeous Squamish granite I have to go up this?

Nothing beats Gelato Carina's in downtown Squamish on a warm summer's day (Mango yoghurt is DELICIOUS!)

Catskiing with Backcountry Snowcats

I managed to pull off a 2nd catskiing trip with Backcountry Snowcats on the Hurley Pass north of Pemberton this winter, and the weekend did not disappoint! We had an epic weekend of pow and sunshine. I think the video and photos say it all:

Backcountry Snowcats from Grant Baldwin Videography on Vimeo.

Squamish Bouldering Co-op

Squamish has a new bouldering co-op that just opened this past winter. Squamish residents finally have a place to keep in climbing shape over the winters and rainy days! The space is located in downtown Squamish and is 1600 ft and 16 ft tall. Membership goes at $500/year, with drop-in rates and student rates also available.

Every time I've been so far, I run into Quest students! Apparently they are regulars. Yah Quest - rock on!

Bella Coola

Bella what? Bella Coola is a small town on the central coast of British Columbia known to be an isolated wilderness paradise. Although it's not quite in the 'Environs' of Squamish, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post this incredible video Jamie made from his trip up there the other week... another tough day at the office!

WAITING for snow

'Waiting' seems to be the theme for this winter. Sure, we've had the random 10cm days, but no major storm has come through yet to cover all the rocks that are usually covered by Christmas. Hmm... I hear the iceclimbing conditions have been pristine in Squamish this winter...

I was, however, fortunate (VERY fortunate that is) to get invited on a 2-day Backcountry Snowcats trip up on the Hurley Pass! This snowcat operation is located over an hour snowmobile-ride north of Pemberton, and little did we know that the powder has been hiding on the Hurley this whole time. Check out our video:



I'll admit it was pretty hard to go back to resort skiing after the epic powder runs we scored with Backcountry Snowcats, but I guess I shouldn't really complain that my local hill is Whistler Blackcomb. Zipping around the resort was pretty fun, but by the end of the day we were itching for the untracked turns we had experienced the weekend before. We decided to hike over to Corona Bowl for a fun backcountry lap:



I still have faith that the snow will come in March and April - just you WAIT!

Has Ullr abandoned us??

I unfortunately haven't had too many exciting stories to share from this season, as it has, well, been a fairly dull winter for us skiers. We did get pretty spoiled these past few winters, so I suppose a less-than-epic winter was bound to happen.

While the rest of the Pacific Northwest was getting hit hard with all the snowstorms in December and January, Whistler somehow managed to stay magically dry. We therefore kept our eyes open for what was happening at other nearby resorts, and heard that the snow had found its way to Mount Baker down in Washington. We therefore bolted down south of the border for their opening day, and wow, what a good call! Mount Baker is only about a 3.5hr drive from Squamish, and well worth the drive. Here are some photos and a video from the Opening Day at Baker:

Since then, we’ve been making the most of the season with the minimal amount of snow that we have received at Whistler Blackcomb. The avalanche danger has been incredibly high the past few months, so we had no choice but to take it easy and stay in bounds in avi-controlled areas.

The Peak Chair and the rest of the alpine on both mountains finally opened two weekends ago, and it’s been great having more terrain to ski. We also finally rode the new PEAK 2 PEAK gondola spanning the Valley, connecting Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. This new gondola just opened in December 08 and has broken all kinds of records, including ‘longest unsupported lift span’ at over 3km, and it’s also the highest lift of its kind at 436m above ground at the highest point. Two of the 28 cabins even have glass bottoms! We should have waited the extra few minutes for the glass bottom – maybe next time. PEAK 2 PEAK is definitely not recommended for the faint-hearted!

At least the weather has been sunny and gorgeous these last few weeks. Some keen Quest students have been taking full advantage of the good weather, and getting out climbing most days! Yep, you can actually climb outdoors in Squamish in January believe it or not!

And the good news is that Winter 08/09 may still have hope – it snowed 25cm over the past 24hrs, so let’s pray that Ullr and all the other snow gods keep sending us more of that fluffy white stuff!!