Bagherra finally bagged

The big badass Bagherra was finally bagged. I am not 100% sure but I feel that this line has never been skied and is one of the proudest most badass line in Roger's Pass. Not only due to the descent but the ascent. I have attempted it a few times and been refused by conditions and confidences. But yesterday  group of boys from Golden and Revelstoke skied this line. I am not sure exactly where they went up nor  exactly where they came down. But I do know that they bagged the summit and skied back down. 9 dudes in total.

I had a busy week taking my Level 2 avalanche course and throughout the course the stability was amazing in the Alpine. I felt like it was one of those weeks where things were super stable and I hoped that objectives where being accomplished.

I am sure that lots of other amazing things were skied but this line was one that I have dreamnt about for years and I am a bit jealous of their adventure. Not that I am one to complain I have had years of wicked lines but this is one I have looked forward to.  Well done boys!

Swiss peak Movie

Well I have a new HD camera and have been trying to upload on vimeo instead of youtube, but somehow it is not working. I am trying to figure out how to get the most out of my videos, quality wise. It is HD but somehow does not look great, more tweaking to figure this out. In the meantime enjoy.

Swiss Peak

When Chris mentioned that we should ski off Swiss peak, I was excited by the idea. In 04-05 Troy Jungen and I skied this line and were treated with deep powder turns down the 3000 foot north face. Starting off at 50' and holding steep for its entire length this alpine line is one of the most proud in the pass, it also the longest run in Roger's Pass, a whopping 7700 feet from summit to road. You can see how easily it would be to get excited about a run like this.

We awoke early and made it to Roger's Pass by 7:20 and were touring by 7:40. Doug led a ferocious pace, we flew up through the trees, across the glacier and we were bootpacking up the chute in no time. Hard south facing melt freeze crust. perfect. By 12:20 we were on the summit.

We hung out and enjoyed our lunch and then began to ski down the North face. Hoping for light and fluffy powder we were rewarded with inconsistent styrofoam. Though we were dissapointed, the lack of avalanche danger made our position that much more enjoyable.

And what a position, the consistency of this face is unbelievable, it starts steep and stays steep. Awesome.The footage I got today was great and will give me enough to make another Skin flick.

Ghost circumnavigation

Finally off the couch and out in the mountains. Doug's birthday always comes around with an adventure. At 38 this guy has had a tonne of amazing trips. But each year around his birthday we try and get out and go on a mission. Something a little different, this year we ended up circumnavigating Ghost peak. Ghost peak is interesting; as you can see there is a higher peak to the right in the photo. But somehow the lower peak is called Ghost and the larger "ghost like" peak has no name. And when looked at on the imperial maps the named Ghost peak is 100 feet higher than the other. But when we stood on the summit we looked up at the unamed peak. It's confusing. I am going to continue to call the higher unamed peak Ghost peak. Anyhow the tour was hot, up to 8'C in the sun. But we worked the slopes and had a great run around Ghost peak, past a pocket glacier and into a meadow. From there we had a quick tour up a treed bump, and we shredded some solar snow back towards Revelstoke Mountain. A beautiful sunset and then fresh powder turns down Roscoes into Montana bowl and home. A day off and then the Hat peak Canoe adventure. Similar to last year just more tiring and less powder. I loved the adventure of the canoe combined with the ski tour, so I convinced a few friends to get better canoes and we headed across. We arrived with 3 canoes and a posse of 7. The initial 600ft were as bushy and bashy as last year and then the rest of the tour unraveled well. Not as much snow so we had more willows and alders to deal with but soon enough we were up and into the alpine. Crown lines everywhere made the decision to turn around quite easy. We made it high up to a col and knew that the steep boot pack to ridge was not worth it. So we enjoyed some sunshine and skied 6500 feet to the lake. The canoe across the lake makes it seem so much more remote, it's a day trip but somehow it feels like a full on adventure, like a traverse. It felt so great to be out adventuring, not just ski touring but full on mission. Multi-glisse....

Mountain Moments

Stagnant. I have been a little stagnant lately, waiting for the avalanche hazard to come down a little. Ever since I came back from the Caribbean we have been on high alert. The mountains have been volatile, a poor foundation in the snowpack left us all worrying about when it would collapse. So we hid in the trees and waited for the cycle to be over. Well it may not be over but the mountains received a huge shock and most everything slid. Crown lines are everywhere, deep crown lines, some up to 2 meters. You look around and it looks like a war zone, huge debris piles everywhere, some trees knocked over, carnage. Most large slopes slid, which is great but there are still some slopes that are waiting for their critical load. So we may be venturing out but not without lots of caution. Yesterday we circumnavigated Ghost peak. An awesome tour that started on the south side of Ghost, wrapped around the east, down the north and back around to the west and back to Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Beautiful and all new runs for me. New lines drawn on my maps. Anyhow I have been a little bored with my blog, the videos are great but they are every three weeks or so. But the day to day blogs are a little stale. The writing might be okay but the photos get a little boring when all they are all mountain photos with lines on them. So I am going to try and add a little video from the day. One clip that captures some of the moments out there, not a real video, just a quick clip to inspire. Today's clip is a beautiful sunset over the monashees.