Browse Reports By Period: 2015 RSS2015-12-16T04:26:00+0000It was another great day in the mountains!   Surprisingly for a weekday there were 3 cars at the trailhead before us.  They didn't go our way to Cayoosh Mtn, Lazy Boy maybe?  It snowed a bit, and the wind was light the whole time.  And we had uptracks to follow from the weekend (?).    Going up from the lower logging road (no alders thankfully) we got a bit high on the rock slide before crossing through the trees, but the going was good.  It got a bit steep, we were side hilling a bit but it worked out ok.  Keeping right we crossed moraine and kept to the left side of the glacier to try to avoid any crevasses that may be inadequately covered.    It was -6 C when we started out at 8 am and it was -6 C at our high point (2350 m) at 12:30 pm (cheap $5 MEC thermometer).   We couldn't complain about the 30 cm+ fresh snow.   Poor visibility prevented a summit attempt, but we didn't care.  Skiing down the untracked upper section was like a dream, seriously.  A party of 3 watched as we tore up the fresh snow.    The rutschblock test we did (fun!) at 2060 m suggested an unyielding snow.  Nothing was moving!  Our probes went down 2 m.  After that, Sebastian discovered a break at 30 cm depth, but you had to work hard to get it to move a tiny bit (CTM 20 or higher).     Looking at the GPS track on Google Earth we did actually cross some crevasses around 2300 m if the historical imagery still applies.  But we didn't notice any dips or changes in the surface snow to suggest there were any crevasse issues and everything was solid.   Taking the shortest route back down, we ended up at the cabin.  We stopped to look inside, then back up to the logging road, and we were at highway level at 2:30 pm, it was a fast day!   Home at 7 pm for dinner.... Read more

]]>2015-12-16T04:26:00+0000Skiing up from the truck parked at the snow line (1025 m), we were on the sunny ridge by 11:30 am.   After 3 nice runs, people were making comments like "this is better than all last year".   Stability seemed really good, there were no signs of any snow movement, although we were quite cautious testing the snow and skiing conservative lines on mostly shady east facing slopes.  Snowpack thickness was about 1 m of which the upper 30 cm was generally soft beyond the wind affected ridge.  We had lovely unobstructed views in all directions.  It remained cold the whole day.  Skiing back down was fast and fun and again there was nobody else but us!

]]>2015-12-12T13:31:00+0000We parked a bit higher than last time at 1150 m and skinned up from there. It was a great day, with visibility improving despite the blowing snow, and there was a powdery accumulation of 30 cm over a good base.  We used extra caution and did some ski cuts to confirm stability.  We had the Skyline area to ourselves and yoyo-ed a few times.  Freezing level was at the trailhead (1350 m at 9:30 am), but my thermometer got up to 4 C at 1700 m (11:15 am).  The snow started to get heavier in the afternoon, and snow turned to rain below the trailhead.  We could ski down almost the entire trail.  Today was probably a better choice for skiing than tomorrow given the forecasted warming trend. 

]]>2015-12-06T05:19:00+0000We drove as high as we could in Michelle's jeep, put chains on the front at 1050 m and parked in a wide spot along the road at 1130 m.  From there we skinned all the way up starting at 9 am.  During our one hour skin to the trailhead (1317 m) we saw this abandoned pickup truck from Colorado (1256 m) that had come off the road and got stuck on the sidehill.   There was a 4" rain crust which thinned to 1" by 1700 m.  Yoyo-ing on variable snow a couple times, our high point was 1845 m.  The crust thickness varied but was generally strong enough to support our weight without breaking through.  Ski crampons helped skinning back up east of the Little Bump where it was a bit steeper.  We tried to avoid some avi debris from activity there a few(?) days ago.  Snow stability seemed really good.   It was a good day with clear sky, views of Shuksan and Baker and temps down to -8 C.  We started back around 3 pm.  Roger skied all the way back down, while Michelle and I elected to hike the last bit of the trail down to the road where the snow was thin.  The only bit of thin snow on the whole trip was the bottom portion of the trail.  We were back at the jeep by 4 pm before dark.  ... Read more

]]>2015-11-23T03:00:00+0000Hi !Here is a short report on Watersprite lake.I started to be quite curious after the bcmc meeting from last week and wanted to do the trail. I got quite exhausted making my way up in the heavy snow and branches, and I've forgot to make some pictures about the status of the trail (I'll try to do better next time !)- First 1/3 part was easy and clean track, but 2/3 part was quite difficult. - Lot's of branches with snow on it after the first big turn. Definitively slowing you down, making the ascension more difficult. I guess it's really beautiful during any other season, but if you open the trail in winter. it's quite exhausting! Here is few pictures of the trail for people interested. Cheers,Guillaume       ...and a the view on the way back !     (edit November 22)...added the picture of the top, we did this trail again a week after. You don't leave something half finish ! ;-) ... Read more

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