Stories

Photo By Kieran Crimeen

By Kieran Crimeen

Joel and Matt both got a couple of days off and the weather was looking sublime. It’s early spring and that means couloir season, a good time to work on the technique before we start to look at the face lines of the Rockies. We tossed around a few stupid ideas before settling on ‘having a look’ at the Funnel of Death on Bow Peak.

I’ve been ski touring for only a few seasons now so still consider myself a newcomer to the sport. Unfortunately during my second season I fell in with a bad crowd and was introduced to Joel, one of the dreaded skimo racers. He skins fast and bootpacks faster and was really a poor partner for someone as unfit as me.  

Last season Joel and I got out a lot and long days in the mountains. Having no background in endurance sports or interest in training our early days were hard. But as my fitness increased so did my speed and my ability to get stuff done. I began to get pretty enthused about doing longer days or smaller days faster. Naturally at this point Joel started hinting about skimo and how the fitness and efficiency benefits skiing big lines.

It’s a very exciting time. It’s the start of fall, with the first hints of winter in the air. Snow is starting to stick to the hills higher up. People are starting to think about the ski season. New gear replacing old and all the adventures that they will go on. We’ve got part of our skis in at SkiUphill.ca this past week (and are excepting the rest over the next two weeks) and we’re getting excited anticipating all the stories that these skis will tell. 

But first there are some things to think about when you are selecting that perfect ski:

Outrageous lines. Terminal exposure. Audacious skiing.  I recently found myself going through the pages of a blog called perpetualski.ca. Stumbling on this website a couple times in the last 2 years, I just couldn't believe how committing the skiing was....

By Kieran Crimeen

A couple of weeks back Joel got a heads up from one Andrew Wexler aka The Best Skier On The Mountain that he should check out Commonwealth Couloir. This was a line I’d put on my ‘never even consider’ list so I was apprehensive to say the least. Still, Joel has a winning smile and it’s hard to say no to the guy so we went up for a look.

We were stymied at the first cliff band by snow, rock, spindrift and a general lack of ability. Retreat was the only option but the fires in the Temple of Stoke had been, well, stoked.

By Kieran Crimeen

After a successful weekend on the Parkway (see previous post) we were riding high. With news that the Whitehorn and Robson had been skied Joel and I had to channel some of that stoke and do something big (for us). We settled on the plan to head up to the recently opened Neil Colgan hut in the Valley of the Ten Peaks for a look at how things were keeping up there.

I'd not heard of much to ski in the area with the exception of the Roth/Kallen on the North Face of Mt Fay, a route that someone snaked from the illustrious Doug Ward. High above Moraine Lake, the face consists of a series of steep cold gullies filled with glacial ice. Obviously even considering skiing something like this was stupid so Joel hatched a plan to ‘have a look’ at Fay and a similar, if less imposing route on Mt Quadra.

By Kieran Crimeen

A high pressure system poked its nose in on the tail end of some snow so the weekend looked like a great time to head up to the Columbia Icefields area and have another go at the Skyladder.

After agreeing to leave Canmore at some stupid hour (1.45 for those interested) I went to sleep fidgeting nervously because a) it’s an intimidating route and b) the Backcountry Alpha aka Peter Knight would be in attendance. We howled up the Parkway, nearly losing a wheel that wasn’t bolted on properly and got underway at 4.30. I crushed the approach, dropping Joel and Peter for at least 20 seconds before they caught up and had me puffing to keep them in sight.