Leaning Towers

Somewhere around mid May I got a last minute rare opportunity to visit a remote area in the southern Purcells, the Leaning Tower group. The area is part of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park which was founded in 1974 to protect a huge area between Invermere, Kimberley and Kootenay Lake. Since it is a Provincial Park, there is no motorized access and it took us more or less 2 days with very heavy packs to establish base camp below the south face of Hall Peak, the highest mountain in the area.
This project was part of a Patagonia sponsored film/photo shoot with Steve House, Vince Anderson (athletes and models), Christian Pondella (photographer) and Bjarne Salen (camera). Big time helpers behind the scenes were Simon Meis and Brodie Smith who made it all happen.
We got blessed by great weather and stable snow conditions, which allowed us to get awesome footage and eventually accumulated in the possible first full ski descent of Hall Peak without the aid of a rope.

selfish me getting first tracks on Hall Peak
(Steve House Picture)

The biggest eye opener for me though were the endless opportunities for high quality granite rock climbing perspectives. Everywhere you look there are cracks, corners and other features that slice through the steep, mainly unclimbed walls. A perfect alternative to the already crowded Bugaboos 100km north, specially for climbers seeking out new lines.

Thanks to all the team members for their team effort which made this such a special and unforgettable trip for me. I sure hope to get a chance to return to this wonderful corner of BC in the near future.

mind blowing ski objectives, hard to choose what to tackle next

and then the rock, clean, featured and plentiful

northern lights from camp 

the silhouette of Sharks Finn and Hall Peak

Block Tower and Wall Tower to the right, the just beg to be climbed.

Unbelievable, the entire south side of Sharks Finn Tower is unclimbed, what a pity. The right hand , slightly higher  mountain is Hall Peak, which hosts a few moderate routes on the right side and we skied off the back side. 

Here are more high resolution pictures in case you want to visit the place in the future, it might help you with scoping out some new lines, will it be climbing or skiing.

The end of a great Winter

It's June 1st and I decided to put all my ski gear away, I don't think I will need them anymore this spring.

The majority of my work this Winter was spent guiding Heli Skiing in the Adamants, which is located in the northern Selkirk Range. 

It's been my second season up here and I really enjoy this area. 

The combination of having the best alpine skiing anywhere, plentiful tree skiing with small groups of 5 guests and a good crew of guides make this one of my favourite place so far in over twenty years of playing in this business. 

Here are a few images of what is was like up there,

and now let the Summer begin.