Friday, March 23, 2012

the "official" last day of Winter

...ended for me with an awesome day and an awesome guest in K-Country. Now there are only three more months left for me in the snow until I'm supposed to return from Mt. Logan mid June. Right now I sit in Ottawa in the sun at plus 20 degrees, taking a few days off from Winter to go rock climbing to the Adirondax near Lake Placid. I hope I find my way down there and looking forward to visit this part of the world for the first time.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

the other side of the fence

After returning from another magic ski trip with some nice, young keeners from the States, this time in the eastern part of the Rockies, I have to vent a bit.
What is it that us humans always want to have the exact opposite from what we just got? Ski conditions in western Canada are as epic as it can get. We have an above average snow pack and it is snowing every day since over a month now. The result is great powder, face shots and unbelievable tree skiing, even in the Rockies. Sun crust seems as seldom here as a good cup of coffee, and I did not even have to open my annual stash of sunscreen so far.
Yet people always want the opposite. Where is the sun, we want to get up high, climb a peak, ski a 'glehschah' and do a high traverse with heavy packs, powdered food and stinky poly pro.
But in February, after a 3 week dry spell with plenty of sun, everybody talked about the famous tree skiing with endless face shots. I guess one might call it human nature, I am tempted to call it the "lets try to find something negative syndrome". Don't take me wrong here, all the guests I have spent time with so far were good folks and I had a blast with most of them. This is just something which repeats itself, predominantly in the skiing world. So my message here to all of you skiers: get out there and love every single day you have a chance to play in the snow, pray that it doesn't rain up to ridge tops and return in one piece to your loved ones.
Anyways, I'm having a great Winter so far, and looking forward for at least two more months in the great white stuff... Snow or Shine, I hope you too!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Rogers Pass

Out of the last 7 days I spent 6 epic days guiding entierly in Cannaught Creek, skiing right to and from the front door of Glacier Park Lodge. Due to heavy snow fall, high winds and a warming trend, the avalanche hazard rating remained high throughout the week- so was the stoke. I let the pictures tell the story, if you are a skier you will understand.