Hello friends,
Last night I got back from our second backcountry camping trip. We all got back tired, smelling quite terribly and hankering for a shower. When I got back, I showered, ate some pizza and passed out. It was quite an exhausting trip and I am glad to be back in civilization but learned a ton and had a blast skiing!
Surreal snowscapes that were a staple for this trip
While in the backcountry, we completed our AST 2 (Avalanche Safety Training Level 2) course while doing some skiing. AST 2 essentially is putting together the pieces of understanding avalanche terrain and putting that into practice by assessing terrain and traveling only where you have a substantial margin of safety.
Our instructors for the course were Shaun King and Adam Burrell. It is quite a privilege to get such a cross section of guides for our trips. Gives us a chance to get a feel for different guiding styles and unique stories and perspectives.
We spent the first day in the classroom going over the route and details about the terrain. It is pretty interesting discussing all of this. Whenever you want to think about avalanche probabilities you need to consider 5 points - solar radiation, wind, precipitation, temperature and terrain.
Solar radiation affects the snow pack by melting it out (obviously) and making it more likely to avalanche. What is really interesting is that in winters, a ‘solar face’ of the mountain is the southern side (both east and west) because of the angle of the sun w.r.t Earth. So generally you would expect southern face instability due to solar radiation in the afternoon sun.
Solar aspects like this one of Bow Peak are prime targets for solar radiation. But they look awesome in the mornings! This was also our camp view, giving us nice views throughout our stay there :)
Whenever you get wind you expect the wind to move snow from the windward side of the mountain to the leeward side. Typically in the rockies in Canada, prevailing winds are from the south and south west. Because of that you generally find wind loaded snow slabs (and cornices, which are not so little and not so nice ice curls on top of mountain tops) on the north and north eastern faces of most mountains.
The Cirque peak ridge. If you look closely you can see an extra line of snow on the leftmost edge. That’s a cornice on the summit ridge.
Precipitation is generally associated with adding weight to the snow pack, with rain being worse than snow since it only adds weight and not volume. Given that precipitation (snow or rain) generally accompanies wind, you essentially get combination effects of loading and snow movement which makes it likely to avalanche.
Temperature again often plays closely with solar radiation, but not always. This one is easy to think about as well though - higher temperatures above 0 or rapid rises in temperature to near 0 makes the snow unstable, increasing the danger level.
Terrain is an interesting one as well. Slopes that are between 25-40 degrees are prime avalanche terrain. Anything lower than that is unlikely to avalanche and anything higher than 40 or 45 is too steep to hold any substantial amount of snow for a long time. So essentially the above 4 weather related points mostly apply to slopes that are between 25-40 deg slopes only.
Gentler slopes like this one are great for skiing because they pose very little avalanche risk and are good training because you don’t end up going too fast too quickly (there’s a word for this, right?) !
Another bonus point is that avalanche forecasters often track weather and precipitation closely over the entire winter season to watch for development of what they call ‘deep persistent layers’. These are essentially snow layers in the snow pack created by particular weather patterns that are know to be unstable. If such a layer exists in a snow pack they can cause the danger levels for avalanches to be much higher than the weather or terrain suggests. In such cases you can test the snow pack by digging a pit! Luckily though, depending on weather, these layers can heal making the snow pack more stable. Forecasters are constantly monitoring this and report it in bulletins like this:
https://avalanche.pc.gc.ca/bulletin-eng.aspx?r=1&d=TODAY
Day 1
Our first day was spent hiking in to the camp and setting it up. The plan was to hike onto Helen Ridge and camp there. We put our skis in walk mode with skins and skinned up to camp. Got lost for a minute there as we ended up on the wrong ridge. No problem though we just found a random but safe spot below tree line and set up.
Food first! We set up the group kitchen as the absolute first thing. It essentially involved a lot of snow digging.
Not a minute after setting up our tents we were in our kitchen melting snow. Since there is no source of running water on the peak, we melt snow to create water for everything we need. We just have to calculate and carry the correct amount of gas.
Melting snow is the most communal part about staying in the backcountry. For the 5 days that we were out - melting snow was our passion. It is a pretty fun time, contrary to what you would expect. I carried a tiny chess board up to camp and so we pulled it out and played a couple of games while we watched our snow melt and then rehydrate our dinner. Most nights were spent like this.
In addition to the kitchen, we also built a little patio viewing area in the snow to sit and chill and on that first night out we got to see the stars while we sipped on some hot chocolates. Each night we bundled up in our heaviest jackets and pants to stay warm.
Not pictured for obvious reasons but Noah built a place to ‘do your business’ using a tree well (nasty little things) and boy did that place have a nice view. It also sheltered from the wind and snow really well :)
Day 2, 3, 4
We spent the next few days finding cool terrain and skiing it. We got to experience our first semi- whiteout. Skiing downhill with no visibility is extremely unnerving. Given that I am already quite a newbie, not being able to see added an extra hindrance.
Nearly a whiteout that made it extremely difficult to ski.
I wiped out maybe 20-30 times over the week. Except for the one time where I was utterly exhausted I was able to get up each time - grumpy but ready to try again. The guides pointed out that I had a good attitude towards learning and keeping it light without letting it get to me. That was very heartening to hear and thankful also for the guides to give me some extra attention to make sure I made it through.
Shaun was pretty great and gave me a lot of good tips and attention to make it through the trip. One particularly witty phrase that I loved was the ‘windshield of your existence’ when describing my journey down the hill we had climbed. I am stealing that phrase from now on.
On day 4 we were able to ski a pretty long line after hiking/skiing to the furthest section away from camp. I captured a pretty surreal picture that kind of captures the size, beauty and wonder that you experience backcountry skiing.
Day 5
We skied down out of the campsite to the van, skiing down a gully with some clearance in the glades to ski down. I was glad that I ‘did my business’ in the morning when we navigated around a cliff which we gingerly stepped around with our skis to connect the gully to the path back to the van. But overall no major crashes or anything and definitely got the blood pumping skiing between the trees and trying to control the speed :)
Yours truly, struggling up some mellow slopes. Will is chilling however.
Next up is the ski-mountaineering trip which as usual I am both totally excited but also quite nervous about. As the old-school Canadian skiers would say “Ski good or eat wood”.
Until next time!
— G
P.S. I really appreciate all the replies and the thoughts you are sending me! I have been struggling with a lack of time to reply in a thoughtful manner. However, each reply I receive is a little bit of motivation to keep these updates going! Thanks :)