Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

Wapta traverse day 2 - Peyto hut to Balfour hut

Had flat light and whiteout for the first half of the day. Got to take turns leading each other while the person behind would verify if you were going straight. I curve left, BigFish curves right. Even the sun couldn’t be relied on as a reference because it would completely disappear. The group wanted to go more right than I was leading them at first. They had a compass and a plan. We ended up too far right and amongst some tricky rock outcrops. We corrected from there and went to have a look at the Vulture Col option (what they had been trying to find all along). Vulture vol ended up being great and we enjoyed a more exhilarating ski down a steeper slope than the classic route, with lots of additional good turns down the apron. Some loose snow on top of a sun crust made for decent skiing but you could sheer your edges out if you tried turn too hard. Skied all the way down to Balfour hut where we again marvelled at the amount of space our group had during these exclusive Covid bookings.
(Coming down from Vulture Col, aim for the flat table of bare rock in front of Hector Lake but stay left as you get lower down so that you can ski to Balfour Hut from above)
Spent the evening staring out the window at the crux leading up to Balfour high col, trying to memorize as much as we could in case the visibility was poor the next morning.

Day 1 of Wapta traverse. Peyto Lake viewpoint to Peyto hut, with BigFish, LittleFish, Atsuko and Lucas.

Stopped at Bow Summit/Peyto viewpoint to check the snow quality. It was nice spring skiing snow so we decided to do the descent from here through the trees instead of driving further to the end of the lake where you would not have to descend as much if you were trying to avoid bad crust. Got underway around 4:00 pm after an exciting pivot of plans.
Left our skins on and heels unlocked (next time I would just go full downhill mode with heels locked down and skins off). Followed the summer trail. Had to take skis off and walk across one section of dirt. Then had a great ski down a slide path to the lake with nice spring snow.
Followed the gravel bed and had to take the skis off several times to cross bare patches of gravel or cross the creek. Angled up the slope to the right of the creek to get onto the lateral moraine. Still had another spot or two higher up where we had to tiptoe across some rocks and even take skis off one more time.
Roped up for the final pitch to the hut in flat light. Arrived just before 9:00 PM still in daylight.

Varied up the catch and pull a little to feel the difference of waiting to pull more to the hips versus early when you would press down more.

Working on keeping my head even lower and not raising it at all to breathe. I have learned that this can be easily achieved by drinking half the pool which also makes my torso heavier, thereby not rotating my legs down.

C • Exactly! 2

Tips from Bob

Lower trails at CNC with CTC mid-cuff

Tried breathing on the other side and it went well. Then tried alternating and it went well too but it feels like 3 strokes is too few for the breathing cadence and 5 strokes is too many. Did some lengths of breathing on the other side while doing 4 strokes, but also practiced the alternating (3 strokes) because it felt like I should get comfortable being able to breathe on either side whenever I might need to.

Gap hill at a not-crazy pace (suited me fine with all of these swim workouts in the schedule too) with Suzy and her dog, followed by David KL, Myka and Dave M. Nice temperature, ran in capris and a thin long-sleeved. The wind at the top didn’t feel unwelcome. Got to the gate in 29 minutes. Continued just a little further to the very top of the rise.