PaulB

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.

I'd recommend putting most of your cash allocation into boots. You won't care how good your bindings & skis are if you've got cold & cramped feet all day. Scarpa has some new boots out this year, which means that you might be able to score a pair of the discontinued ones (e.g. the Laser) for cheap. Also consider if you'll ever want to use Dynafit bindings, as not all boots have the required inserts. For an all around setup, look for a pair of skis with a 75-80mm waist. It should be easy to find a used pair with Fritschi, Dynafit or Silvretta bindings. Don't forget that to get into the BC you'll need skins, and most importantly a beacon, shovel and probe.

Was thinking of heading down there tomorrow, but am not familiar with the terrain and need some local advice. Are there safe slopes that could be skied even with this much new snow? There's lots of other places to go for a tour if snow stability around Baker is gonna be sketchy.

I use G3 skins on my Havocs and don't have any problems with the tail attachment.

Do you need a NW Forest Pass (or any other pass) if you're going into the backcountry around the ski area?

I just put together a tele setup with 78mm skis because I don't want to do multiday tours on my 88mm skis. The fat skis are fun for day tours and hut trips, but not so fun for long slogs.

If you want a stout that's a bit smoother than Guiness, try a Murphys sometime. Yummy! Sadly, it's hard to find here in Vancouver, but I've bought it in cans in gas stations in Washington.

The Genesis ropes are available as either classic (non-dry) or superdry. Details here.

From a similar thread to this one on TTips, it seems that while Arc'Teryx still makes their technical outerware in Vancouver, some of their more "urban" ware is made in China and Mexico, while some of their packs are made in Vietnam. The global economy is a bitch to compete in, so you do what you gotta do to stay financially healthy and (hopefully) keep your customers happy.

I have a pair of Salomon SM9s that were made in Italy. When I started looking at some of Salomon's current products as replacements, I'm pretty sure I found that at least some of them are made in China. Obviously, one boot manufacturer has made the change already.

You just need to move the heel piece to where you want it. The relationship between ski turning performance and binding location is primarily dictated by the relative location of the binding "pin line" to the chord centre of the ski. The location of the heel piece is simply decided by the length of your boots. For most people, mounting the bindings with the pin line on chord centre is fine. Others like to move it forward or back depending on the type of ski, boot size and various other considerations.

"A little small" as in it doesn't fit you very well, or as in it isn't big enough to hold all your stuff? Either way, you may just need to get a bigger pack. I have an Arc'Teryx Khamsin 38, and it works great for me. It gets a bit overloaded while all my gear is in it, but once I'm wearing my harness and racked up, it's perfect for carying my belay jacket, spare gloves, water, food etc. on long routes.

Go here on the Black Diamond website, and click on "Tech Video" on the right side of the screen to see a demo of how to trim skins.

JoJo gives a good endorsement for Grivel screws in this thread: "For what ever it is worth; we had both Grivel and BD screws and in the future I will take only Grivel screws on a climb like this. The BD screws were by far harder and slower to place. The Grivel screws, despite taking up more room on the rack, were far superior."

Will Gadd has a piece in the latest Gripped magazine which deals with this very subject. His take on it is that climbing is a dangereous activity, and that "If you climb regularly for long enough you're either going to get seriously hurt or killed.". It's an interesting read.

Unfortunately, for the half dozen or so days of ice climbing I manage to get in each season, there's no way I can justify the $400-$600 this upgrade would require, so I'll continue to climb with my bent shaft Prophets. Leading grade 4 is plenty fun, and 5 is a good challenge. I don't think I'll ever need to worry about grade 6, no matter what tools I might have.

While I haven't walked from the Kain Hut to the Vowells in one go, I have travelled all of the relevent terrain on seperate trips. From the parking lot to the Kain hut to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col is straight forward. From the col it's pretty much all downhill to Bill's Pass. The upper Vowell glacier is easy travelling as long as the snow isn't too sloppy. Slots are easy to avoid, but a rope is a good idea. If I were doing it I'd give myself at least two and a half days to get everything to Bill's Pass, and three if heading to a camp further west. The first day to carry loads to the Kain hut or Applebee campground, where I would spend the night. Most of the next day would be spent getting everything up to the col. Since you can't camp at the col, I'd cache some stuff there, and head over to Bill's Pass to set up camp. Once that was done, depending on the time of day I'd either head back the col for another load, or wait until the next day (more likely). For the latter, anything left at the col would have to be stashed in a snaffle proof manner. BTW, I stumbled across these photos of the area. Again, this was a fly in affair. This picture gives a good view of the terrain between the col and Bill's Pass.