Mama Mia!

Because I celebrated International Woman's Day with a broken down car and mooching off my sister for rides and a place to stay in Calgary while my car was being repaired, it seemed important that I spend some quality time with some quality women in the mountains to set my feminine vibe for 2009 off on a better track. Also, being faced with the fact that my upcoming ACMG ski guide exam would be composed of exactly 11 boys and 2 girls occupying a tent camp in the Selkirks, I was craving a bit of estrogen-therapy.

My mother Lynda is an avid backcountry skier who has been at it since the days of leather ankle boots, ultra-long, ultra skinny skis, gaiters, wool shirts and pants. These days she sports her fat skis, dynafit bindings, AT boots, schoeller pants and makes it all look pretty darn easy. This winter she was working hard as a pastry chef for the heli-skiing company Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) so she didn't get to ski tour too much, but don't feel too bad for her because she did get to experience what many of us lower-income folks only dream of; heli-skiing. It all sounds pretty glamourous really, making towering and exotic desserts and fragrant fresh breads all week, and being swooped around in a helicopter on the weekends when there aren't quite enough guests to cram the heli full. We met up in Revelstoke at the essential Modern Bakery for some brekkie and java before driving up to Roger's Pass for a weekend of powder skiing. She humoured me and let me guide her around since I was practicing for my ski guide exam. I broke some trail, read the map, and mostly tried to find us some untracked snow, which is getting more and more tricky on a high hazard, clear and sunny weekend day at Roger's Pass. We got to witness some avalanches triggered by explosives across the highway from us, and even saw some folks nearby trigger an avalanche large enough to bury a person. Exciting times in the mountains! We ran into some friends at the Glacier Park Lodge and enjoyed some beers and dinner with them before retiring to our room to do it all over again. Yes, I am really lucky to have such a cool mother!

Mum touring with Macdonald, Avalanche, Eagle, Uto, and Sir Donald keeping her company

Like mother like daughter

The next phase of my women's ski week was spent with my dear friend Kitt Redhead. Kitt is an accomplished skier and mountain woman, and an ACMG assistant ski guide who has worked for a variety of heli, cat and touring operations and has completed all sorts of huge ski adventures in Norway, Alaska, France, and of course, Canada. Kitt and I were roommates in Squamish for a few summers and got along famously, but the last few years while I was living in Salt Lake we lost track of each other a bit. Kitt's most recent HUGE adventure is motherhood, with the birth of her son Thoren four months ago. She makes the transition from guiding to motherhood look graceful and effortless, but even she craves ski touring days. After graciously putting up with me crashing at her place in Revelstoke while I prepared for my ski exam, we agreed we had to do a ski day together, so we left Thoren with his Dad and a stash of breastmilk for the day, and we boogied up to Roger's Pass. The snow was a bit heavy, but the day was fantastic all the same. We hardly even noticed time passing as we ambled up the skin track, chatting away and enjoying each other's company and just being out in the beautiful mountains and fresh air. We were fully on the same page in terms of where we felt safe to ski, and it was great to have some feedback from a woman who I know and respect who has gone through the ski guide's exam that I am about to do.

Kitt enjoying the mountains

Where the f@#% are we?

Kitt shredding the waterfall gnar

Another ski touring party at Roger's Pass (yawn)

Tomorrow the culmination of my winter begins. I am flying in to Moberly Pass, in the Adamants for my ACMG assistant ski guide exam. I am really looking forward to spending a week in what sounds like cool ski terrain with a bunch of motivated, psyched people and some ace ACMG examiners. The nerves haven't got me yet, but there's plenty of time for that, like when I am leading my group up through crevasse-riddled glaciers or down through slopes with numerous persistent weak layers lurking and waiting to avalanche me.

Little sister to the rescue

A respite of work mid-February resulted in a mini-road trip to the Rockies with Evan where we froze our fingies off trying to be ice climbers. Damn, that sport is tough when you are not used to it. I had the biggest fear paralysis while leading the ice equivalent of 5.6. We did do some beautiful routes and by the end of three days I was actually kind of digging it. I definitely have a lot of respect for all the friends I have who are can ignore the cold, the fear and the insanity of it all to become really solid, strong ice climbers.

Next phase of the winter was a week at Sorcerer Lodge where I was cooking for guide Brian Webster and his guests along with the assistant ski guides Josh and Garth as well as the hut custodian Dave. It was a spectacular week, beginning with blue skies and sun but a dearth of the prized Selkirk pow pow. Midweek brought a 60 cm dump and some spicy avalanche conditions, and by Friday we were back to sunny skies, spectacular views, and a fresh sheet of snow to wiggle our way down. The guides and guests were great help in the kitchen, meaning that I was able to ski a lot and learn about guiding by observing Brian, Josh and Garth guide the group through the sometimes complex glaciated terrain surrounding the lodge. We skied on the Nordic Glacier and bagged Escargot, swooped down Lower Wedding Bells, schralped Lee's Trees and schlaedeled the Perfect Glacier.

Heading up the Perfect Glacier

More perfection

Party on the Perfect Ridge

Perfect pow on the Perfect Glacier

Nordic Peak looking gnarly

From Sorcerer I went straight to Battle Abbey for round two of a practicum there. The first few days went as they should; great skiing, beautiful snow and fantastic food prepared by Eileen. A midweek medical emergency meant that one of the guides and the custodian had to be unexpectedly flown out. Luckily for us, there were more than a few accomplished physicians in the group of guests, and the first aid and evacuation went relatively smoothly, and I have to say, I learned a ton. The week proceeded relatively smoothly, with still more snow, some fabulous touring days to Little Ahab and Typee Peak, and great turns down runs like Steepness (AKA Sweetness) and Kitchen Envy.

Omoo Peak

Gobble gobble (Eileen makes great food)

Moby Dick from the summit of Typee Peak

Skinning up to Schooner Pass - John Goodman Photo

On the summit of Little Ahab - John Goodman photo

Luxury lunch break - John Goodman photo

Typee Peak - John Goodman photo

On Typee Peak with the Wrong Glacier in the background

After flying out of Battle Abbey I managed to see Evan for a few hours in Lake Louise before he left to guide the Wapta in ball-freezing-off conditions. This morning I was happily tootling down the Trans-Canada to visit my sister in Calgary when my trusty, dusty, rusty subaru lost power and died. My sister drove to Canmore to pick me up and it reminded me when she rescued me in Moab out of the City Market parking lot with a mountain of gear around me when my relationship with my climbing partner/boyfriend/ride from Yosemite exploded. Where would the world be without our little sisters to look after us?

More Pics from Battle Abbey

These were taken by photographer, web designer and custodian extraordinaire Jeff Glynn. Check him out at http://www.visualcafe.ca. And by the way, if you are interested in checking out these slopes for yourself, go to www.battleabbey.ca.

The 7 week itch

I am in the middle of my 7th straight week of ski touring. It’s been an eventful stint… crazy new years eve costume parties, record breaking avalanches, several mega-classic ski tours ticked at Roger’s Pass, the successful completion of the final ACMG ski guide training before the exam in the spring and the best kitchen dance party ever at Battle Abbey, a spectacular ski touring lodge in the eastern Selkirks. This week I am back at Valhalla Mountain Touring, hoping my quads will see me through and that the 7 week itch won’t affect my relationship to ski touring the way the 7 year itch spoils marriages.

To prepare for my ski guide training, I met with fellow guide candidates Erika and James, as well as Erika’s husband Scott at Roger’s Pass. Great visibility and growing confidence in the snow stability meant that in four days we managed to do several really beautiful and classic ski tours including the Young’s Traverse, the Tupper Traverse and a trip from the Asulkan Valley into Loop Brook via Dome Notch. Here are a few photos from our adventures:

Heading up onto the toe of the Illecillewaet Glacier

James on the Summit of Young's Peak

Erika heads up the Dome Ridge

Next came my ACMG ski guide training. Didn't get the camera out much during that week, was too busy digging out corners with my ski poles to attain the perfect flowing uptrack, wandering out onto great, wide, white glaciers during dizzying whiteouts with only a compass bearing to guide me (GPS's are apparently to add weight and bulk to your pack), and trying to perfect my guide's downhill skiing technique (you must be technically superior, yet never let yourself have too much fun lest your focus stray from the safety of your guests). Mostly managed to have a good time; the bottle of wine my gal pal Erika and I consumed during the evening guide's meetings helped matters greatly. 45 minute long debates over whether stability below treeline should be rated as good with areas of fair or fair with areas of good are far more entertaining when you've got a good buzz on. The good news is they are letting me take the exam in the spring, which means the only thing between me and being a certified ski guide is passing an exam that roughly 50% of candidates fail. Sweet.

Soft slabs on surface hoar in the Loop Brook Valley

ACMG examiner Marc Piche gives Erika some feedback

The morning after the guide training ended, I beetled down the hill into Golden to hop on a helicopter to Battle Abbey for a practicum (basically I tag along with the two guides Felix and Robson... they show me their finely honed guide craft and maybe let me hack in an uptrack or two). After waiting a day to fly in due to bad weather I finally arrived at the Abbey, a lodge steeped in the history of ski touring. Surrounded by granite spires, steep valley walls and tumbling glaciers, Battle Abbey is nothing short of spectacular. After two short days of reveling in the easy routine of a practicum student, a family emergency meant that the cook had to fly out and I had to take her place. Luckily for me, I have done a fair bit of lodge cooking in the past, otherwise it might have been a pretty stressful week. However, the great help I received from the guides and the custodian (they basically made sure I had enough scotch so that I didn't care whether the meal was great or merely edible) made the week go smoothly. I even managed to ski a fair bit, and checked out some of the really amazing terrain Battle Abbey has to offer. The guests were great sports, they didn't seem to mind too much that their cook was suddenly trying to ski as much as them, rather than stay home and make fondue and ganache and such things. We closed the week with a bang; big dance party in the kitchen lit by strobing headlamps strategically placed behind full juice jugs for that in dah club vibe. It was the best party I've been to in awhile; I wasn't in bed until 3AM! I guess that shows how mellow my life is most of the time, I have to go way out in the mountains to find a party worth staying up late for.

Robson climbing through burnt forest

Battle Abbey

Jeff cleans the green room underneath Mt. Butters

Standing on King's Landing with Mt. Moby Dick behind my head

Ashley leads the troups up through the burnt forest

Now I am back at home at Valhalla Mountain Touring. My liver has stopped aching and a few solid nights of sleep followed by some dreamy powder skiing has set me right. Next week I am off to the rockies for some kicking and scratching... that should be good for a laugh.

Still more skiing

Too busy skiing my legs off at Rogers Pass in preparation for my ACMG ski guide training course next week to report too much. Just wanted to pass on the video I made (I think it's even worst than the last) of the past week of ski touring at my family's ski touring operation, Valhalla Mountain Touring.

Wild and wacky winter 2009

I brought in 2009 with a group of friends from Utah at Valhalla Mountain Touring, my family's backcountry ski touring lodge. Tired from long days of epic deep powder skiing and arduous trailbreaking, we celebrated east coast new years with a shot of Bushmills Irish Whiskey, dressed in costumes that can only be described as... synthetic, colourful, tight where they should be baggy and baggy where they should be tight. I hadn't brought a costume, so just rooted through my duffel of ski clothes and found some Norweigen fishnet thermal longjohns, a rainbow print buff and called myself dressed for a night of apres ski shenanigans. Photographer Tommy Chandler had brought the evening's entertainment, an armload of fireworks that we enjoyed outside the lodge, shivering in the chilly temps as the snowflakes drifted down.

New Year's Eve flex off with the ladies in costume

Geared up for a chilly snowmobile ride on a -20 degree morning on New Year's Day

Sunday brought a new cat-load of guests to the lodge as well as a huge storm that began pummelling us with snow. By Wednesday morning we had received over 70 cm of snow and temperatures spiked to zero at the lodge elevation. Skiing was a downhill and uphill slog and avi conditions kept us in the mellow glades close to the lodge. By Thursday morning there was another 35 cm of snow but temperatures were dropping and rapid settlement was improving ski quality: it was classic deep powder skiing, face shots and fun tree lines all day.

At around 3:00 in the afternoon, a loud rumble and the vague outline of a powder cloud in the mist awoke me from my powder schlaedeling revelry... "BIG MOMMA IS RIPPING!!!" is all I could say to Evan over the radio. Big Momma is an avalanche path that carves a thin line through 2000 ft dense oldgrowth forest to a runout zone a few hundred meters below our huge timberframe lodge. The path hasn't produced an avalanche since sometime in the '70s and in terms of ski safety we treat it with a lot of respect. Unfortunately, the turbine that supplies our lodge with 24-7 hydroelectric power, internet, all the good stuff, is located on the far edge of the Big Momma runout zone, and when Big Momma ripped, she literally blew the building that housed the turbine apart.

When Big Momma is pissed, you'd better get out of her way

Big Momma wasn't the only path that slid on Thursday afternoon. Her cohort and neighbor to the east "Big Pappa" also ripped and dusted our snowcat road with debris despite the fact that it is around 100m straight uphill from the valley bottom. On Friday we realized we were literally trapped at the lodge until it was safe enough to build a road through the debris with the snowcat back down to civilization in the Slocan Valley. So while Evan took the guests skiing, I skied down the road to meet my Dad who was coming up from the community of Hills on the valley bottom on a snowmobile. His snowmobile got stuck with still around 7 km to go to the lodge. So while I trudged down the road in 1m of heavy snow towards him, he skinned up towards me. I passed over 4 huge piles of avalanche debris from paths that normally slide in the spring. When Dad and I finally reached the lodge, we skied over the Big Momma slide debris to the former site of the hydroelectric power house. The following video shows what we discovered...



The final 2 days of my week were spent excavating the power system. Picture me as a snow archeologist... dusting off artifacts found in the snow around the former site of the building. We hastily erected a makeshift shelter over the turbine and brought the recovered control panel (with teeny tiny wires that haven't even been disturbed!!!) down to our resident micro-hydro expert Jeff Ankemann for repair. We are currently running a gas generator in the mornings and evenings for the necessary services (lights, internet, etc.) but it will be great when we get our fossil-fuel free source of 24-7 power back on track!

My Dad peers in the hole, incredulous that the turbine is still there and still running!

Seven new guests and my friend the cook Theresa Calow arrived today. Looks like a high pressure is heading our way which means lots of cool tours to see the extent of damage this avi cycle had on the mountains. One thing is certain, once Big Momma fills back in it's going to ski really well with all those trees plucked out of it!

Skiing into 2009

In the past month I have spent 20 days on my skis. Some days were definitely better than others, with conditions ranging from bony to frigid to plentiful powder. My previous life as a rock climber feels like a dream, and my biceps are shrinking steadily while my thighs expand. It's an annual thing for me, this migration of bulk south from my shoulders and arms to my legs and ass as my activities shift from clinging to rock faces to plowing uphill and down through unimaginably deep snow. Come spring, all that hard earned leg muscle will have to repeat the journey, this time against the pull of gravity, back up to my arms so I can cling to tufas in Spain.

The month began at Mustang Powder, a plush snowcat skiing operation in the Monashee Mountains of BC where the ACMG mechanized ski guide training was being held. Myself and 23 other candidates were educated on such topics as proper powder skiing hand placement, correct intonation while saying "follow me", swooping in and rescuing clients from near death on precarious cliffs, instructing clients to spoon their tracks no more than 17.5 cm apart and how to drink from shot glasses glued to a ski without getting unsightly alcohol dribbles on your lodge wear. As it turned out, the skiing was pretty terrible what with a seriously shallow snowpack and wacky temperature changes, luckily the lodgings were comfortable, the food was great and the company was FIRST CLASS.

Here are some photos from my ACMG experience:

I might not be the slickest ski in the snowcat,

but even I know a helicopter isn't supposed to land like this!

Chris clicking in while our transport heads to the pickup

On the ridge with the valley fog creeping in.s
The girl candidates Erika, Me, Veronika, and Erica participating in some non-ACMG sanctioned good times, flanked by a few of our gracious hosts at Mustang Lodge.

All I can say is that the dark sunglasses are not because it is bright out.
The whole ACMG crew and Boris the powder hound pose down on the final morning.

When my head finally stopped pounding I decided to head out skiing at my family's ski touring lodge in the Valhalla Mountains (www.vmt.ca) with my husband Evan and his clients Richard and Kathy from Seattle. The snow was decidedly better, the only challenge was staying warm in the major artic outflow conditions that brought -25 celcius temperatures.

Evan touring with Big Sister Mt. in the background

Sun and snow, what could be better! Too bad my feet are bricks of ice!

Kathy, Evan and Benny taking in the views at the Rugged-Big Sister Col

Finally, I have made a goal to put together some video clips periodically so I improve my editing skills. Here is my first effort using clips from the past month.