Wapta Traverse, Part 2

Ok, so I have been a slacker with part 2, but that is because I got to the coast of BC and the weather went splitter for 36 hours...so I rallied a crew and we punched the Garibaldi Neve Traverse in a day. Oh well, like any good mountain person, responsibilities get thrown out the window for fun. But here is part two, with another post to come about the Neve Traverse!

The next day dawned cold with an arctic haze. When it gets to be below zero farenheit, any moisture in the air tends to freeze pretty quickly, and today was no exception. With a low of around -30 celsius there was no rush on getting out the door. At those temps your skins and ski wax don't really work that well.

We spent the morning brushing up on the essential skills for the terrain we were travelling in. Avalanche and crevasse rescue in and near the Peyto Hut was definitely in order. Everyone needs to review their rope systems and knots from time to time, and there was no better excuse to wait for it to warm up then practicing essential skills!

Knot Practice at Peyto Hut

Finally, around midday we mustered up the courage to brave the cold and headed for a day trip up the north summit of Mt. Rhondda. Sitting across the glacier from the hut, it is an easy day trip, with about 2,000' of elevation gain up glaciers all the way to the summit ridge. The cool thing about the summit ridge is that it is the continental divide, at roughly 10,500', as well as the border of BC and Alberta, and on a good day the views are amazing.

Up and Down Mount Rhondda

We retreated back to the warmth of the hut, and got ready for the 8km traverse over to the Bow Hut for the next 2 days. This is a pretty simple leg that takes you up about 600 vertical feet to the broad col between 2 summits and then down the Bow Glacier to the Bow Hut. You spend virtually your entire time on the glacier, just getting off to basically go to the hut. The nice thing about the Bow Hut is that it is fairly popular (meaning social) and stocked with fire wood, so you actually have quite the warm and cozy atmosphere there.

Skiing down to the Bow Hut

We settled in for 2 nights, with the plan for the next day being a day trip to the summits of Mt. Gordon and possibly St. Nicolas. Things were starting to warm up, and overnight the temps only dipped down to the mid -20s celsius. Inspired by our new found warmth we got ready for a great day of ski mountaineering...

Part 3 on Monday!

Track the rest of my ramblings at evanstevens.blogspot.com

0 comments

End of the Good Stability

I took advantage of the last day of our 3 week high pressure and bomber snowpack at Valhalla Mountain Touring, here is a video of the day...enjoy!

Lots of other good time wasting material on my blog at evanstevens.blogspot.com

0 comments

How fast is fast?

The last time I climbed the Grand Teton, my climbing partner and I did it car-to-car. We weren't looking for any speed records, just an outing to climb a peak.

Fact of the matter was that we didn't have more than 2 days to squeeze out of a couple of busy schedules which precipitated the car-to-car style. So we headed north, slept in the back of his Tahoe and after a grinder of a day topping out on the Grand, we ended up at the car around 14 hours after we started. Nothing special by any stretch of the imagination.

A Billy Burger and a Big Gulp later found us rallying back to Salt Lake City.



Then I read today on TetonAt.com about Jimmy Chin's solo car-to-car adventure of climbing and skiing the Grand Teton, Middle Teton and South Teton in under 11 hours! Sounds pretty fast...(thinking back to our meager 14 hours for one peak)...that's damn fast! Kudos Mr. Chin.

--Details and map at TetonAt.com

2 comments

Video Editing at 6000m

Ok, so John Griber and the rest of the North Face team didn't go to Gasherbrum II just to film and edit some cool video at 6000 meters, but it's pretty amazing that they can do so. Heck, most guys I know can't even film and edit at sea level, yours included.



Follow their progress (and other video updates like the Trek to Basecamp) and hopeful ski descent of Gasherbrum II on their blog.

0 comments

What it Takes to be a Ski Guide, Part 3

Well, we are down to the final stretch, only 3 more days left of the ski guide course. For the last 3 days we were on a point to point traverse, that started off quite spectacularly with a heli-drop. Our friends at Alaska Rendezvous Heli Guides lined us up with a drop on top of the 7,000' foot peak known as 'Ice Palace'. This run was only guided once this season, and has some pretty interesting positions to say the least. Crevasses and ice falls border almost every turn on the top of the run, and everyone's adrenaline was high, when we were left by the bird perched on top of the line with packs full of 3 days worth of gear. Joey and I led the group down to demo some guiding techniques, and 3,200' later we were all stoked with the unbelievable amount of boot top powder we just skied in the first week of May.

Ice Palace

So we then traveled up and over a glaciated col, skied down another huge shot to the massive Tonsina glacier. We skied about 8km up that glacier to go over another col, and dropped down to the Tsina glacier and camped amidst the never ending peaks and glaciers.

Small skiers head down to the massive Tonsina Glacier

This was a big day, and we have been driving the candidates pretty hard. 12 hours out on the snow has been pretty standard, and none of us have averaged more than 5 hours sleep for the last week. Every certified guide I know has been put through the wringer, and it is important to know that your guide can keep going no matter what. Call it a rite of passage, or what ever you like, it is a hard process and you have to be able to keep up for days on end.

So of course we kept going the next day. We woke up at our beautiful camp, and trekked up another 2500' feet to another col that led us to the Hoodoo glacier, winding our way through more ice falls and crevasses.

Mark finds a path up to the Hoodoo Col

As instructors, we were almost hoping for some bad weather, so we could see how the candidates navigate up the big white glaciers in fog and whiteout conditions, we got a little bit of fowl weather, but it cleared out in time for our descent onto the Hoodoo.

Whiteout clears for us at the col.

We dropped onto the Hoodoo, made camp and busted up Girls Mountain for a sweet 3,000' of later afternoon skiing.

The Hoodoo Glacier and Girls Mountain

Time to camp again, and we actually got 6 hours of sleep, and took it easy on the candidates the next day, with only one short 3,000' climb and ski out the backside of Girls Mountain down to the Worthington Glacier and the cars.

Backcountry.com Athlete Julia Niles takes us down 4,200' feet to the cars

Sound like a lot? Well it has been, and like I said, we still have 3 more days of skiing left!

On another note, it is always interesting to see what gear all of the guides are hammering on...especially when there are a few items that are in almost every single guides pack. First of course are Dynafit bindings. Light and bomber, there is no other choice for ski guides. The other items would be for camping. Jetboil stoves are universal as well; light, small and super efficient. The Black Diamond Firstlight (and other BD hyperlight tents) are the ONLY tents I see people with for winter camping - not amazing in the rain, but perfect in the cold and snow. Finally would be a plug for a new piece of gear I am using, the Outdoor Research Exped sleeping mats. I can't believe how well I slept on the Downmat 7 DLX, best night of sleep in the backcountry ever for me. Period.

Okay, enough of a post for now...hope this inspires you to check out some new places, and if you hire a guide, to consider hiring an AMGA certified guide. We still have a few more days left, so check back to see what else we come up with for these aspiring certified guides!

And if you want to read my other posts (or find a link for gear discounts to pick up some of these item I recommended!) check out evanstevens.blogspot.com.

0 comments

Skiing Powder at the Colorado Ski Mountaineering Race

This post is from Kim Havell, Backcountry.com sponsored athlete.

7am and -5 degrees make for an interesting combination when you are wearing a lycra/spandex suit on the mountain- Luckily I was not.

This past Saturday morning, I warmed up next to some pro ski randonee racers attempting to qualify for the US National Team in Snowmass, CO. This was my first COSMIC (Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup) race and I felt quite unprepared as I squinted in the darkness of early morning and took in my fellow competitors, in their skin tight race suits, who were literally running up hill on mini race skis to get warmed up for the start. I did a bit of stretching, tried to feel good about my cumbersome powder ski/fritschi binding set up, and focused on figuring out the best layer combination so that it wouldn’t cost me valuable time to change later on. When you have not done one of these events, it is really hard to know what combination of gear, food, water, and transition systems to have in place. Pacing yourself when you don’t know the route is another major challenge to this race.

A girlfriend of mine, Karen Kingsley, from Ophir, CO, won the series last year. I called her on Friday morning just before I left Telluride for the Snowmass Winter Wild race for a few pointers. Much of the beta was Greek to me but she did caution me on the downhills, where you can lose sight of the markers if you go too fast. That was a disappointment, as the descent sections were the aspects of the race that I was hoping to cruise, especially due to my fat ski situation, and boy was I surprised.

The race started in darkness and the sun rose slowly with us through the first big climb. We gained about 3-4,000 vertical in the first 45 minutes or so, to reach the first transition point. I elected to keep on my skins for the short downhill stretch of powder skiing, and then began the next ascent of about 2,000 vertical to the summit of the ridge. Though I had studied the trail map and topo maps provided on the website, it was still surprisingly difficult to gauge what to do at each transition point. You are not always around other people so it takes a bit of guess work to make the right choices e.g. remove your skins or ski downhill with them on.

The wind was whipping, and it was freezing cold on the ridge line. My mouth and chin were numb. I had chosen warmer gloves to wear and so had to remove them to take off my skins. Thus, some freezing digits as well. Karen had advised me to stuff the skins in my jacket to save time but since I was racing on powder skis, my skins were far too big to put inside my coat and I had to take off my pack to get situated. The next downhill, during which I was looking forward to making up more time, was not a fast endeavor. There was lots of good snow to ski but the flags were covered by the tracks from previous racers. I had to continually stop to search for the right tracks and route to follow. Thus, one of the the biggest descent sections did not allow for the gain in time for which I was hoping.

The final climb and ski traverse were great fun, as it was quite satisfying to be nearing the end of the vertical gains. The climb took us up to the far boundary of Snowmass and into the backcountry. The skiing out the backside was excellent and I got about 15-20 powder turns (which was a nice surprise) in the process. Most of the earlier racers avoided the deep snow due to their lighter gear. Luckily, I got to enjoy the fruits of my labor a bit more, and to revel in the weight of my powder skis with some blower powders shots in that section of descent on the course.

The final stretch to the finish was exhilarating, but also a disappointment in terms of speed. Being a rule follower, generally speaking, I ended up skiing out a bump run to the final finish gate, as per the instructions at the race meeting the previous evening, instead of bombing down the race hill on the groomed slope. I lost valuable minutes as all the other racers opted out of the new variation and glided into the finish. Lots to learn with a new experience!

The race was a great mental and physical adventure with exciting elements, beautiful backcountry scenery, and remarkable strategy processes. It is a great experience for anyone who enjoys touring, aerobic exercise, and taking on new challenges. There are 4 more races to come in the series- try one near you!!

Check out www.cosmicski.com to find out more about ski mountaineering races in Colorado.

0 comments