Live to ski

The last couple of days had brought quite some new snow to the region. So after enduring an interesting avalanche course on Saturday, Bram and I decided to head out for some real skiing. It definitely was time for our November turns. Due to easy access we decided to go skiing on Mt. Baker’s Heliotrope ridge again. The advantage is the glaciated area, that offers a good base for early turns.
While we drove up the forest service road, we were really surprised about he amount of snow. At one point we had to leave the car at the side of the road, because there was no way to go further with our Legacy.

That's as far as we could drive

So we parked the car and started skinning right away. It was about a kilometer to the trail head. We could even skin up the trail through the trees. Only some of the creeks were not completely covered. As soon as we hit the junction to the glacier and Heliotrope Ridge, we had to break trail through some 40 cm of fresh snow. So be climbed up to the ridge in variable visibility, just to ski down in varying visibility as well. It wasn’t really cold but very windy in times. At the bottom of the glacier we put our climbing skins back on and climbed up to the ridge again.

It was quite windy at times

It still was very windy and the visibility still was not the greatest. The snow pack was a little wind packed but still good to ski. We followed some ski tracks down and were amazed, that they led directly to the trail. It was possible to ski almost the entire trail. Only close to the trail head we took our skies off for a short distance to spare the base of the skies from some scratches.

All in all it was an amazing day of skiing that early in the season. And it was Bram’s turn to finish his turns all year. It had up to 70 cm of fresh snow on the glacier and almost all the terrain up on the ridge is ski-able. Some amazing turns on an amazing day.

As usual, carying skis

More pictures can be found here.

This weekend it was time for October turns. Since all the glaciers around Vancouver look pretty sad this year, Bram and I decided to drive down to Mt. Baker to get some turns in. Last week we had some heavy rain falls and we were hoping for some fresh snow.
So we haded up from the parking lot towards Heliotrope ridge. Snow started at around 1800 meters but we carried our skies pretty much until the glacier. Then we skinned up to the ridge and had a fantastic ride down. So we climbed up again and again and again. In total we skied four times from the ridge to the bottom of the glacier. There were some crevasses, but overall it was amazing skiing. The fresh snow was somewhat wind packed but it was still amazing to ski. Once more, Bram was faster uploading his pictures….

The last weekend of September it was time for Bram’s September turns. So the plan was to climb the North-West face of Rex’s Pillar, traverse it towards Joffre glacier, bivouac at Joffre-Matier col and climb Matier’s West face on Sunday. At the end, everything went different but we had a great time and at least climbed Rex’s pillar. And of course we skied. Just once down part of Joffre glacier and then down towards motel 66. The skiing on the glacier was pretty cool but the descent down Anniversary glacier was not the best. So many crevasses and so little snow. But all in all a great trip. Some pictures can be found here.

On September 7th, Labor day, our new room mate Stefan and me decided to head out for some turns on Mt. Baker. The Forest Park road has been closed since it got washed out early in spring but got temporarily opened that long weekend.
In pouring rain we started hiking up the trail.

Stefan in good mood

Still rainy

Getting there...

First contact

Hiking up in some fresh snow

Still hiking

While skiining up

First turns

On the way down

The new guy and me