Rock 2, the finale

This is it. The last out trip of the 2011/2012 MAST program. 12 people in total ended this course in Canmore, for rock climbing. The others spent their time in Fernie on a bike instructorship.

This final week was a ‘what do you want to learn’ week? The guides were at our disposal to teach us as much or as little as we wanted. There was the promise of multi-pitch and lead climbing if the weather did its part.

Day 1 was spent climbing. Routes were put up and the whole day was all about getting used to being back on rock. Fingers were bloodied and feet were punished, but it was all in the name of fun. Back at camp we had a slack line set up and passed the daylight away (of which there was plenty) trying to walk across a 2.5 cm thick piece of webbing.

Day 2 would turn out to be the black sheep of the week. Rain in Canmore and snow in Banff would be on the menu, forcing us indoors. Luckily for us we had the Banff centre for ourselves. The is a great climbing gym, where we were able to hone our climbing technique as well as polish some old skills and learn some new ones. This was also where most of us were introduced to lead climbing and (some would say) more importantly, lead falling. Climbing six meters up and then having to simply let go is an odd feeling and one that takes a while to get comfortable with.

Day 3 is where (sh)it got real! Multi pitching. This was a skill i had been looking forward to since i had applied to the MAST program and it did not disappoint. The view from the ground was good, from midway was great and from the top was spectacular!

The guide would lead up, set an anchor and then belay us up one by one. Arriving at the station we would clove hitch ourselves to the anchor and then swap ropes and continue on up. 5 pitches in total. The closer to the top we got, the closer the weather approached. We survived the day with only a few snowflakes as visitors.

What goes up, must come down and we were able to rappel down the entire 155m face that we had climbed, our last rappel a full 60m long with two ropes. Good times!

Day 4 was a push yourself day. 5.10s were attempted and conquered! The weather was perfect, the rock was cold on arrival but great to the touch once the sun worked its magic. This was a full day of climbing. All 6 in my group gave their all in trying to get up some previously unattainable route. The guiding was more hands off, just a few words as to where to place your feet or hands.

The final day was spent on an easy slab, due to the amount of people climbing on may long. Some lead climbing was practiced and a very chilled out last day was had by all.

The end of Rock 2 and the out trips of MAST.

If you have followed any of the blogs from this years bloggers and are wondering if the program is for you, just go for it. It is 9months you most definitely will not regret.

Wapta – Base Camp

Time for some alpine skiing? I think so!

Starting out on our trek across the frozen Bow Lake, the weather couldn’t have been nicer. It was a warm -11 degrees with sun and few clouds in the beautiful blue sky making the walk enjoyable but also remembering to sunscreen every few hours to be safe. Just under the Bow Hut one of our team members broke his binding which was an impossible fix for the time being. The importance of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your bindings really hit home for me at this moment, as well as, how quick and sudden a kink can be thrown into the trip. Brian skied out to rent a pair in town for our guy and everything worked out for the remainder of the trip.

Really know your capablities of how much you can carry, only carry the essentials and shed the weight where you can. When you are carrying 50-60lbs. on your back, it can really make or break you.

The views were breathtaking even on the walk up to where we would be making our base camp between  Mt. St. Nicholas, Mt. Olive and Mt. Gordon. (St. Nicholas pictured above)

After the trek up with our heavy bags to where we would make camp with our temporarily smaller group, as tired as we were, we dug down in the snow to make a pad for our tents, dug out a kitchen big enough for the group made and made dinner. It was a long day but the view was more than worth it and as the sun set behind the mountains, everything was worth while. It’s easy to find peace in the mountains.

The next day our two members joined us after breakfast ready to start our first accent of Mt. Gordon. It seemed like a mountain with a short distance with a roll towards the peak, which we assumed was quite close, but as we learned quickly was how deceiving the glacier is with distance. The gentle rolling slopes up to the mountain were a nice climb but continued on each time you thought you might be nearing the top. But with each step further, it offered a new and gorgeous view. As we rounded a corner to ascend the sub-peak, we were glad amazed at everything we could see. 

After enjoying the view, we made our way over towards the summit of Mount Gordon which included a short but fun boot pack.

After summiting we headed SW to enjoy 2000 vertical feet of the most consistently soft snow that I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying . It wasn’t fresh powder but it was soft as satin against the bottom of our skis and each turn was better than the last.

After this, we summited yet another of Gordons sub-peaks and made our long journey back to base camp. The long walk seemed to stretch on and on, and with the bright sun beating down on us in late afternoon, the importance of hydration never seemed so vital. The glacier seemed to stretch out in front of us like an endless white desert. But we made it back to the tents to enjoy some of the joys of base camping.

Winter camping is cold but very fun because it shortens the approach time and gives you more time in the day to actually ski. It’s tough to put those cold boots on in the morning, but after you do, there’s nothing to complain about when you look around at where you are. I am still amazed at all we could accomplish in a day, of all the ground we covered just walking on skis.

NOTE: Putu’s awesome homemade boots looked like fun… but invest in some down hut boots. Trust me… winter camping is much more enjoyable with warm feet after being in cold ski boots all day.

Day Three we tackled St. Nicholas which involved short-roping techniques that we learned on our Athabasca Glacier Trip. Then moved over to Mt. Olive which we decided after we reached the summit we should ski down, half the team went back to get the skis. 

St. Nicholas, Mt. Olive, and another side of Mt. Gordon, three peaks and two ski runs in one day.

The first two days we were blessed with beautiful clear and warm weather, the third we had a nice day of scattered clouds which moved into overcast to keep us cool while we climbed each peak, although the UV radiation was still high. and on the forth we got to experience what a whiteout felt like. We had a small bit of visibility in the morning luckily to shoot some bearings. Now was the time to put our navigation skills that we learned during the first few weeks of the program to the test. The importance of knowing how to shoot bearings, orienating the map and knowing where you are and where you want to be really sunk in during this day. It was a bazare feeling skiing into a white abyss and walking into what seemed like thin air. This was probably one of my favorite days because it really tested what we had learned all year.

With a few great tips from our guide on how to navigate the white abyss we managed to find our way to the base of Mt. Thompson and see the rock figure up on the cliffs called the “yeti” or “sasquatch” and to even summit Mt. Rhondda! We got a chance  to practice more rope and glacier travel tricks to make our way up the ridge to the peak. With the elevation, compass and map telling us that we reached the top, we carefully skied down and back to find camp again. Time for back bearings! We found camp fairly easily. Although it became quite clear that under worse conditions this would have been much more difficult. 

On our last day, we had to dig out our tents that had been half buried in fresh snow that had been blown all around. We tore down and packed up ready to ski down with our large backpacks. Walking up is one thing with all that weight, but skiing down is a whole new skill. We made our way down and out in good time while navigating through the storm, being quite aware of the new dangers of snow and wind loading. We made it out safe and sound with all of our new skills and great memories.

We really got lucky with the beautiful clear weather which allowed us to see the vast beauty of the glacier, as well as the white out storm which allowed us to test our skills at navigation and leadership. I won’t forget this trip and hope to do many trips like it in the future.

Overall, my knowledge and respect for the mountains has leaped forward yet again. Each day brought something new and every view was breathtaking which has continued to stun me each time I think back to this amazing experience. Coming away from this trip, I have learned

• Always be on top of sunscreen application on the glacier, UV rays attack from all sides and you can severly burn your lips, your nostrils, and even your gums. Always wear sunglasses or goggles, always wear sunscreen (even on cloudy days which could be worse for UV rays than a bluebird day) and get SPF lip balm.
• A white out on a glacier can really be a mental game. You can almost get vertigo when all you is is white like the inside of a pillowcase. Always being active looking around for breaks in the cloud cover, knowing where you are on the map and really having confidence in your navigation skills are key.
• While walking in a white out, it is easy to get off track. Thanks to the guides we have some neat tricks to prevent that.
• How much the aspect of a mountain can affect the snow conditions, via snow depth, wind and sun effects.
• Down hut boots are more than worth its weight in gold! Invest in some!
• Really get to know your bindings. Really research the binding learning the strengths and weaknesses, learn how to fix them, know which parts are likely to break and carry spare parts with the tools for it.

ENJOY

Kayaking on the Slocan River

We are coming to the end of the course now and kayak 1 is the last skill of the water portion of MAST. Only six people took the kayak segment and none of us regretted our decision. We were based out of Endless Adventure in Crescent Valley, which is just down the road from Nelson, on the Slocan River.

The first day was spent on a lake getting used to the kayaks and paddles. No one fell in, but unstable is probably a good word to describe our performance.
Later that evening we headed to the pool where we were able to try the Eskimo roll and T-rescue. Good times and frustrating times. It is a strange sensation to be under the water strapped into something.

Days 2 through 5 were spent on different parts of the river.

After a warmup we were let loose on the river, trying to guide our kayaks in to eddies, out of eddies, hearing paddle, paddle, paddle the whole time. Breaking through the eddy line (a frothing mass of beginner destruction between the main current and the eddy target) was an adventure in itself. But as the week progressed we were able to navigate them easier with more confidence.

The next skill was ferrying, which is basically getting the kayak from one side of the river to the other. A 45degree angle is used to let the water push you to your desired destination. With some tilt you make it, without tilt you go for a swim. Tilt is your friend.

Everyday we were pushing our comfort levels, taking skills we had learnt and using them in more difficult situations. Initiation wave and elevator waves were two such places that tested our paddling abilities and also our determination to not tip over.

We also scouted a wave section we hoped to run the next day, adding another skill of river reading to our repertoire. This is a very important skill as it after the course we hope to be heading out on different rivers to further our skills.

Day 5 came, the sun was out and the water was cold. We had another warm up in a big eddy, practicing rolls and then off again, into the whitewater.
The skills came together and everyone had a great time. There was a great moment when Kev tipped his boat and was able to execute a kick-ass roll to right himself. With some shouts of expletive joy we eddied onto the elevator wave for one final session and then it was back to the van and Fernie bound.

Whitewater Raft 1

A short clip from a day during our week of whitewater raft one, in the Elk Canyon just outside of Fernie,BC.

Ski Tour 3 – The Wapta Traverse

The final part of our ski tour program; the Wapta Traverse, a 42km trip, where every millimeter is covered with a Splitboard or (these old fashioned things called) skis. Added to this is a 50lb/20kg backpack filled with all of the essentials. Most people do this traverse using the very well placed Alpine Club of Canada Huts, but not in MAST, oh no, that would be too easy, so we camped the whole thing.
How was it? Absolutely unbelievably amazing.

It starts with a nightmare ride down on ice through trees to get to Peyto Lake. Once on the lake you transition from ride mode to touring mode.

Then it’s skinning time!

Day one was all about getting used to hiking with a heavy pack on. Plus, it was warm, really warm, for which we were thankful for (much more pleasant that walking in -20c weather no?). However, it did mean that we were sweating and a smellin’. Sunscreen was voraciously applied, in an attempt to stave off burnt skin. Never before have i put sunscreen up my nose!

Once off the lake it was uphill.

The view improved as we moved higher.

As we moved onto the toe of the glacier we put on our harnesses. Crevasses are a big part of the terrain and no one wanted to get personal with one. Glacier travel was the name of the game for the following 3 days.

By this time the heat was full on. People were starting to feel it.

Camp spot number one was pretty amazing. And the sun set on a beautiful day.

Day 2 was all about more skinning, however, we had another added objective for the day; summit something. This something turned out to be Mt. Olive, over 3000m or 10000ft (depending on which century you’re from).

The walk there was not something to complain about. We even met up with the basecamp crew halfway through the day.

Whilst on the glacier the walking is pretty straightforward, at least with the visibility we had. It is relatively flat and with the sun out you can see your objective from a different province, literally! So after a long, flat walk we punched up a little slope and were at the shoulder of Mt. Olive. Time for some short roping action.

It was a fairly short ridge walk, but we felt superhuman due to the coils of rope adorning our bodies. We were in two teams of 3 on the push for our first summit of the traverse.

After a short push we summited, stoked on life we posed for some epically cheesy photos!

From the summit we followed the same trail down and then finally my splitboard was made whole again and we were able to ride down to the next camp site, where we could get a good look at the crux of the traverse that awaited us on day 3; the Balfour High Col.

But we wouldn’t have to worry about that until after some food!

Day 3: The Crux.
So basically, we had to get to the high col before the weather set in. This meant one continuous perpetual skin up for almost 3 hours. It was through some of the most breathtakingly ominous terrain these eyes have ever seen. It made me feel very small and unimportant. Needless to say, we reached the col and had a well earned drink and some calories.

The serac wall of doom.

The cliff face under which we passed on a snow bridge that spanned a crevasse. The ACMG guide approved way of safety and least resistance.

From the high col it was a simple matter of picking a camp spot and then riding down to rest the legs. We arrived at camp before 2 p.m. So we had a nice relaxing afternoon. Which we took advantage of.

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And a good thing too, as the weather gods were to show us no mercy over the following 2 days.

Day 4 was a test in patience and sanity. The visibility was cut to zero. We could see literally nothing. This gave us an excellent chance to try whiteout navigation. A skill that without, you are toast in the high alpine. Roped up in teams of three, the leader with a probe or prussic on ski pole stabs away in front of themselves, reading the terrain. The person behind has a bearing to a set destination and calls out left or right to keep the team in a straight line. Not the most ideal mode of transport, but the only way. This whole exercise is made even more difficult with the addition of horizontal wet snow attacking you as if you insulted its mother.
We made camp at 6pm, drenched, unnerved and really not looking forward to the next day. It was a needed and humbling experience, but one i shall not be putting on my to re-do list.

The view.

Day 5 dawned, exactly like day 4 ended. Thankfully the last day of instant oatmeal. Packed up we recommenced our traverse, now with more hope of finishing and getting it done than at any other time of the trip. One crux of the day saw us skin up a steep face and from there on out it was downhill. There was some white knuckle skiing in splitmode for myself (apparently it would have constituted a green run). Then it was into the best snow of the trip, before some trees and then as we started, a lake.

A lake that is quite possibly the longest lake on the planet, or at least thats what it felt like on day 5. The ride aft the lake is something that i no longer wish to think about, having blocked out the 6000 transitions i made from skin to ride to skin to ride in the effort to survive what must have been the worst ski out of anyones life, ever. Melodramatic, possibly?

The Wapta traverse, amazing, humbling, enjoyable and hell all rolled into one 5 day expedition.

P.s. forgive the longevity of this post, but my oh my, what a trip. MAST highlight i think.

Ski tour 2 – Roger’s Pass

Ski tour 2 was a 5 day trip into Roger’s Pass, which is located one hour east of Revelstoke. We were based out of the Wheeler Hut, a huge 30 person building, only 20 minutes away from the highway.

Initially the idea was to spend 3 nights at the wheeler hut and one night up on the glacier in the Asulkan Hut. Unfortunately, due to high avalanche danger, we were unable to get up the Asulkan drainage to the hut. However this meant that we were able to concentrate on setting a correct skin track and learning good terrain management.

Roger’s Pass is a huge area, with most of it in a National Park. This means that there is a high level of control into where you can and can not go. There is a permit system put in place to keep visitors safe. The highway is often closed due to avalanche control.

Luckily for us there were enough open areas with great tree skiing That we shredded great terrain, that was stable. All of the runs that we got in were amazing, with some face shots for good measure.

One day we were lucky enough to head up onto the Illecillawaet glacier to get into the alpine. Once the we dug some snow study pits to see what we could find.

What we found was good, a stable snow pack! So we continued up towards the Perley Rock, a prominent feature in the Pass.

A final skin track and approach and we were at the drop in point.

We also had a sports day near the hut, where we practiced our crevasse rescue skills, transceiver using skills and finally a huge mock avalanche burial scenario. All of these skills we needed to hone as next us was the Wapta Traverse.

Ice climbing.

Nat on her way up.

For this course we were based out of Canmore for 5 days, staying at the Rocky Mountain Lodge. Each morning we would wake up at 6 a.m. and then drive to one of the frozen waterfall areas/crags. These areas are located in some of the most picturesque places on the planet. The Rocky Mountains were the birth place of ice climbing and it is easy to see why.

Jake in hulk mode.

Back on the Athabasca glacier we had our first taste of cramponing and ice axe use, walking along looking for crevasses to not fall in to. Now, in another part of the Rockies we were tasked with climbing vertically! Let me just say that ice climbing was amazing. every day we would be challenged by the technique required and the steepness of the climb, often they were simply straight up.

Pete givin'er.

Another skill we learnt was setting up an anchor. We had already done this for Rock 1, but that was back in October, so some of us were a touch rusty. Finding a BAT (big ass tree) or BAR (big ass rock) the idea was to hook up some rope, webbing, cord, carabiners into some sort of formation that you would trust your life on. Once this was set up we were asked to rappel down. Awesome! Although i have to say that as i stood on the brink i prayed to any god that would listen that i had remembered how to set up a rappel correctly.

would you trust this anchor?

The guides were once again top class. They helped us out mainly with technique (i have a wonderful scar on the bridge of my nose due to believing that i had to punish the ice with my axe. Eventually the ice fought back), so we can conserve energy and make it to the top. We were taught the V-thread (a way of making an anchor in the ice) and ice screw use. They also spotted us on a couple of climbs where there were overhangs.

Ice-1, Me-0

Ice climbing was turning out to be a whole lot of fun. There were a couple of tests on the V-thread and our ice screw anchors, but mainly it was just climb until you couldn’t feel your arms any more. Life was good, as good as it could get i thought and then it happened; MIXED CLIMBING (forgive me for shouting). Ho-ly. It is amazing. The challenge of ice climbing mixed with the technique of rock climbing. What more could you want? Starting on rock, gasping for purchase with our crampon points and ice tools we would have a face a rock to scale before we could even dare think about ice. This was addictive and one route quickly earned the name Aidan’s nemesis, although he wasn’t the only one to shake his head in defeat.

Aidan on his nemesis.

It seems to me that everyone got something out of this week, be it an understanding that ice climbing is not for them, or that they love ice climbing so much they spend 40 minutes on one climb! That’s what I call perseverance.

At the beginning of the week ice climbing was an unknown quantity, but after five days of good times and jello arms, it is safe to say that i shall endeavor to pursue this sport and mix climbing every winter.

Avalanche Skills Training (AST)

Before this course, I never really gave much thought into the snowpack. I did my dance to make it snow or sometimes it backfired, resulting in some strange weather conditions(or at least I got blamed for it by my bad dance moves). The AST course really showed me how much I was oblivious to and now I crave to know more. Knowledge is power, especially in the backcountry.

There is nothing better than getting your nose in the snow – I mean really in there – to check out what is happening. Learning about the snowpack, types of snow, and layers was like learning a new language or code. Writing all of the information in our logbooks about our test results resembled something like a secret code. But, the tests themselves were pictures worth a thousand words. It was fascinating to see results like a column sheering off from tapping the top of it, which really gives you a good visual cross section of what you dont see above the snow.

This course just brushed the surface, but I look at the snow with a whole new respect.

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Please note:

Safety was and always is the main concern. Always be careful, prepared and in the know before entering the backcountry.

Ski Tour 1 – First Half

This week we have been back country skiing! Videos to come soon. We have had some pretty interesting weather, over 1.5m last week then it got warm over the weekend and into this week leading to some interesting avalanche hazards.

Monday we took the chair lift on the ski hill up and skied out off the hill to the side. From there we skied up to a ridge called Mongolia and dropped down the other side. The skiing was amazing on the way down untouched powder. Next we skied up the next ridge over (Outer Mongolia) took us about an hour and a half of breaking trail to get to the top. Next another great run down with Logan providing some excellent commentary (see video coming soon!) all the way down. One more up track back up Mongolia and we skied down and out to the parking lot at the ski hill.

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Tuesday was a bit of a longer day, we drove to tunnel creek (near the big tunnel in the mountain going west out of Fernie) And had a 2 1/2 hour ski up to the cabin where we had lunch. We then skinned up to the ridge above the cabin and skied back in the bowl towards where we had lunch. Instead of skiing out the less than ideal road out we skied up another ridge skiers right of the cabin. This got us into position to ski down through nice powder instead of a road. But all good things come to an end and we caught the road just in time to avoid a few creeks and kill our legs on the way out.

This morning when I got up the skiing was not looking so good, it was getting warmer, windier and we had just gotten 20 cm of extremely heavy wet snow. (all those things are bad and were reflected with the avalanche hazard being high in the alpine(sorry mom)). We chose to stick close to the ski hill because the dangerous conditions and it was a good call. Two of my group members were MIA due to injuries and the good news kept rolling. Coming up the lift is was storming pretty good and visibility was become increasingly rare. Just off the upper lift one our the groups guides bindings broke and had to leave for the day. Luckily for us this was the extent of our issues for the day and it ended up being a pretty good day. We saw some evidence of natural avalanche but we tested and the snow was surprisingly good so we were able to do a few mild runs. All in all a good day. Tomorrow we are planning an exploratory mission in the Crowsnest pass and friday if everything works out we are getting a helidrop!!

Natural History

 

For our last day of Natural History we had a road trip to Waterton Lakes National Park. It was one of the breezier days I’ve been out in with wind speeds reaching 100km/h in town. That didn’t stop us from learning (what we don’t have fun all the time…) we had several stops on the way showing the changing landscape from prairies to the mountains. After that we mad our way to the Bears Hump trail which had almost no snow on it. We didn’t spend too much time on the top for fear or our lightest members being blown off the edge. (On the way up we say people with rock climbing gear heading up… wonder how that went…) Anyways after that we check out the Prince of Whales hotel (and by check out i mean jump in the wind and see how far it will push you). All in all it was a pretty eventful and defiantly educational day.