jordop

Possibly. We didn't report it, but we did briefly talk to the heli guides, one of whom surmized that it was the result of being a south facing sun-induced event (with the 3600m fl on Sunday). Tried to tell him it was a high density cross-loaded windslab that happened the previous night at -10*C, but not sure if it registered Whistler bulletin captured the conditions more accurately: "The strong winds have created a wide variety of conditions in the alpine and treeline terrain. You will find pockets of soft windslab, stiffer IF resistance windslab in cross-loaded terrain features..."

Trip: This Be the Place - FAWK Date: 2/16/2008 Trip Report: So a group of five of us had had enough with day trips in powder (tuff tuff life) and wanted to bust out the traverse season. Avi hazard has been notoriously aggro over the last few months, and since it hadn't snowed for a bit and the rating was down to moderate, we figured a bigger trip was damn time: Place Glacier horseshoe traverse it was. Common knowledge has it that North Joffre Creek is a slide alder purgatory, but we were surprised to find a wide open road that led to the very head of the valley, and the various ice climbs shining away quite prominently. We guessed about a 2hr ski from cars to base, and the climbs looked good to go. Plan was to do the thing counter clockwise with an exit by Cassiope. We worked our way into the whited-out headwaters of North Joffre Creek and wound our way up excellent powder tree runs and into the alpine. Took a lot of determination to skin up such good skiing without being able to ski down it Sure enough, we got above the fog about 5:00pm: We were hoping on a camp on the Place Glacier itself but we were faced with one last, quite steep, slope as a final barrier over onto the glacier. We debated how to attack the thing: some wanted to go up to the ridge top, but PB and I had once tried some steep couloirs over there fronting the 8 mile valley and knew that the ridge had 1800' of exposure on the other side. Problem slope at right: I started skining up the left side of the slope to try to link into what looked like a bench system on the map, but things felt too steep and the slope was wickedly exposed over cliffbands. We traversed back right to where it looked like we could bootpack up to the ridgetop. The sun was now going down and we had been going about 7 hrs nonstop. Looking up at GROC starting the bootpack: Looking down to the glacier below: Three seconds later, the whole slope cracked. We could see the crack right in front of us darting from rock outcrop to rock outcrop. We looked at each other and silently mouthed "D-O-N-T M-O-V-E" It was the proverbial car teetering on the edge of the cliff. There was a good four seconds of silence there where no one said anything, there wasn't a sound in the air, and all I remember was the hue of the sun going down over Saxifrage. There's screaming and gasping and I can see in my peripheral two or three other guys going in and out of the maw. I see the stauchwall approaching like some sick waterslide. The lights go out and I feel my right leg get twisted behind me like a piece of plastic. And then it stopped. It took only a second to realize we were all okay, lucky that we had all been more or less on the crown when it went and were able to stay near the surface. Amazingly, the only thing missing was my poles, which GROC immediately tried to find before things set up overnight. Looking out to Saxifrage while sitting amid the dishwasher sized blocks: We threw up camp and drank single malt and tried not to think what could have happened if we had continued on out left on the exposed part of the slope over the cliffbands. Slope in the light of morning: We only found one of my poles the next day so I skied out with one borrowed helistake. And life being the comical juxtaposition that it is at times, in the morning twelve heliskiers were deposited on the ridge right above us and whereas the night before was empty and cruel, the morning was a gong show of clownish proportions. Helicopters were everywhere and I half expected to hear directions being shouted at the skiers a la Kilgore to the surfers in Apocalypse Now. Down in the forest on the way out we ran into a lost heli client and guided him down to the valley bottom, the day becoming one cruel and stupid joke compared to the night before. Lessons? Within a moderate avalanche hazard rating there are always pockets of extreme. Never underestimate the danger of cross loading. Always look at your run-outs. Stop when you're bonking. I wanna say don't crowd together on a bootpack, but ironically that was probably a good thing for us here. And oddly enough, when you're bootpacking it somehow feels like you're safe because you're climbing . . . Oh, and fuck it. Go bowling.

Cool, but waassup with the skins?

Just before they died, Serratus made a Pertex VBL which is a way better idea that the full-on rubberized plastic death by sweating job I bought when I first thought of uncomfortable ways to get the most bang out a sleeping bag. I have also used it successfully as a quick bivy sack to at least keep the dew off the bag.

The Crucible?

Might have to hang the boards up and dig out the tools for that.

It's a good discussion to have, for sure. Around SW BC, I have only once or twice taken a rope on a glacier trip and basically never during "high season" mid winter. I have, on occasion, discovered that I was "skipping" over some slots on the Sphinx and Forger glaciers where the convex roll made them hard to spot from above. That being said, on a trip to the Comubia Icefields years ago, we kept the rope on almost all of the time and even had three full on crevasse falls. Katabatic winds and basically no melt create some wicked potential for trap door crevasse falls, and in my experience this has always been worse in the interior ranges than on the coast. Boils down to weather/geography, your comfort level, and the balance of your risk/weight equation. Being preprared weighs a few pounds and invloves a lot of fawking around. And skiing downhill on a rope . . . might as well be snowshoeing baa

It's in North Vancouver

I hope to god you played Neil Young on the way out.

Backcountry passes at Whistler are $42 right now. Conditions on the local mtns around Vancouver are excellent right now and I've been skiing fresh powder after work at Seymour for the last 4 days. Cypress is good, but Seymour will give you more bang for your buck. The backcountry at Grouse is very limited and you'll need to pay your way up on the tram, so forget about it. Pick up John Baldwin's book at MEC on your way through for the complete details: http://john_baldwin.bivouac.com/exploring.htm Everything will be busy on the weekend. Be aware also that the road to Diamond Head is pretty bad right now and many folks are getting stuck/sliding off the road.

Actual ice! Killer.

Unbelievable!

I'd pay more attention to specific fit . . . talk to a professional boot fitter: touring in a boot that doesn't fit your foot well is torture and will make you have to work much harder to get the ski to do what you want it to do. Generally speaking, Scarapas have high volume and arch while Garmonts are narrower with less volume. Boots are one thing I would never skimp on. Skis, bindings, sure, but not boots. And the Avant is about as far away from agressive as Scarpa gets.

Yeah, exactly.

Trip: Whistler b/c - Early Season Stokage Pr0n Date: 11/27/2007 Trip Report: Despite it being only November, things are good to go and W/B opened Harmony on Saturday and let the backcountry hoardes have at their b/c passes. Condish are surprisingly good and there were surprisingly few people about. Even though there are still clumps of hay and running creeks poking out on Cowboy, we desecrated the area quite well on Saturday before PaulB and I shivered our asses off in the Russet Hut. Sunday we skied down the Overlord Gl and then took the wicked run off the Whirlwind/Fissile col. I had been up this once, with Feck on the McBride traverse, and with a massive pack, but had never before skied down it. Saw some folks bootpacking up the south side of Fissile, but nobody appeared to be going for the Spearhead Traverse which, despite possibly having to hike down a fair chunk at the end, looks good to go

.

Generally speaking, one should not try to assign a grade to a climb on one's second ever day of iceclimbing. Ahem. It's a two - too bad it's enshrined in the book as such! Looks like you guys could drive quite far - looks like you got through the big ditch okay.

I've heard good things about this place:

.

Cross-posted from the freshiezone in case there are non-skiers who feel strongly about non-motorized winter recreation in Sw BC: BC is in the process of implementing a land-use accord for the areas around Whistler and Pemberton. This would seek to designate various areas as non-motorized, motorized, and shared use in an effort to reduce conflict in the backcountry. The process in general has gone well and the draft was expected to be binding/implemented next spring. A pdf of the various designations each area has received can be viewd here: http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/lup/lrmp/coast/s2s/reports/CH3-3.3.pdf Unfortunately, the process is being threated at the last minute by two things: 1. A group of snowmobilers are complaining that they weren't adequately consulted (which is b.s. since the process has been open to comment for years now). They would like the area around Phelix Creek north of Pemberton to have snowmobile access. This area has a long history of backcountry skiing, and currently does not have any sledable routes available through the valley. They would like a trail carved through the forest to pass into the next valley. There is a backcountry skiing cabin situated in this valley. 2. Mt Sproatt directly across the valley from Whistler has long been non-motorized and is very popular for backcountry skiing day trips. A snowmobile tour company wants to set up operations on Sproatt. If you have ever backcountry skied in SWBC and appreciate the need for non-motorized areas where you can ski without the whine and stink of sleds, then now is the time to speak up. I think the Ministry needs to hear how many people these two proposals would piss off, and would be especially keen to hear from folks in the US who love skiing in BC. Please forward all comments by Wednesday, November 21, 2007 to: Ross Kreye, Planning Officer, Integrated Land Management Bureau, 10428 153rd Street, Surrey, B.C. V3R 1E1 email: Ross.Kreye@gov.bc.ca Subject: Phelix Creek and Mt. Sproatt areas of the Sea-to-Sky Land Resource Management Plan Thanks. more info can be found here: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=37594&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90 _________________________

Oooo, wait, I know the answer!!

BC is in the process of implementing a land-use accord for the areas around Whistler and Pemberton. This would seek to designate various areas as non-motorized, motorized, and shared use in an effort to reduce conflict in the backcountry. The process in general has gone well and the draft was expected to be binding/implemented next spring. A pdf of the various designations each area has received can be viewd here: http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/lup/lrmp/coast/s2s/reports/CH3-3.3.pdf Unfortunately, the process is being threated at the last minute by two things: 1. A group of snowmobilers are complaining that they weren't adequately consulted (which is b.s. since the process has been open to comment for years now). They would like the area around Phelix Creek north of Pemberton to have snowmobile access. This area has a long history of backcountry skiing, and currently does not have any sledable routes available through the valley. They would like a trail carved through the forest to pass into the next valley. There is a backcountry skiing cabin situated in this valley. 2. Mt Sproatt directly across the valley from Whistler has long been non-motorized and is very popular for backcountry skiing day trips. A snowmobile tour company wants to set up operations on Sproatt. If you have ever backcountry skied in SWBC and appreciate the need for non-motorized areas where you can ski without the whine and stink of sleds, then now is the time to speak up. I think the Ministry needs to hear how many people these two proposals would piss off, and would be especially keen to hear from folks in the US who love skiing in BC. Please forward all comments by Wednesday, November 21, 2007 to: Ross Kreye, Planning Officer, Integrated Land Management Bureau, 10428 153rd Street, Surrey, B.C. V3R 1E1 email: Ross.Kreye@gov.bc.ca Subject: Phelix Creek and Mt. Sproatt areas of the Sea-to-Sky Land Resource Management Plan Thanks. more info can be found here: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=37594&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

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