Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

Up Rampart Peak, down Excaliber Glades. Three laps around Gallows and Freeriders of Rohan, then one run down part of Unicorn Lair. Good snow today. I expected it to be a little affected by the warmer temperatures recently but it wasn't. Some slight wind affect higher up on Unicorn Lair but it still skied fine.
Today had several little bumps and rolls you could hop off, but there was always the knowledge that 40-foot cliffs were often lurking along the right or left of where we were skiing so you were hesitant to let it run too wild. Still had fun, enjoyed some steep pitches, and found a few little safe things to get little bits of air off of.
Finished with a flattish walk home in windy conditions.
Neat to see yet another new section of the terrain around here. We have covered a lot of it but there is still more.

I could continue enjoying this every day, but a week does start to give you your fill and it is time to go home, reset, and look forward to the next trip. That said, after the Japan trip and this trip with just a couple of weeks in between, I have forgotten that I still work. Monday will seem strange.

C • You still work? 2

Gaia 2180m

Snow in the forecast today, so we stayed in treed areas for visibility. Dropped below the hut between Seige and Elevator, then twice up a long climb to do two big long runs down S Squared (about 760m each). A great run, the first time down took quite a while as we managed a big group down this and I ended up doing several stops whenever I would catch up with people. The run went on and on, nice and long. The second run went a lot quicker. We were split up more so I only stopped a couple of times. Did more small jumping down and up the edges of the gullies, good fun. Snow was quite consistent all the way down, easy to ski, sometimes you didn't realize how much speed you were gaining.
Back up one more time for a run down the nearby line Don't Tell Russ. The upper part was just a little packed underneath and lumpy from the group last week, with soft snow overtop. Having some base underneath made it easy to get little airs off just about everywhere. Fun! Then cut hard right into the trees but there wasn't much space for a third line after Revy and Anne Marie, so I cut further right toward the open light but then realized this was S Squared which we had already skied. Still found a wide line of snow down the left that I had eyed up from the bottom before and had a good run. Was getting a bit tired by the top of the final climb.

C • Backcountry 1

Back on the tele gear! :)

A big tour of Secret Valley, with some long runs and big ridge walks.
Up to Midship Peak, down Kashmir to Luminosa Lake. Up and along Little Goat Ridge,down Hourglass, down an unnamed run, down Walk the Line, and a pretty direct trip back up with Revy, Seani and Stuart for a cool,steep run down off the north side to return to Luminosa Lake again and head home, but not without a nice descent off Midship back toward the lodge.
Then awesome fresh poke (raw tuna) for appetizer.

Had a nice big faceplant in soft snow, just a few turns into my first run. Otherwise, was feeling fairly at home on the tele gear again.

Gaia 1610m Ambit2 2080m

Started the day with a run down Siege below the lodge, then up Kinbasket Peak for 5 great laps of Plumb Line, from various angles. On the first run, I got a nice first track down the gully with nice snow. Light was just a little flat, so didn't ski it as aggressively as possible but it was still great. On the next run, traversed a little farther and had a fairly planar run down with a fun steeper pitch at the end. Then two more laps approaching from the climber's right instead, from Consternation Knob (so named because you have the tough dilemma of so many options of good directions to ski from that point). At the last steep pitch, the group talked me over to a very fun line. It dropped steeply enough that I couldn't see over the initial roll, but it skied quite nicely. Then I got seriously one-upped (ten-upped?) by Cody the hut custodian who bombed down the entire slope at Mach 1.5 and then grabbed 10 feet of air off a nice rock outcrop near the bottom (and landed it nicely). Back up once more on the climber's left, all the way to the summit. The first three turns were a bit more wind-affected but weren't a problem thanks to the heads up from Bart. After that, it was a long run of creamy turns all the way down. Super good.
Looking back, we tracked that mountain up pretty good, but there were still more lines available. Cody did another big run down from the top and was still finding big zones of untracked snow.
For a little while on the last uptrack, the sun pumped some energy into the slope; the west facing slopes might be a little crusty on top tomorrow.

Forgot to fuse the alti-baro on the Ambit2. Fused it tonight.
Gaia GPS 1476m, Ambit2 2080m

Headed to Rasta Pass. Did a cool skinny ridge traverse along Zeppelin Ridge. Had one small remote triggered release on the way up that didn't affect us and didn't amount to much but it was interesting to see it let go. Skied down near Gallows North. Up toward Rasta Peak but not quite to the peak (the upper snow was wind affected on this side), down to Cowboy Bowl, then all the way up to the summit of Rasta Peak. Then NW down off Rasta Peak. Up for a shorter run down to Tetras Lake, watched Derek get eaten by a massive hidden air pocket under the snow. Did two shorter runs down to our first skin spot of the day. A few sluffs on some steeper pitches. I skied over a roll that I knew would likely pop (and told the group it probably would, not to be surprised, and that I would be turning left away from it). Skied it, turned left, then turned back. Carbon shouted at me that my sluff was chasing me and catching me. Kept skiing the line I wanted, didn't noticed the sluff catching me, but was ready for it in case. Nice snow, a fun run, we did two laps of this. At the bottom, a couple of people decided to head back to the lodge nearby. Revy was up for one more run with me, and four more jumped on board including Derek who wanted to try to hang on with the last group of the day. He succeeded. One more run down a new line in a similar area. More good snow. On the way back to the lodge I passed Derek on purpose and then pointed out that he was out the longest and "outlasted" all of us. He did an extra metre up and down the helipad just to be sure. A good day.
Enjoyed my new VHF radio that Revy programmed up for me. Was able to send and receive on two different channels independently (able to access the VHF lodge simplex on one channel and an FRS frequency on the other channel). Finished the day with ski trip-themed Bananagrams. Words like siiiick and sweeeeet are allowed to have as many "i"s and "e"s as you have.

Gaia GPS 1712m, Ambit2 2324 m. Massive ascent discrepancy between the two. I had set the reference elevation on the Ambit2 the night before. For tomorrow I think I will turn the fused alti-baro back on.

Sentry Lodge

Down Elevator, sent Derek directly down to the creek. He still had a good run but then had to hike over. Then Limber Pine to Rampart Creek. Up to near Whiskey Jack Lake and continued up to Archer's Lookout for two runs down. Nice views of Kinbasket Lake and some surrounding peaks from the top. Nice to see some sun and have some views. Not windy. One run down Archer's Woods, and one halfway over to S Squared. Waited a while for some of the group on the way down. Skied all the way down to Rampart Creek again, via a run that had some little drops and rolls that were fun if you were up for them. Took a long wrap-around approach back to the lodge where most people called it a day. Revy, Stuart and I did one more 300m run down Siege. Instead of the wider main line, we took a gully to the skier's right which was a smile generator :). As I approached Revy and Stuart after the bottom of the gully, I could see more nice skiing ahead and just kept going, about the same time they "gave me approval to do so".... I was already on my way :). A nice bonus run.

Flew in to Sentry Lodge. Did any avy rescue simulation. Stuart and Revy set up a really good one with a couple of very realistic and interesting challenges. Three victims buried, one near the top of a steep slope and two buried close to each other lower down. One of the hasty searchers was told to pretend to not notice the first burial and ski past. The two buried close to each other provided an extra challenge for zeroing in on the third victim in the presence of the nearby signal of the second victim. This was all done without climbing skins on to give a realistic simulation of an accident while descending. This made it more difficult to move on all directions and made it very difficult to return upslope if too many resources were sent downslope too soon.