short days and long nights

Within the past 2 weeks, there was not a single day I was not outside with either Guests, Friends or Family, taking advantage of the short days leading towards the Winter Solstice. Lots of pre dawn starts and 'coming home after dark' outings have been the norm lately. The early Winter (or late fall according to the calendar) is treating us very well this year, consistently good skiing and ice climbing is amongst us since mid November.
Thanks to everyone spending time with me out there lately, I'm a lucky man.

Trevor Linden switched from hockey skates to skis a few years back,
 the only body checks are with trees now.

As a hobby hockey player and fan of the game,
I was honored to spend a couple days with former Vancouver Canucks Star  Trevor Linden
and his friends playing in the Rockies.

Lorne, the "Ober Oinker" of the group, ripping it up on
this seasons first decent of Emerald Lake Slidepath.

Here are my two girls.
Bella still enjoys the bed time stories from Mum,
specially when it's cold outside and a warm fire is crackling  besides the couch.

Moments of anticipation... heading for the huge north chute of Cathedral Crags,
a 1500m elevation drop straight down to the TransCanada Highway.

Josh Lavigne and Simon Meis bootpacking up Cathedral Mountain,
Rocky Mountains

Simon Meis getting in deep...

...and out again. The fine art of surfacing on the lower slopes of Puff Daddy,
Rogers Pass

Walking back to the Visitor Center after a phenomenal run on Puff Daddy,
Rogers Pass

Jamie Hood on the Highway line off Grizzly Shoulder,
Rogers Pass

Kitty Hawk and Unicorn to the left

Steve Swenson on the first pitch of the Unicorn,
David Thompson Highway

the downside of dropping into unknown terrain without checking it beforehand-
two lessons learned:
 short and light ski touring ice axes are not suited to chop steps in steep water ice
don't leave your rope in the car after you have decided to bring it the night before

into the Light

back in the yellow jacket

 For a total of 5 weeks spread over 3 different areas I am scheduled to work in the famous yellow jacket again. Therefore I was invited to go west over Rogers pass to Revelstoke and beyond in order to participate in Guides Training and Area Set Up. It was great to see so many familiar faces of the industry again, and spend time with old and new friends. At the same time there are always interesting topics presented by world class presenters, simply a melting pot of the current knowledge of mechanized winter guiding.

Dec. 1st
opening day of the  Revelstoke ski area, as seen from the helicopter...
looks a little sad lower down.
As far as it goes for ski areas, we got a way better coverage back in Alberta.

Guides Training in Nakusp
due to the rainy and warm weather we could not fly the helicopter for 2 days
We made the best out of it and relocated the avalanche triage exercises into the BC bush
Tranceiver Guru Manuel Genswein explaining the Nifty Difties of the Device.

P.A. rushing for the next victim 

found it!

Thankfully conditions slightly improved for Area Set Up in Revelstoke.
Although it was raining in town every day we managed to get our fair share of powder skiing in.
I let the pictures tell the story.

It was a fun 4 days in Revelstoke and I'm looking forward to
work with the boys and gals there for a couple weeks in January.