PaulB

The Neve was in fine condition this weekend with lots of people doing overnight and day trips. Ring Creek is well bridged, as are crevasses near the Sharkfin. The Garibaldi Lake trail is very icy in spots. Most people were hiking up it rather than skinning. Skiing down it by headlamp was not pleasant. Full snow coverage starts at about the 2km mark. With high clearance and good tires or chains it is possible to drive to within a few hundred meters of the Rubble Creek parking lot. The road up to the Diamond Head parking lot is currently in good shape, and easily driven by any vehicle. The trail up to Red Heather meadows and on to Elfin Lakes is well packed down by snowshoers.

That's some high praise coming from a pilot with Don's experience. Not sure that he does long line rescues though.

The snow is gonna be hard, so you won't have to worry about trail breaking, but it's gonna be cold. Garibaldi should be in prime climbing condition, but it might be worth taking crampons in case the snow is too hard to kick steps.

Jordop & I saw people climbing at "The Office" last Saturday. Didn't look too bad, but I wouldn't have paid $38 to climb it.

From the Feb. 12 Whistler alpine forecast:

Sail from Vancouver to Knight Inlet, climb Waddington and sail back to Vancouver. I think this has also been done by kayak for at least one of the water legs.

I seem to recall reading that Barry Blanchard and crew called EC for a forecast while bivied high on Robson a few years back. "Hi we're on Mt. Robson and are concerned we might die in this storm. Can you tell us what our chances are?"

Jim is also a solid ice/mixed climber if anyone's ever looking for an ice guide.

To put things in perspective, on a scale of 1 - 10, the skiing at Whistler right now is around 11, while the ice climbing potential between there and Vancouver is probably around 1.5 (or less). Take advantage of the snow conditions and ski until your legs can't take it anymore.

You can read through this ongoing thread on Telemarktips.com to get a feel for conditions in the Whistler & Duffey backcountry. Some good bits of info here as well.

A guy in my office is a good enough sailor (dunno exactly what he does onboard) that he regularly gets flown back and forth between the coasts to work on various race boats. A couple of summers ago in the Tantalus Range I met a guy from Whistler who was on the Alinghi when it won the America's Cup in 2003. He was climbing for a couple of days with his girlfriend before flying down to San Francisco for a race that weekend. If you're good enough, it sounds like a fun gig.

1600m (5250') seems to be the magic number around Whistler right now. Light and fluffy above that, heavy and thick below. Low valley conditions are still pretty marginal. Skied Flute & Oboe today, and conditons were still superb.

More importantly, how far are you from Mugs & Jugs?

For anyone looking to head north, the Whistler backcountry has been fantastic lately, and there's more snow on the way.

Possibly, no one knows what happened to the bullet after Chuck Norris deflected it with his beard.

Any ascent is best done while skis can be used for the bulk of the approach, either from Elfin Lakes or Brohm Ridge. The standard routes require only an ice axe and a rope, maybe a picket or two.

I have a MEC Swan (down, -12C) which was their standard 3-season bag for many years. I've had mine for about 12 years, and with 10-12 nights of use per year, it's still in great shape and should be good for another 10 years. I think the Raven -12C would be the equivalent product today. Last year I picked up a Raven 0C to replace my MEC Zephyr (synthetic, thinsulate maybe) which had lost most of its loft after 10 years with lots of summer use. Others may disagree, but I think that most MEC gear (sleeping bags, packs & clothing) are good value for the money. They may not be the lightest or most fashionable, but they get the job done.

As mentioned, the ACC clubhouse is a good bet in Canmore. A slightly more upscale option (but still a hostel) in Lake Louise is the Canadian Alpine Centre, but you'll probably need a reservation. For areas with good concentrations of moderate ice, I'd recommend checking out the Junkyards in Canmore, King Creek in Kananaskis Country and Bow Falls up the parkway. Haffner Creek is also good if it isn't too busy. Skis are useful (possibly required) for getting to Bow Falls. If you're feeling solid leading grade 4 towards the end of your trip, go to Field and do Guinness Gully.

I trust that when hotel management asked where you were from, that you replied "Ashcroft" instead of "Vancouver".

You can do either. It's about a one hour round trip if the Harmony Express lift isn't too busy. Cycle time when skinning will vary depending on your fitness, snow conditions, etc., but you can easily do a lap in 45 minutes or so once an uptrack is established. Even if you are riding the lift up, it's worth bringing skins to speed up the approach from the access gate to wherever you want to drop in, as well as the hike out to the Burnt Stew trail at the bottom.

I wasn't so keen on the "inbounds backcountry" concept at first, but Flute bowl is becoming one of my favourite places to ski at Whistler for those days that you just don't feel like doing a full backcountry tour. With minimal effort (hiking or skinning from the gate) you can find great, often untracked, snow while the masses are scraping down the groomers and dealing with moguls in the more easily accessed bowls.

Here's the GPS track of a recent tour from Austin Pass towards Lake Ann and back along Shuksan Arm to the ski area: Skiing along the crest of the Arm puts you in a fantastic position, with great views in all directions. Something to keep in mind is that the crest has a lot of micro terrain features that would be ugly to deal with in a whiteout or very icy conditions.

You'd want to call the Escape Route in Whistler to find out if the "ice farm" on Blackcomb is set up yet.

Is there any difference between a "Barryvox" and a "Barryvox Opto 3000"?

Yes, it is still correct, but at the end of November Arc'teryx is supposed to be moving their office (currently in the same building as the store) to North Vancouver. I don't know if the store is moving as well.