A Reluctant Arrivederci to Winter

A friend told me recently, “all good things come to an end”. Being a fun-seeking, hedonistic person I dedicate most of my time and energy to ensuring that my life is chock full of good things all the time, thus if one ends, another quickly takes its place. In the case of winter 2010/11 it seemed like a great thing that really never would end. In fact, I am being dragged away from freshly powder dusted steep skiing in the coast range by a pre-planned climbing vacation to Italy. Sob story right? Your heart is just breaking for me right now, I know it.

But seriously, what a winter! Before I can feel good about entirely switching seasons, I feel compelled to pay homage to what was a truly amazing winter in terms of snow quality, mostly good stability (at least where I spent my winter), and great days in the mountains with friends and clients alike. This post is a series of images, beginning with the end of the Valhalla Mountain Touring season in late March and ending with my last day on skis for this winter.

Last day at Valhalla Mountain Touring – Solo skiing sunshiney pow with my furry pal Benny and good tunes. Although it feels wrong to wrap up with dry snow on the ground, it’s always a relief to complete another safe season and move on to other ski venues.

First stop after leaving VMT was a quick hit at Rogers Pass to ski for a day with friends training for their AMGA Ski Guide Exam. We skied some great runs off Cheops in fantastic snow AND both friends subsequently passed their exam, bringing them coveted IFMGA status.

Peter and Silas emulating Euro ski guides in every way including fashion. I think their pants could have been a bit tighter to really capture the look though...

Silas raps in to the STS Couloir on Cheops

Peter keeping a serious eye on the anchor as Silas raps in

Apparently the anchor is bomb-squad because it held me and my end-of-season quads in overhanging terrain. Silas Rossi photo.

Part way down the STS couloirs. Great line, great snow, great views.... great BIG hands. Are my hands really that huge? Silas Rossi photo.

After Rogers Pass it was time to head home to Squamish and some Coast Mountain fun. First stop on the coast was the Aussie Couloir on Mt. Joffre with Cece Mortenson and Andrew Rennie.

Cece skins up next to the Matier Icefall

Endless bootpack up the Aussie Couloir. Luckily for us there were literally 7 people in front of us to stomp in the bootpack. Unfortunately they also skied all the snow off the run too... but let's face it, the bootpacking is really the best part.

Andrew on the upper section of the Aussie Couloir

Three climbers on the cloud-shrouded ridge of Matier as viewed from Joffre.

Cece and Andrew getting ready to drop into the licheny-rock lined entry to Heartstrings on Mt. Taylor, our bonus lap after skiing the Aussie Couloir.

The next mission was also on the Duffy Lake Rd. with Cece. Because the weather was looking iffy we decided to bring Benny, who was going into powder withdrawal after a few weeks absence from Valhalla Mountain Touring where he porpoises the pow daily. It's always tough on the coastal ski days to leave him at home, but since many of the tours involve time on glaciers I just can't justify risking him wandering into a crevasse. Benny pretty much always listens to commands.... unless there are other dogs, rabbits, pine martens, wolverine, goats, food or animal tracks of any kind within sniffing distance, not that you would ever encounter ANY of these things on a ski tour. I do find it pretty funny that I choose objectives with his safety in mind, and then he proceeds to straight-line everything even if there are 20' cliffs. He also likes to dig out his resting spots right on the edge of cornices... best vista point for scouting rabbits I guess. Yup, he's kind of the client from hell, but he just LOVES to play in the snow, gives unconditional love, and he's really, really cute so I just can't resist bringing him most of the time.

Howling winds on Mt. Slalok and the Matier Glacier

Cece and Benny leaving their distinctive signatures in the valley after a sweet run on Joffre’s North Shoulder.

Cece and Benny celebrating on the tippy-top of Mt. Chief Pascal.

Cece and I enjoying each other’s company AND enjoying our tunes out on the slopes. I feel so fortunate to belong to a community where finding motivated partners who are willing to get up at 4:30AM to play in the mountains OR stay out till 4:30AM dancing is not usually much of a challenge. Cece and I may have done both in the same day together once this winter...

Finally after two weeks of waiting I got a day off work that the weather was good enough to ski the north face of Slalok. Accompanied by Katy Holm (not to be confused with the married to Tom Cruise Katie Holmes... this Katy is way cooler) it was an amazing day with face shots the whole way down the huge run.

North Face of Slalok. Yummy.

Katy skinning up the ridge on Slalok, with Joffre’s numerous couloirs in the background.

Katy partway down Slalok

Next two-planked outing was a rare day of skiing the lifts at Blackcomb and Whistler with my Dad. He has spent the last few winters in warm, snowless places so despite countless past ski adventures and misadventures, we haven’t gotten out together in a long time. While riding the chairlift up he told me about the first time I tried skiing. I was around 3 and he strapped tiny plastic skis on me and slid me down the pile made by snow sliding off our metal roof. Apparently l giggled like crazy. It’s nice to know that 27 years later skiing still has that effect on me.

My Dad. I hope I'm still shredding like him when I'm almost 60!

At the Peak Chair in Whistler, a strange spring phenomenon was witnessed....

Hey, quack here often?
I guess the lifties are getting bored by this time of year...

Next up in the family fun department was a visit from my Mum for a few days. We embarked on the Spearhead Traverse which she easily rocked in a 9 hour day. Her remarkable endurance never ceases to amaze me.

My Mother rocking the cotton tee on the Spearhead Traverse. If it's Patagonia Organic Cotton, is it still death cloth?

Note the cowboy in the background. I hired him to carry and serve our picnic complete with wine. Actually I didn't, but that would have been a great idea. There's always next time!

My last day on skis for the season was pretty special because it involved guiding three teenage rippers on their first day of backcountry skiing. We ventured into the Blackcomb slackcountry and did some basic avi training, talked about mountain travel and skied some cool runs.

First skin up: big smiles, fresh legs, "backcountry skiing is awesome!"

Second skin up... the boys were whistling a slightly different tune.

Well winter 10/11, I guess that’s it for us. Our time together is really over. Thanks for the deep turns, the steep turns, the stormy skies, the bluebird days, the shot-ski sessions and dance parties and thanks especially for the opportunity to enjoy time in the beautiful mountains with great co-workers, guests and friends.

Liquid Courage and Beer Goggles: two new runs at Valhalla Mountain Touring

The day had gone so well, maybe that was the problem. My Mum was up at Valhalla Mountain Touring to visit and ski while I worked as the lodge custodian for a self-guided group. I had had my eye on an unskied couloir for the whole season, and stability and weather were looking good, so I figured we'd ski it together since it didn't appear steep or difficult. Just a pretty rock-lined narrow powder run in a beautiful setting. As I parked us on the exposed ridge that leads into the run, my Mum started having second thoughts. "Hey Jas, I need some liquid courage" she said, laughing. I passed her a beat up brandy-filled chocolate from the bottom of my trail mix bag and she washed it down with some black tea from her small thermos (she doesn't drink water while out ski touring) and was ready to rip.

We dropped into the line, which had great snow and beautiful overhanging rock walls on either side of it. When we got to the bottom, I asked her what she wanted to call it, and she decided on "Liquid Courage".

First run of the day - some powder turns to warm up for the goods

Benny and Bella dropping in on Liquid Courage

My Mum shredding

With plenty of daylight and energy left, we began touring up to ski another run in the same cirque as our newly discovered gem. To the left of Liquid Courage, a steep snow headwall loomed that looked skiable with great snow. Enter the Beer Goggles. See, from the uptrack the run looked like Jake Gyllenhaal - sexy, with just the right amount of scruffiness. When we peeled our skins and I dropped in to the entry I realized it was actually Seth Rogen, all scruffy, no sexy. Way steeper than I had thought and with my first few turns I kicked off a thin windslab, leaving firmer snow beneath. Knowing that she was not psyched for the sustained mid-40 degree pitch with firm snow, my Mum skinned back to where she could access some mellower terrain, and I did the walk of shame down "Beer Goggles", partially loving the steepness of the run, but feeling bad that I had misjudged the severity of the terrain. We enjoyed a few more good runs, before heading back to the cosy staff quarters at VMT, ending our day as all good days in the mountains should end, with wine, tasty food and a warm fire.

Just another first descent for Benny, at the bottom of Beer Goggles in flat light

My partner in crime for the day, the coolest mother ever!

VIMFF Best of the Fest

If you want to see a slideshow about my Greenland trip last summer, I am presenting it at the VIMFF Best of the Fest Wed March 30 at the Pacific Cinemateque in Vancouver.

http://www.vimff.org/pagedesktop.asp?portalid=5&pageid=80

Precious days in the mountains

Here's a video Evan put together from our last few days of touring at VMT. Pretty exceptional snow. The recent loss of a friend and fellow guide reminded us to savour every turn because you never know how many days on this amazing earth are left. Hope you're skiing endless pow and climbing perfect rock somewhere, Andrew.

Summer 2011 Climbing Clinics for Women, Men and crazy people who want to climb big walls!

I've spent the past few days clipping bolts in the sun in Red Rocks, enjoying a brief but amazing respite from winter. All this warm rock has got me thinking about how much I love climbing and how psyched I am for the coming summer of guiding and climbing in Squamish!

Here's my clinic list for the summer. If you are interested in a day of private instruction or guiding, or would like to sign up for one of these clinics, please contact me at: jasmincaton@gmail.com.




June 4-5 Trad/multipitch techniques. $275 for 2 days.
Gear placement, anchor building, multipitch station management and much more!

June 11 Rock Rescue. $175 for one day.
What to do when the sh*% hits the fan? If you are multipitching it's your responsibility to know your stuff! This course covers escaping the belay, improvised rope ascending, improvised raising and lowering systems and rappelling with an injured climbing partner.

June 18-19 Big wall and aid climbing tactics. $400 for 2 days, 2:1 ratio.
Want to climb The Nose on El Cap? I can help you learn how! Clean aid climb leads, jumaring/cleaning, rope management, hauling, dropped poop bag dodging (not really).

June 25-26 Crack climbing technique for women. $275 for 2 days.
From tips to chimney, hand jams to butt-scums, learn the movement skills to improve your crack climbing surrounded by a crew of like minded ladies. Includes a BBQ on Saturday night.

July 1-2 Trad/multipitch techniques $275 for 2 days.
Gear placement, anchor building, multipitch station management and much more!

July 3 Rock Rescue. $175 for one day.
What to do when the sh*% hits the fan? If you are multipitching it's your responsibility to know your stuff! This course covers escaping the belay, improvised rope ascending, improvised raising and lowering systems and rappelling with an injured climbing partner.

July 9-10. Crack climbing technique for women. $275 for 2 days.
From tips to chimney, hand jams to butt-scums, learn the movement skills to improve your crack climbing surrounded by a crew of like minded ladies. Includes a BBQ on Saturday night.

Hope to see you this summer!

VMT video

Some smart person said, 'do what you love, love what you do'. It's a philosophy I have taken to heart, and something that I chant over and over to myself neurotically while scooping my dog's poop off the uptrack, digging out stuck snowmobiles, sponging pubic hairs off the sauna floor and other tasks that spell G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S (or glamoUrous if you are Canadian, which obviously Fergie is not).

Anyway, a few weeks back had an absolutely magical week of "work" at Valhalla Mountain Touring. Minimal 'glamour' maximum good times with great snow, great food and an awesome mix of guests who came from far away, exotic lands like Barrie, Ontario and Anchorage, AK to sample the Selkirk Powdeur.

One of the guests, Skai Dalziel, is the owner of Whistler Tasting Tours and put together this sweet video from the week.

When work and play are the same thing: days off ski touring at Rogers Pass

Evan and I had a few days off from slaying pow at Valhalla Mountain Touring this week so we decided to take a vacation to the ski touring mecca of Rogers Pass. You would think we would want to lay around and eat pizza and watch TV on our days off, but no can do. Apparently we don't get enough exercise and excitement at work. At any rate, we couldn't have planned it better: clear skies, a recent dump of snow and a pretty stable snowpack gave us a chance to sneak up several classic ski ascents over the past few days.

Our first day at the pass we headed up towards Mt. Rogers, where we hoped to stay warm on south faces in the -20C temps. Lucky for us a few other ski guides on their days off had broken a killer skin track and bootpack up the south face of Rogers. We met up on the summit, found out we knew a ton of people in common and then enjoyed a 2000m ski run back down to the highway together in lovely boot-top pow. Gotta love that.

Evan enjoying the view towards Sir Donald from a rest on the Tupper Glacier

Descending the gut-wrenching knife edge from the summit of Mt. Rogers

Descending off the summit in my pink suit

Enjoying the descent in the sun

Evan posing with his wiggles in the background

After having such a fun day on Rogers we decided to brave the shady side of the highway and head up the Asulkan Valley towards Young's Peak. We had our sights set on Forever Youngs, a classic couloir slicing the rocky massif of Young's Peak. Sighting crowns from a recent cycle on many, but not all, of the slopes around the ski objective we changed our plans to climbing and skiing the Seven Steps of Paradise, the classic descent of Young's into the Asulkan Valley. After freezing our fingers, faces and skins off we finally made it up into the alpine and even got to break trail to the summit of Young's, a rare privilege as Rogers Pass gets increasingly busy. It was a great day of skiing, although the snow was so cold we had trouble getting glide as we skied down the long descent.

Busting track up Young's Peak

Booting up the steepest slope to reach the Peak

Enjoying views from the summit

Scoping out the line from the huge windscoop near the summit

Enjoying the slow, faceted snow on Young's Peak

It's going to be hard to top these past few days as I spend the rest of my week off with Evan. Great tours, amazing views in a spectacular setting, and evenings spent catching up with old friends over nachos and beverages in the Glacier Park Lodge at the pass is just hard to beat. On the agenda is soaking in the hotsprings, going out for coffee in Revelstoke, oh and maybe a few more ski tours before we head back to work.... ski touring.