Wive's Club: Maiden Voyage

The doctors (i.e. Heather, Jay, Storky, and Jen) somehow managed to get out of work for a quick ice hike up Grotto Canyon before the Emerg retreat this weekend. The male portion of the wive's club had to work and rest up for the weekend of skiing!

I wonder if Storky is thinking about his exam...

Wive's Club Unite!!!

While the better halves were stuck in a conference room, Jen, Paddy and myself had an absolutely beautiful day up at Burstall Pass. We had intended to do the Burstall-Smuts traverse but, due to a late start as a result of the evenings events, ended up at skiing the pass.

Gotta love the blue bird.

Photo courtesy of Blue-Banana Productions.

Paddy rippin a beauty line. Eventhough it hadn't snowed in a week, the wind deposite some great snow for us to ski.

Not bad for an East Coast boy.

Tana was busy chasing a crow, so Jen had to ski down solo.

Lovin the day!

More Video!!!

Paddy put together a sweet vid from a couple weeks ago at Rogers. Crank up the tunes. I must say, we're all looking pretty good in this one. Check it out...

Video of Epic Weekend

Al was kind enough to create a video of our insane day at Rogers back on Jan 7. Enjoy! For the record, I didn't actually bail (twice), Al somehow photoshoped my brilliant skiing to look like a header...

Dome and McGill Shoulder

Despite little snow over the past little while, Nick and I had two beautiful sunny days up in the alpine at Rogers. Our main goal for the weekend was to check out new places to ski and enjoy the sunshine! After a really early wake up on Saturday, we headed up the Asulkan drainage to Saphine Col and eventually past the Dome onto Lilly Glacier. The scenery was stunning, skiing not so great, but a fantastic tour.

Some pretty amazing light on the west side of the Asulkan Glacier.

This shot is heading up the far west side of the Asulkan Glacier next to the huge outcropping known as the Cleaver.


This is a look back across the valley to Youngs Peak (flattened peak on the right) and the Steps to Paradise. If you look closely, you can actually see Asulkan Hut on the ridge above the tree triangle.

Nick, almost at the top of the Cleaver. We we able to get about the outcropping and traverse onto the Lilly Glacier to ski down.

A nice view of Saphire Peak.

Wind crust anyone???

We were actually able to find some decent snow on the 2nd half of the decent.

Nick coming down into the valley.

On Sunday we decided to check out McGill shoulder in hopes of some better turns. After an hour slog through the trees up the creek trail we realized that the skin track didn't link up with anything... so we cut our losses and heading back down to catch the shoulder. If anyone heads out to McGill, make sure not to head left at the first trail intersection, it sucks! The picture above is the beautiful view that awaited us after a long trip in the trees.

Surprisingly, the snow was fantastic. Nice boot deep powder that hadn't been wind effected. After the slog, we deserved these turns!

Nick rippin it up near the bottom of the run. Until next time...

Chinook Sunset

Heady rushed home just in time to catch a stunning sunset from the park behind our place. The colour in the photos hasn't been modified, it actually was this vibrant!

I love Rogers Pass!!!

Lacking snowfall for over a week, Heady, Paddy, Jan and I left Calgary for the familiar slopes of Rogers Pass. Once again, the pass did not disappoint! A super early start on Sat morning landed us at the info centre with plenty of time for turns. Paddy looked like a kid in a candy store when he saw the snow pack (it is pretty amazing seeing 3 m high snowbanks). We really wanted to make some turns and after, getting to know Grizzly Shoulder very well the week before, we headed up the skin track in hopes of face shots...

Jan found some!

This is the same run we skied the week before. I don't think that I could ever get tired of this place.

It was great to finally ski with Paddy. Is there anything that guy can't do?

Heather had a great vantage point for this shot AND she got to poach Jan's line to get it!

Janny, this one's for the board room.

Jay and Sharon drove up Sat night after their first Rockies skiing experience at Lake Louise. This is Jay at the beginning of the day, prior to fully understanding what they were gettting into.

We made our way up Connaught Creek to Balu Pass. The skiing is great down the pass, but it's a long way in. Sharon was a trooper and kept sloggin despite complete exhaution.

My rewards for the long trip.

This is the closest Heady got to being in a photo this weekend. The tracks 2nd from the right are hers... looking pretty good!

Jan heading down the pass.

After a few "experimental turns", Jay figured what all this snow was about and how to get through it.

Sharon's first experience with powder. She was really starting to get the hang of it by the end.

Jay on the other hand, started to lose it near the end... I think Sharon pushed him. As opposed to helping, Jan and Heady were taking photos in fits of laughter on either side of Jay.

Good looking bunch of skiers...

Powtastic Weekend

Ok, it's been snowing a lot. The planned trip for Heady, Nick and myself to the Asulkan Hut was changed due to insane amounts of snow and sketchy avalanche conditions in the alpine. Not to worry. The spontaneity of Karl, Jo and Al allowed us to experience some of the deepest and lightest snow around. We spent the weekend skiing the trees in Grizzly Shoulder just above Glacier Park Lodge in Roger's Pass. No joke, it snowed over 1 m in 3 days!!! There was so much snow that you needed to time your breathing between turns as not to inhale the snow.

Nick (aka Mr. Beardsickle) taking a dip.

Face shots anyone?

Karl holding his breath. I wasn't kidding about timing your breathing.

I'm in there somewhere...

Jo with her frequently observed Pow Grin. Sorry Al, this was the only picture we got of you, nice legs though...

Unfortunately, they closed the highway on Sunday night and "forced" us to stay another night. The sun came out on Monday morning and we were treated to a blue bird day.

Heady in a opening on Grizzly.

Karl skiing the steeps. Any less of a pitch on the slope and we would have been stuck!

Better than work?

Tryst Lake

We discovered a jem in K-Country! I think the ski gods rewarded Heather after having to work while I skied in the pass. Despite several days of really intense wind, we discovered a little heaven of fresh snow in the chutes above Tryst Lake. The guidebook warned us that some of the chutes were pretty steep... this was putting it mildly! The first chute we came to was a 30 footer into a straight line. Needless to say, we declined. However, we found 3 amazing, but still steep, chutes that looked great. We only had time for one run, but the recon mission is complete and we'll be back again soon!

Heady halfway down the chute. These were her first "real" turns of the year. Looking pretty good for the first day!

As you can see, there is plenty of terrain to choose from...

Kinda gives you an indication of how steep it was.

A look back up our chute.