Ryan and I were lucky to have his Mum stay with our daughters for a few days over the holiday season so that we could sneak away to find some snow! And we talked Mark S into joining us too, while his expectant wife looked on in envy.
The Rockies are a little short on snow this early in the year, and with the wind slabs that were forming in the snowpack, we were nervous about conditions. On our first day, we drove from Calgary to
Rogers Pass, hoping to find a "safer" space. A quick chat with the very helpful Parks staff at the visitor station wasn't encouraging: the only place that might even be an option was the Ursa Trees, but to get there you had to traverse several avalanche paths; it was a bit like traveling up the barrel of a loaded gun. And to top it off, it was snowing heavily.
We had approx 5 hours of daylight to work with, so we quickly kitted-up, and headed up the creekbed. As you can see, the snow is not very high yet. We encountered alders in the gully, and there were drops and ditches that would normally be full of snow. In the gully it was "slushing" and as we made our way up the tracks - which, BTW, were full-on agressive up-tracks that I am okay to skin up, but I draw the line when you purposely set a track through the middle of a tree! - the slush turned to big, fat flakes.
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| Heading up the barrel of the gun at Rogers Pass: we need snow! |
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At one point we caught up to a few other parties on the mountain. Everyone was in the Ursa Trees, it was the safest risk that day. But we were also passed by a dude going mock-5, who was followed a few minutes later by his companions, who pointed out that they were on lap 5 - and yet they were blowing past us! As it turns out, he's a pro mtn biker from the coast, and we humbly ate their dust.
We skied one lap at Rogers Pass that day. My right foot was cramping, I could hardly put weight on it. We managed to link some turns together, but the early season conditions meant that we cliffed-out over and over. Mark had some wicked wipeouts, Ryan found the pointy stick, and I suffered with my bruised foot. But it was fresh tracks in a stunning location, and we were looking forward to the next couple of days in the 'Den!
Back in Golden at the hotel, we discovered that everything in our bags was soaked from either sweating or the slushing. We cranked the heat and hung jackets, sweaters, pants, hats and boots off of all available surfaces! I also spent quality time icing my aching foot, ah, the glories of ski touring.
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| The Chinese Laundry in our hotel room in Golden, BC |
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| Icing my bruised foot. Ah, the glories of touring. |
We woke early, ready for the excitement of the next two days! We had arranged with
Scott Belton of
Adrenalin Descents to spend 2 days touring the Dogtooth Range, staying at a secluded, hide-away location that he affectionately calls, The Dogtooth Den. We met Scott at the local diner, then headed up to a snowmobile trailhead to begin our journey. When the big machines arrived and started their high-performance engines, it changed the mood at the trailhead - we we anxious to get rolling so that our "high powered engines" (aka: self-propelled ski touring) could get underway! We loaded up some sleds with our simple kits - touring equipment, change of dry clothes, and a toothbrush - and strapped our skis to the sleds. We were towed approx. 14km into the backcountry, into a secluded valley that has been designated for non-motorized equipment. We parked the machines and set off on foot in search of the 'Den.
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| Mark's first ride on a snowmobile: let's play crack the whip! |
Of course once we left the snowmobile tracks behind, the solitude was sublime. Despite the low snow volume for this time of year (end of December), there was plenty of snow for me to push around!
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| The view back down the valley. |
Scott, an experienced alpine guide and adventurer on many continents, joked about putting on blindfolds as he guided us to the hidden 'Den. When we arrived, we discovered a 5-star tent! He offered us a variety of sizes of down booties for wearing around the tent, we helped unroll the plush -30C-rated sleeping bags onto the 3'wide cots (the tent comfortably sleeps 6), and he got the fire roaring inside: when we returned after a day of skiing, the temp inside the tent was close to 20C!
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| Entering the Dogtooth Den |
We didn't dally - short daylight hours were pushing us up to the alpine, time to make tracks in search of the pow!
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| Up we go! |
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| On the Ridge |
Scott sets a great uptrack - lots of uphill at a reasonable pace with amazing space for kickturns. Pretty posh. My first downhill of the day was a bit trepidacious: Scott's binding broke so we spent extra time on the exposed ridge finding a solution. By the time we were ready to descend, I had had too much time to think about the pitch. In reality, it was perfectly skiable, well within my abilities - I just had to put on bit girl panties and jump in. The ride down was amazing! Even with the small trees sticking thru the snow, the snow felt great.
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| Cindy on the Ridge, view of The Clamshell in the background |
We managed 2 laps - one on the ridge, then another long climb up to a couloir that offered a few choices. We picked the simplest way down, a slope of approx 49 degrees with a few rocks that needed more snow coverage. No prob. This time, I was ready to jump in.
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| Ryan on the way UP - awesome view of the valley below. |
We arrived back at the tent at dusk. As we munched on snacks and arranged our clothes around the tent to dry for the following day, Scott got busy prepping dinner. We enjoyed an excellent chicken stirfry, he prepared all the meals on our trip, excellent nosh! It was worth the weight of carrying in a wineskin to match his culinary efforts!
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| Mood lighting inside the tent |
When the generator died and the lights went out, we stoked the fire and tucked into our extra warm sleeping bags.
The next day was snowy and overcast - not ideal conditions for an already unstable snowpack. We got rolling and headed back up the couloir. This time Mark elected to get a bit higher, and descended a very narrow, rocky, +50degree slope - Ryan and I took the same route as previous day, still plenty of room for fresh tracks, and watched from below. On the ride back to the tent we noted how easy it is to pop off an unexpected hidden rock - we found the one that Mark launched off yesterday and applauded his ability to stick the unexpected landing! Nice one! We ended up with 3 laps on this day, each with fresh tracks the entire time.
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| Outside the 'Den |
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| Switch up the skins, ready for another lap |
We finished the day with a cruisy, snowy, pillowy run through some trees. It brought us level with the snowmobile, so skinned up and headed for home. The ride out was entertaining, we attempted to be towed by the snowmobile to avoid the flats trail sections. Some of us were more successful than others..... but we made it home safe and sound. Great food, unique accommodations, fun guide, new terrain, powdery snow, and great friends = wonderful getaway!
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