It was good snow and good times right from the start, pictured here, in the heart of the Bugaboos.
(Note: I originally wrote this piece for powdermag.com, published on May 13, 2011.)
Scrawled on the wall of British Columbia’s Glacier Circle Hut, we could read the names Bill Briggs, Barry Corbet, Sterling Neale, and Bob French, along with this: “10 June 1958—Ski Traverse from Bugaboo Creek to Glacier. Started June 2. -Alpine Ski Club of America”. It was their ninth and final night on the route and the following morning they would make their way to Rogers Pass to complete a visionary ski traverse; an incredible accomplishment for the era, and decades ahead of its time. read more>>>
Sunday afternoon we made it to Rogers Pass, ten days after being dropped off in the middle of nowhere, by the Bugaboo Spires. Eight of us made the 85+ mile traverse, climbing some 32,000 vertical feet along the way.
Sean starts down the massive couloir by Opaban Pass, above Lake O'Hara. Mount Biddle stands tall behind.
With an unexpected day free before we embark on our Bugaboos to Rogers Pass traverse, I thought I’d post a few pics from the first leg of the Canada trip, from a couple of days in the Lake Louise area and the Icefields of the Rockies. It was still winter up there and we were loving it. read more>>>
Well actually, skiing 13,300 foot Mount Daly is almost always a great day, as it was for us last Saturday. In fact, I think it would probably be a hugely popular Aspen objective, much like Mount Hayden, were it not for the drawn out approach.
So I say “grind” half-seriously, because the climbing and skiing is usually really fun and worthwhile once up in the basin, it’s just that more often than not, getting in and out can be a real grunt, sometimes feeling like the hardest part of the day.
It has a lot to do with the super-early starts needed to get up in the basin early enough in the day, that to get the necessary alpine start, you’ll be skinning in the dark timber through the late hours of the night, trying to navigate without any well defined trails and it’s just easy to get off route. read more>>>
Christy leaves her mark on, among other places, page 12.
Off season’s here, and now that Aspen has effectively shut down, anyone with free time enough to get away has been packing up and leaving town.
This spring, that ever-present drive to hit the road has us heading to Canada to keep the ski season rolling for a little while longer. I’ll head up to Calgary on Monday to meet Sean who will be coming out from the Battle Abbey Hut with a group of friends from around here, and we will hit a laundry list of ski spots in the greater Banff and Jasper area.
After a week with Sean, he’ll head home and I’ll hook up with Christy, Dirk, Art Burrows and Art’s friend and local guide, Greg Franson in Golden, BC, and we’ll head out on an 80 mile ski traverse from the Bugaboos to Roger Pass. It’s pretty safe to say it’ll be a good time. read more>>>
The days are longer, the temperatures milder and the lines are more filled in- it just feels and looks like spring.
Seizing a sunny day between spring storms that have been dumping on us lately, Anda Smalls, Adam Mosczynski, Christy and I set out to climb Castle Peak and ski its East Face. It was a great day by all accounts– blue skies, fun climbing and spring powder conditions on an Elk Range classic.
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