Ski touring at Taylor Lake

  Had another fun day of ski touring with my buddy Sylvain at Taylor Lake, a beautiful alpine lake situated under the flanks of the impressive north face of Mount Bell. The trail climbs gradually over 7km's with an elevation gain of 600 meters or roughly 2000 feet, and you don't really get any vistas until you've arrived at Taylor Lake and emerge from the forest. Unfortunately for the two old men(us), there had been some significant snowfall over the last few days and the snow lining the trail got progressively deeper as we gained elevation to a point were we basically forged a trail in untracked powder shin to knee deep! Those are sometimes the breaks when you're the first ones up, but the reward of deep, untracked ski lines kept the motivation up there on the 'stoke' scale!
  Somehow, (well we know how now,) we missed the last leg of the trail heading to the exit waters of the lake. The over abundance of snow had completely filled in any old 'up' tracks and we continued right off the trail following a terrain weakness that had fooled others before us. Eventually though we popped out of the forest and were given enough of a view to regain perspective of our position in the valley. In addition, our frayed nerves were reminding us that there was no more fuel in our tanks which forced us to take a mandatory food break to regain the lost calories from our extended trek into lala land! and to also readjust our cranky attitudes that usually comes from an overexerted, under nutritioned body!
  After fueling our bodies we were able to continue onward with renewed spirits, but with increasing difficulties of ever deepening snow, and fatigued legs that were starting to respond negatively to our minds planned objective as we inched our way up the shoulder of Panorama Ridge. As we climbed up the slopes in the trees we were constantly reminded of the increased avalanche risk that is coupled with such a significant amount of snowfall, by listening to numerous avalanches being triggered naturally from wind loaded slopes in the distance that were unable to support the weight of the excess snow.
  Eventually we arrived at the high point of our safely chosen objective, and we fueled up again in preparation for the endorphic decent that lay below us. The wind was howling in gusts, and dusts clouds of snow could be seen in the forest below from the loose snow being forcefully prompted from the branches of unsuspecting trees.
  Sylvain dropped down into the ski slope first with 3 sweeping turns before disappearing out of sight. After a short delay and a quick assessment that the slope could now be confirmed stable, I followed in behind staying just off his tracks to revel in the steep and deep snow! We would eventually leave the treed slope we had originally dropped in on, to finish skiing the final 400m on the edge of a major slide path that drains some of the south face of Panorama Ridge. The snow was deep, but heavy and moist which made for much slower skiing than both of us are used to coming from the typically cold, dry Rockies. Maybe the experience I attained from my earlier days in Whistler skiing coastal snow gave me the 'enjoyment advantage' today, but I seemed to manage the conditions with a little more finesse than my free heeled friend Sylvain (who is still a fabulous skier none the less!)
  This final slope of the avalanche path landed us at the west end of Taylor Lake were we moved ourselves from the bottom of slide path to safely reskin our skis for the arduous trudge out across the lake in the still knee deep snow.
  We would eventually find the trail that we missed on our way up and reconnect with the track that would take us back to the truck 'luge' style!! And what fun it was! A single track no wider than the width of our skis, winding and weaving through the mature forest around blind corners and tight shacains. Luckily it was late enough in the day we weren't too concerned about meeting any fellow skiers on their way up!
  We arrived safely back at the truck and marvelled at the difference in weather from such a short distance down out of the mountains as we donned our sunglasses while we smiled at the sun and grinned about another fine day in the mountains with friends :)

Taylor Lake with Taylor Pass going through the notch up and right of center

Panorama Ridge on the right with large avalanche chute visible down the center of the face

terminating at the lake. Our skin track out is visible on the shoreline.

We skied a line on the skiers left of the photo through the thinned out Larch trees

before joining the bottom of the avalanche chute.

Sylvain looking out over the eastern slopes of Panorama Ridge at

some nice ski lines for future considerations.

Did I mention there was some deep snow up there?!

Thoroughly enjoying myself!

Did I mention the snow was deep?! Woo Hooooo!!

Check out the snow stuck to my chest

Silly into one of his big tele turns!

Silly's skis are quite a bit fatter (wider) than mine so he 'floats' a lot more on the snow

Still getting in it though!!

The exit creek from Taylor Lake. The water is still flowing under the snow!

Silly forging the trail out with an exhausted trudge!

What a change in weather down at valley floor! Highway 1 west of Lake Louise was closed

due to avalanche control hence all the long haul truckers lined up along the shoulder.



Skiing with Remy at COP (Canada Olympic Park)

  Had a really fun evening on Saturday with a good crew of people all very enthusiastic to see the smiles and amazement of the disabled skiers ripping down the slopes of Calgary's Canada Olympic Park or COP as it's commonly referred as. This particular night was the 'Family Day' for the CADS (Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing) Program where all the CADS participants invite family and friends to come ski with them and the entire ski hill is at their disposal without any interference from the general public. It was a great turn out, and my best estimate would suggest that there was over 250 skiers and riders coming down the slopes with their newly adapted friends and family.

  The wind was a little ferocious at the top of hill, but a short turn around, once off-loaded from the chair, ensured that nobody sat exposed to the winds biting nip. Jass has become a volunteer for the CADS program so is able to assist Remy to get him loaded on and off the chairlift, so he is very grateful for that! He posted a very nice thank you on Facebook to all his friends who attended, and he's already quite excited for his upcoming two mountain trips to Nakiska in early and mid March.

Remy getting fitted with a 'helmet cam' for a different perspective

on his speedy trip down the slopes!!

Remy putting on his helmet and the gang waiting to load the chairs for our first run

Sylvain and his oldest girl Leah (7) attending the function after an already full day of skiing

in Lake Louise! She was a real trooper and was quite excited to ski with Remy

Jass doing some adjustments befor launching Remy down the hill

Remy leaning into the turn to steer his sit ski

Remy in full control of the steering!

Jass, Remy, and Remy's volunteer CADS instructor (can't remember his name for the life of me!)

Remy's right hand gets velcroed to the handle bar so it doesn't get runover from the sled

Group shot of the gang!



Ice Climbing with cousin Kent :)

  Had a really fun afternoon on Saturday with cousin Kent doing some ice climbing in Grotto Canyon. The weather was windy and overcast with light snow come down, so our choice to get into a sheltered canyon turned out to be the right one. (Plus the noon start really limits the options for a bigger day! :)  )

  Kent successfully dropped Blair off for his first battle with learning to snowboard on the slopes of Nakiska, and arrived in good style for partake in some ice climbing with the crack-of-noon club. So we geared up and headed off to start our adventure. 

note: I had to decline the bean and tuna salad that Kent had made for us to take to the climb for lunch due to a deliciously sculpted ham, cheese, red onion, spinach sandwich, with a touch of prepared mustard, that I had already prepared the night before. However the bean salad did look delicious!

  We arrived at the climbs after a short hike up the canyon, and were greeted by a busy crowd of hikers and climbers. We put on our gear and Kent got the condensed version of the 'how-to' of ice climbing, and we headed up towards the main falls, AKA Grotto Falls.

  A party of 3 Aussies were scaling the ice on the climbers right hand side of the falls, so we chose the next obvious line on the climbers left to distance ourselves from the ice shrapnel coming down from above. Kent, still feeling quite unfamiliar with this foreign activity of clinging to a frozen waterfall with armor piercing tools, proceeded to climb the falls with the grace and tenacity of a seasoned veteran! It was great fun, and successfully topped out at the top of the falls ahead of our 3 Aussie comrades.

  I explained to Kent the procedures of 'rappeling' back down to the bottom of the climb, and this being his first time climbing and rappelling, he embraced my knowledge with eager enthusiasm. I'm not sure he fully understood the engaging nature of the 6mm cord that had been woven into the ice that we were about to trust our lives to, but he smiled and put the control into my hands that I would return us safely to the ground.

  Upon arriving safely to the bottom of the climb, we coiled the rope and ventured back down to our packs that had been stowed at the head wall junction of the three climbs. There we enjoyed our lunch, Kent his bean and tuna salad, me my tasty ham and onion sandwich, and we fueled up to tackle the next segment of our climbing adventure, the ice seep called 'Hers'. I hung the rope off the anchor at the top, and rigged our ropes to allow us to 'top rope' the mixed climb to the left called 'Scratch and Sniff'. Again Kent handily swung his tools and kicked his crampons up 'Hers', and humored me periodically with my paparazzi actions, and soon being being lowered from the anchors at the top. We both decided that we should give the mixed route a go next.

note: mixed climbing is climbing on rock (AKA dry tooling) with your ice tools and eventually reaching the ice to finish a route. This form of climbing originated due to the massive quantities of unformed ice routes not quite reaching the ground.

  After a quick demo, Kent was off, delicately balancing his tools on the small ledges of rock, and methodically placing the front points of his crampons on similar small edges as he progressed uniformly up the scrappy limestone. After completing the rock section of the pitch, he was rewarded with a large hole in the ice in which his ice tool was able to be 'hooked' with little chance of it falling out. After the engaging mind work of balancing up the rock on, the ice hook was needlessly welcomed and Kent stood atop the climb with a permanent grim!

  Being Kent's first time out ice climbing, he did exceptionally well, showing great poise, and an experts understanding of the physics and systems involved in the sport of ice climbing

I can't be certain, but I think he'll be back for more!

Kent psyched to swing the tools

Getting down to business on Grotto Falls

Serious business

Now that wasn't so hard!

Kent smiling on a climb called 'Hers'

More 'Hers'...

Nearing the top on 'Hers'

Kent trying his hand at 'Mixed' climbing

Kent succeeding quite handily on the drytooling section

of the mixed route 'Sketch and Sniff'