In late May, Rowls and I received an email out of the blue from our ski buddy Phil Hammer asking if we had received an email from his friend Gwenn. Neither of us had, and we wondered what it was about. The next thing, he forwarded us her email, letting us know that she had won the lottery and inviting us to participate in their trip on March 12-19, 2016! We did not hesitate to send deposits and start locking in spots!
Guy had planned to join us, but due to the imminent birth of his second child at the exact date of the trip, his spot opened up and was eagerly snapped up by our friend Paul. Rowley's Norwegian friend Marius also snagged a spot when Gwenn offered us an additional place, and the original starters of Iain, Rowley, Jeanna and I made up our posse of 6. We would be joined in the cabin by a group of 9 from Vancouver. (Phil and Libby, Gwenn and Laurent, Murray and Sue, Lawrence and Carol, and Gwenn's brother Steve)
We each had an incredibly busy and hectic winter and spring, culminating in an action-packed month prior to the trip which saw Mum coming to visit, me receiving Canadian Citizenship, and Rowls ringing in his third decade with a major bash the weekend before our departure. In the two weeks prior to the trip, Rowley and Arielle also both got laid off from their jobs, and I put the stamp on another Agrium annual report, so it was high time for a serious digital detox and week of epic skiing in the Shangri-La of ski destinations!
Friday, March 11
Given that we had to be in Nelson at 8:00am on Saturday morning, we had all taken Friday off, and did the final food pack-up in our garage before we departed. Jeanna, Mum and I had done a huge food preparation effort prior to the trip, and Rowls had done a mega-shop, so we had some food packing logistics in the morning before we set off for the long drive to the Kootenays.
It actually all came together pretty well into 12 wine boxes!
Jeanna, Paul and I set off, and Rowley went to pick up Marius from the airport, collected Iain from 2211 and followed a few hours behind.
Saturday, March 12
We woke in the Adventure Hotel in Nelson, reeking of Garlic after our delicious, but potentially misdirected restaurant recommendation from Paul the evening before at 'The Outer Clove". I'm sure the extra beers and whiskeys we had imbibed in celebration of being on vacation were not adding to our physical state, but we were in high spirits none-the-less for our impending adventure!
We unpacked our gear at the heli-port in steady rain and low cloudy skies, knowing that it may be touch-and-go whether we all got into the cabin today at all. The pilots seemed confident though, and wheeled out their shiny new A-Star and we started packing it up.
Heli safety briefing done, Paul eagerly volunteered Jeanna, he and I to be on the first flight and we were on our way!
Thinking that I was doing her a favour and letting her have the best seat in the house, I offered Jeanna the front seat. Little did I realize that she was white knuckled and in terror the whole flight in! Look at that serene look on her face!!
We also had the pleasure of riding in with Kevin Giles wife, Nancy and his avalanche dog, Copper (who very calmly sported some pretty fancy doggy ear muffs).
The flight was a bit exciting, as we tried to get over the range through several passes that closed out on visibility, forcing us to go further and further around the range, looking for an opening in the clouds, and a pass that had trees all the way to the top. Eventually, our skilled but silent pilot squeezed us over Enterprise pass after flying up over Tanal Lake, and dropped us in the middle of a heavy snowfall storm at the amazing Kokanee Glacier Cabin!
Eventually, after the big unload and reload involving four flights of gear and people in and out, we had our crew and all our gear in, and the previous crew and all their gear out! We were thrilled to learn that Kevin Giles was still the winter custodian, as his knowledge, history and awareness of the region is priceless in adding to the safety and enjoyment of a trip, aside from the fact that he is an exceptionally nice man.
Kevin gave us the run-down on the lodge and then we spent the afternoon training with our beacons in the beacon park. Given the 3-4m snowpack, this was a really good test of skill with multiple deep burials. The buried beacons are meant to have strike plates near the surface, but not many of them had been brought up, and after digging two 2-3m holes in the snow on the flat, we decided that we had done enough community service and left any others down there!
The other group had opted for some quick turns behind Chief Slocan Cabin, so we followed their track and managed to put in a very quick lap in the beautiful light snow before returning to the cabin just after dark.
Sunday, March 13
Kevin's morning weather update had 47cm snowfall in the past 24 hour period. That seemed like a good start to the day!
We were pretty cautious of the new snowpack, and the previous group had been seeing some persistent instabilities deeper in the snowpack, so we were anxious to get out and dig around in the snow and assess what we were dealing with on some conservative terrain. We chose Happy Valley as our destination, for some north facing, low angle tree skiing as a gentle entry into our week.
As we skied out and up Generator run, we could see that almost every convexity on the opposite NE facing slope had released ~20cm down in the storm snow, so we were feeling pretty cautious about the snowpack.
The weather was still storming in pulses, with muted sunshine in between, which was ideal in that it wasn't baking any of the south facing aspects.
We skied to the valley floor on a very conservative line, and were delighted with the snow quality! Deep, light, fluffy dream-snow!
We skinned up, refuelled and put in an uptrack. We stopped part way up to dig a pit on our likely ski aspect, elevation and slope angle, and found that the major concern was the February 27 layer, which was down around 1.2m in the snowpack. Low probability, but high consequence type of information!
Then it was time to ski! We spent the afternoon skiing 100m vertical hot laps on low-angle treed slopes in the delicious snow and rolling up the skin track again. Jeanna was getting tuckered out, so we left her stashed at the top with some hot tea for our final lap and then headed back to the saddle in the ridge and skied 'Generator' down to the creek, and put an uptrack back to the cabin that Kevin could use after returning from servicing the hydro impeller.
We returned to the cabin pretty exhausted, after our first day of trailbreaking in the deep snow, and devoured healthy portions of pulled pork and mash. It was snowing steadily all evening.
Monday, March 14
The team got off to a good start with a hearty breakfast of maple sausages, eggs and hash browns, washed down with copious amounts of good coffee!
Our 24 hour snowfall was 13 cm
We decided to step into the 'Enchanted Forest', again with our full crew of six, approaching through Griffin Creek, so we could ease our way into the top of the drainage rather than heading through Enterprise Pass.
Jeanna was trooping along, which was remarkable considering it was her first backcountry trip, and she was skiing with a pretty seasoned crew!
Soon we made the saddle, and had a pretty sweet view over into the Enchanted Forest and Mount Robert Smith.
We skied a nice little ramp feature down off the ridge and then spent the day working our way up and down through many delightful lines in the Enchanted Forest zone.
JB shredding the gnar
Marius showing off his high-speed Norwegian style
Paul is grinning from ear to ear!
Grinding the uptrack
Big Rowls
The Cran-Man
Marius AKA 'The Viking'
Rowls and I found a sweet little 10'-15' cliff drop, that had a ridiculously sketchy run-in that involved dodging tight trees and making a last minute turn off the lip. Good to get the hucking juices flowing!
Rowls manned up for the first hit on the line.
The other boys were spurred on by our antics, and the bottomless snow was the perfect landing surface, so they also got in on some pillow-hopping fun.
The Flying Scotsman
Paul gives his new planks some airtime
JB looking pro
The afternoon storm rolled in and just puked snow on us which was magical.
Rowls standing sentinel
Cranny in the white room
Jeanna finding her groove in the deep snow
Eventually we had to climb out of the valley, and had some very challenging route finding to get back up onto the ridge, as the upper elevations were quite wind-affected and we didn't trust them. It was beautiful touring up to that point
Safely back on the ridge
The ski out to Griffin Creek yielded some pretty awesome views back to Kokanee Peak
Tuesday, March 15
Our overnight snow top-up was a mere 7cm, which counts as 'zero precipitation' in Kokanee vernacular!
Our whole team was feeling very slow this morning, after the big push to get away and three action packed days, so we decided to take an easy morning and put on a few extra pots of coffee and enjoy the comfort of the lodge by the gas heater!
This is part of the pleasure of these trips is the relaxation of sitting in a beautiful hut in the middle of nowhere without any internet or phone and just chatting and reading and recuperating.
We eventually set off just before noon for the Beaujolais area. All 6 of us set out in the beautiful weather of sunny breaks between snowy pulses and cloudy skies.
We set a nice skin track up through the tree rib to the south of the Beujolais run and were pleased to see that there was no sign of the tracks from the other group's skiing there a couple of days prior.
Looking back towards Kaslo Lake, the Cabin and Enterprise Pass
We pushed on to top out and enjoy the view from the high bench. The snow was wind affected and pretty flat, but nice to get up and look around. The sun also came out just in time to give us a window of good visibility.
Nice view of the cabin from up on top
We skied down an the snow was fantastic!
Maybe a little mean to Jeanna, but I was feeling pretty playful in the powder!
The nice thing about Beaujolais is that it is a safe and easy return to the cabin, so Jeanna and Marius took an early return after the first lap, and Paul, Rowls, Iain and I headed back up.
We could even keep an eye on them all the way back to the cabin while we were skinning up!
Rowls and I had been eying up a nice drop, so we took a short lap to hit that line before we went all the way back up. This time I took first line, and was pretty conservative, while Rowls straight-lined in my tracks and sailed likely 35 feet vertical!
We even convinced Paul to hit the drop and he nailed it with his new big skis!
Look at the reaction in his face!
We spent the afternoon skiing another couple of laps, with Iain returning to the cabin prior to the final lap. By the last lap my legs were aching from tiredness, but the snow was too good to quit early!
We had an amazing light show on the shifting clouds through Enterprise Pass on our way home in the evening.
Wednesday, March 16
Our overnight snowfall was only 3 cm today, but the weather was forecast to remain fairly clear so we aimed for a further objective today, particularly as the storm snow had started to settle and bond a bit better.
Jeanna opted for a day of relaxation in the cabin, and after an uncharacteristically simple breakfast that didn't involve any form of cooked pork product, the five boys set off at a decent hour with the objective of wrapping around into the basin below Mount Robert Smith.
Our route was over Enterprise Pass, down over Tanal lake and then to wrap around the mouth of the valley and up into the drainage. The solar radiation was intense and even early in the morning we could feel it baking the south facing slopes and making the surface moist. We were on high alert for overhead danger today, particularly from south facing slopes and cornices.
Once we crossed the lake, we had some very challenging routefinding through tight trees, pillows, deep tree wells and steep micro features to get into our target valley. We still preferred that to being underneath anything big and sun affected.
Eventually, after some great trail setting from Paul, we made it into the relative comfort of the valley and made our way up on into the upper basin.
We saw significant avalanche activity up high on our suspected aspects, one slide from cornice failure and one large crown on a steep unsupported feature. We climbed to a bench in the valley and decided against any higher climbing due to the lack of safety zones and our discomfort with the higher elevation snowpack.
We skied down to the valley floor and found that the lower pitch of the slope was amazing powder that skied exceptionally well. We dug a pit in this part of the slope, in a steep 40 degree slope angle and almost due north aspect, and found a remarkably strong supportive snowpack, with a nice consistent density gradient, and couldn't get any layers to react to compression or even shear tests.
"PLR Couloir"
On the way up the valley the first time, I had immediately noticed and had being eyeing up a beautiful aesthetic couloir that fed out onto the fan of the slope we had been skiing. We had discussed it and after pulling back from the higher slopes and assessing all the snowpack conditions, we started talking much more seriously about getting into the couloir. With no overhead hazard, no sun or wind affect, due north aspect and steep enough to have previously sluffed a weak snowpack, combined with the recent information from our pit on the same aspect and similar elevation, Paul, Rowls and I decided to make an attempt on it.
As we started up the skin track, a dense pulse of precipitation rolled in and started puking snow heavily and reduced visibility significantly. We made the call to push on with the approach, with the hope that by the time we had made the climb, the cell would have passed and we would have visibility to ski.
Paul and I scoping the mouth of the couloir
The poor visibility definitely made the line doubly intimidating!
I dug out a little platform on the 55 degree slope and we transitioned for bootpacking. While I was doing that and the others were working their way in, the visibility cleared and we had our window!
As I set off I seriously wondered if the objective would be possible, as I struggled through chest deep unconsolidated snow that often left me in the same place after three or four high steps.
Eventually we topped out, to much elation and some great views all around from our crows nest position.
Paul and Rowley generously offered for me to take first tracks, as I had spotted the line and broken trail on the bootpack - an offer that I very gratefully accepted!
Looking down the line, which was 45 to 55 degrees, between two imposing rock walls was incredible. I knew the snow was deep and light having worked up through it, so was definitely planning for sluff management in my mind. I wanted to be cautious, but I also wasn't willing to waste any part of this line.
I dropped in, cut hard and everything felt really solid, so I just opened it up and enjoyed one of the most amazing ski lines of my life! Deep light untouched snow that came up in waves around me with every turn, flowing over my head at times, as I floated down between the cliffs. To my surprise there was no running sluff, and I just continued right down the middle of the line in the epic snow. I popped out of the mouth onto the fan and let my skis run on the wide open untouched slope. My heart was racing and my legs were burning. I came to a stop in the trees at the bottom an let out a spontaneous howl of euphoria that echoed around the valley!
Paul skied next and was already in the line by the time I stopped at the bottom.
We met for breathless high-fives at the bottom and watched Rowls tear down the line with characteristic strength and style.
He is the ant just coming into view at the top
Laying into a deep turn, about to pop out at the mouth of the couloir
Iain and Marius had been cutting laps on the nice slope below while we had been focusing on the couloir so we joined them for one last lap before heading out of the valley.
Iain getting deep
Marius at mach speed
Paul finishing the day on a high note
Paul's characteristic grin at the end of every run!
We also got to admire PLR Couloir one last time!
We cruised out of the valley via the creek, and found our way back to Tanal Lake without too much difficult routefinding.
We returned over Enterprise Pass and had another beautiful light show on the mountains behind us as we dropped over to the Cabin.
I stopped my day log on my watch when we reached the cabin, and it read 9hrs, 51 minutes and 1,350M total elevation climbed.
We looked on the map and were a little disappointed to see that the line was already named 'Double Dave Couloir'. Nevermind, it will always be PLR couloir to us!
Thursday, March 17
The day dawned with perfect blue skies, and we set our objective high - to the top of Kokanee Peak!
It was minus 17 on the thermometer outside as we fueled up with a big cooked breakfast, and soon all six of us set off to ascend the glacier via Grizzly Bowl. Conveniently, the other group had set a skin track most of the way to Grizzly bowl so we had a couple of hours of easy skinning to get going in the morning. Despite the cold start, the sun was warm and it was a spectacular day to be out!
Rowley was cheer-leading for the weather with his cheese stringers on our first break!
Looking up past the Battleship to our objective
Before we committed to Grizzly bowl, we took a heath check of the snowpack and did an extended column test to assess the potential for propagation on any weak layers. We found another strong supportive snowpack that wasn't shearing on any planar layers.
It was great to have Jeanna up on the high terrain
Perfect bluebird high alpine touring
Making our way up the Grizzly Bowl ramp
Amazing views
Up onto the glacier
Touring towards the Giant's Kneecap
At 2,725m, we were getting close, the peak is 2,764m
On top of the world, with nothing but snow covered mountains as far as the eye can see in every direction
Lunch at the repeater tower. It was pretty cold up there, around -15C, so after refuelling we didn't stay there too long
We dropped off from the repeater tower and made our way to the top of the Battleship to ski a line down the left side between two rock bands
Rowls dropping in
We all skied the beautiful line down to the left of the battle ship and all the way to the terminal moraine and then down to the trees on a mellower rib feature.
Back at the skin track in the valley, Jeanna, Marius and Iain were keen to head back while Rowls, Paul and I felt we still had one run left in our legs, so we parted ways in two groups.
It was a magnificent evening and the sun sculpted the slopes into aesthetic curves and illuminated our sweeping tracks from earlier in the day
We climbed our skin track to where it stepped up onto the Grizzly Bowl bench, then skied all the way down to Helen Deane Lake in the afternoon sun in perfect light snow
Looking back up on our way out, we were treated with beautiful scenes as the sun illuminated the Sawtooth Ridge and the Battleship
Our tracks snaking down beside the battleship
The moon hanging over the battleship and six ski tracks off the glacier
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, it was St Patrick's day and Jeanna made sure we celebrated with green beer and cider! Of course Kokanee beer, since we had spend the day on Kokanee glacier!
Our log for the day was 13km, 8.5 hours and 1,320m vertical elevation
Friday, March 18
Another bluebird day, but it wasn't enough to overcome the fatigue of the group and we were all (with the exception of eternally energetic and positive Paul) quite happy to have a slow start and an extra pot of coffee in the cabin.
Rowls and I had a particular cliff that we hoped to drop, and as we set out it seemed that the snow would be baked if we waited til late in the day so spent some time at the cliff before we struck out for a longer tour.
Rowley manned up and sent this first, which is super impressive, as it was a completely blind launch and precipitated a 35-40' drop!
I know the type of nerves that would have been impacting him at this moment
Then he just sent it!
Twice!
Some perspective
He convinced me to drop in and then took a really epic picture!
We played around on some smaller features and Paul, Marius and Iain all got in on the action with some medium size drops.
Iain found this great one
Finally, much to Paul's relief we left the playground and set off for a walk! We set off up Griffin Creek and made our way to Nansen Ridge in the perfect sunshine.
On Nansen Ridge
We skied a ramp feature down off Nansen into the Enchanted Forest basin and exited back towards Enterprise pass, where we found our old skin track for an easy return. We all had very weary limbs, but were sad that it was our last evening.
Saturday, March 19
The final morning is always a bit of a blur - packing and cleaning and sorting out gear and preparing for the arrival of the helicopter at 9:00am. It is a well organised system, and everything went smoothly and we got all our gear out on the heli-pad with the cabin clean and packed up with time to spare.
A great group to share the week with
It was particularly special to have Jeanna join us for the first time this year
Soon the heli came in and it was a flurry of activity for the four flights in and out
Before we knew it we were landing in sunny, springtime Nelson!
Another amazing trip into the mountains, spent with a truly top notch group of people. Every year is different, but I feel that we really came together fantastically well with our group management and avalanche decision making this trip. We also skied some bigger lines, and also had a really good mental break from the grind. It is always hard to come back from a trip like this and I couldn't bring myself to turn on my phone for a few hours after we returned. Not surprisingly, we spent a good deal of the car trip home discussing ideas for next year's trip!
