Greetings. The past week and a half has treated us pretty well. A friend was able to book a vacation house for cheap at Radium Hot Springs, just south of Banff and Glacier National parks in British Columbia, so we joined in to share the house. During the winter Radium Hot Springs itself is in my uneducated view just a dead vacation resort town with nothing much to see. In the summer it functions “as  a gateway to the national parks” (as they advertise it). What it really means is that all the fat tourists take a stop there to soak in the hot springs and stay for a night or two in one of the identical vacation houses before they explore the national parks. And by exploring I mean driving the huge RVs through the park, occasionally stopping to grill some hamburgers at the car-accessible campground and checking the gift shops for souvenirs. In the winter it is a suitable location only for us since the Banff area ski resorts and Rogers Pass, the Canadian ski-touring mecca, are within a daytrip distance.

We did couple of days at the nearby ski resorts and got to hit Rogers Pass during a bluebird day, something that is supposed to be a rare occurrence over there during the midwinter. But since the area just loves to gather all the clouds to annoy the skitourers we had to endure through one foggy graybird day first. We chose to go to a treeskiing area named Hourglass, even though we knew we wouldn’t be able to spot our run down before riding it. Of course on the ride down there was less snow than expected and we ended up navigating through the cliffbands and from a gully to another.

Laura skinning through the old-growth forest to the Hourglass

.. and riding down after getting through the cliffs

All the good touring at Rogers Pass is accessed straight from the highway. The problem is that the highway needs to be protected from avalanches, and it lurks through some steep, very avalanche prone mountains. The control work is done by the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery using three specifically modified 105mm  howitzers. These designed to blast mountains to release the avalanches preemptively so that traffic is not caught in one unexpectedly.

It is unfortunate that the mountains that get regularly blasted by these howitzers are the same ones that the skitourers would like to ski. Because of that, there’s a permit system in place at Rogers Pass. Before touring at any of the areas near the pass it is necessary to stop at the Glacier National Park Discovery Center to check which areas are open and to get a free permit. Preventing getting shrapnel from a 105mm howitzer in your brain is a pretty good idea. It could kinda hurt. Unfortunately, during the two days that we skied at the pass most of the areas were closed, and brain damage (other than from alcohol consumption) and a hefty fine wasn’t in our plans. We’ll be back in the spring, at latest.

The second day with the bluebird skies still provided though.

Coming from the trees and the shadowy valley into the alpine. First we were going to hit Balu Pass, the easy sightseeing tour that is recommended for first-timers in the neighborhood, but since the weather was great plans were changed and we chose to skin up to the Bruins area instead..

Someone had got an early start and was already riding down from the Video Peak, the snow was great as it was the first bluebird day after the last storm cycle

(click for bigger panorama photo)
1200 vertical meters (3900ft) later, up on the ridge that leads to Ursus Minor.  There was a nice looking chute down from the ridge with two ass-wiggling, euro style tight turns tracks in it. Respecting our European roots we chose to ride down the same thing.

Laura starting the 1200m descent down

Looking up at our tracks, snow was excellent. yum yum.

Then comes the low angle pow, and a lot of it!

If you want to see something else than snowboarding then please convince Laura to switch equipment. How about a monoski?

With the weather turning into worse with grey skies and fog and our time at the nearly-free vacation house ending back to south and Nelson it was. During the drive back we hit a traffic jam at Creston, a 4000 people town in the middle of nowhere.. I don’t know the last time a traffic jam here has happened, maybe a hundred or so years ago when someone couldn’t get his horse to pull a cart on the main street? So this is what we call a once in a lifetime experience. In the end it turned out that the olympic torch is passing through and the city center is partly closed for traffic.

Laura continues our extreme, gravity-defying efforts when we take a quick stop at Kootenay Lake

The elegant white boats, the deep blue lake and the gorgeous white mountains pale in comparison to our shiny & sexy dark green Subaru. 9500 km without a carwash. And be glad there is no sound associated with photos.

It’s been a while since the last big dump in Nelson but we get some really good turns exploring the backcountry near the Whitewater ski area. Today we did a small loop around and I got the camera out a couple of times to try and take photos in the variable mix of sun and clouds.

Osmo enjoying the rewards of the first uphill part of the tour

Osmo a bit further down in the weird light

Coming back up through the burned forest

Osmo exiting a fun chute on the second run

.. and laying the euro style carve a bit further down.

That’s it for now, it looks like there’ll be some snowfall from tomorrow on so expect to hear back from us soon.