The snow and ice are finally going away and we’re getting some warm weather. It’s mostly snow-free around town now, although it does keep snowing again, and getting cold again.
Down by Policeman’s Creek, in the middle of town.
Category: canada
We went to ski this thing:
It involved another episode of cheating, where we caught the gondola up to the village at Sunshine, then rode a chairlift to gain even more height, then whizzed off downhill into the meadows. Eventually we ran out of speed and had to start skinning. And then after some hole-digging, some steep uphill skinning.
Then it was weeeeeeh downhill again (that’s me in that cloud of powder… somewhere).
And some more hole digging and food eating (leftover spaghetti pizza is a fantastic meal for backcountry skiing). There were great views off the back of Quartz Ridge.
For our second day out in the field we did the Dolomite Peak Circuit. It’s a loop of about 20km, somewhere along the Icefields Parkway.
There was bouldering to be done as well as skiing though – Dolomite Peak occasionally has parts fall off it apparently.
Heading round the back of the Peak, we were following a set of wolverine tracks for a while – they have a rolling gait that leads to a distinctive footprint.
And then I fell in a tree well. For a long day, not much happened. We skied up. We dug a hole. We skied down. We skied up again. And then we skied down again through trees and horrible snow. And then we were at the cars. That was pretty much it. It was a nice day – though the weather closed in towards the end.
Woah, it’s been a while… I haven’t been on the internet much, although I have found the time to make a pie chart displaying exactly how much time I’ve been spending at work and in transit and sleeping, leaving only 3 hours or so at home for laundry/dinner cooking/grocery shopping/going for bike rides/bouldering…. But anyway, prepare for an onslaught of backdated adventures. With lots of pictures and not many words no doubt.
This one is more of a Nordic trail than anything else, with just one little steep section to get from the lower lake to Rockbound Lake. Optional to keep going to the top of Castle Mountain, but much higher avy risk as you go further. We just stopped and had lunch at the lake then flew down the packed trail home again.
Touring loop up to Simpson Pass and returning via Sunshine Village
We started at the Sunshine Village carpark, heading out along Healy Creek, passing through several large avalanche run-offs, before reaching the Simpson Pass turn off. From the turn off you’re heading south for about a a kilometre up a drainage, then it flattens out as you reach Simpson Pass.
We ate some lunch at Simpson Pass, then headed up around under the bluffs above Simpson Pass until a reaching a weakening in the cliff-line, then up onto the Sunshine Meadows.
You hit Sunshine Village at the top of the Wawa Chairlift, then ski down through Sunshine Villlage back to the car. It’s a nice easy day tour with fairly limited exposure to avalanche risk.