Sol Mountain TR

Day 1

I woke late early Saturday morning, climbed out of bed, dressed and hopped in my truck within 5 minutes of my feet hitting the floor. I arrived at the meeting point a couple minutes after Craig, loaded my gear in his truck and we set off up the Slocan valley. Breakfast was a burrito at the deli in Nakusp. Mmmmmmmm, burrito breakfast. Fifteen minute drive south to the Arrow Park ferry where we met Scotty. Across the ferry and about 40km of dirt/snow to the landing were we unloaded the sled. As we were unloading a local fur trapper pulls up and we start chit chatting and he decides he has no pressing commitments for the day so he is going to come up and check out the lodge being built in his trapping area. Off we go to the lodge Craig driving the sled with me riding bitch, breaking trial through 8” of fresh. 22km later we arrive at the lodge at about noon.

We do a meet and greet and shoot the shit for a half hour or so then decide to head out for a quick run. At about 1pm we depart the lodge and head out across the meadow and up the closest ridge. We arrived at the ridge top at approx. 2:30. I’m thinking the snow we had just walked up through was pretty dammed sweet and we should ski it and put two runs in if light and motivation allow. I’m thinking one run would be fine then start drinking beer by 3:30. We took a gok around at the scenery for afew minutes then the clouds moved in and left us standing in a whiteout. I could see trees below on the line I was anticipating so it was all good.

Then assface Scotty gets it in his mind to ski down the ridge line and try to find a route into the talus field on the north side of the ridge (Lodge was to the south of us). Without and consultation he slides away down the ridge into an area where no one we know of has skied. I’m thinking “WTF is he going?” I should mention here that Scotty is an ACMG level 2 guide and never misses an opportunity to remind you of this fact. I’m thinking it must be hard to keep his balance with his head so inflated but perhaps because he keeps it firmly tucked up his ass it keeps his center of gravity low.

Craig is keen to hit the north side and follows without hesitation. I always thought his judgment was a little better than that. So I’m left standing at the peak think “FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKERS.” So I made a bad decision and stayed with the group. We slid down the ridge loosing about 300’ of vertical in shitty windblown icy conditions with flat light. Then Scotty finds a little slot off the ridge through the cliff that makes up the runs all along the north side. It is sketchy and rocky and they are hesitant to actually ski it and look like they are going to zorrow/kick turn/slip down it so I go ahead and head in first. Jump turn to hard pack, jump turn to wind slab, jump jump jump stop for look to pick my line through the rocks then jump/drop 5’, jump/drop 5’, jump drop 10’ and I’m through and out onto the apron. They follow in the style I expected.

So now we are committed (and should be committed), we are on the north side. Down we ski to a bench through boot top deep slabby snow in flat light without a tree in sight. Great fun. Once over the bench we hit the trees and the turns were steep the snow was lighter and deeper and the light was good. I got about 700’ vert. of really nice turns.

At the bottom of the run Scotty heads off in what I consider the long way home. Of course, once again, won’t listen to my concerns. So we’re strolling alon and I say to Craig, “There is no fucking way we’ll make the ridge before dark.” He disagrees confident the we have enough time. An hour later our headlamps are on and we are still climbing. Eventually we got to a breakover where down was now to the south. The moon was providing illumination so we could see shapes of close features in the fog. Scotty is completely fucked up he has no clue where north is, he has a GPS unit that he does not know how to use, he read his compass backwards I think because he was about 160* off north. He will no longer listen to anything anyone says (not much change but now he is actively not listening (if that makes any sense)).

It is now about 6:30 and we have no food or water left. We are in radio contact with the lodge so we probably have a line of sight or close to it. Craig and I know were we should go and approximately were we are but Scotty is to scared of cliffs and unknown terrain to go in the direction we want to. So he decides we are going down our up track, then up our down track back to the ridge and he sets off. At the bottom of the uptrack we stop for water at a creek. I think Scotty is getting a bit frantic at the time because he starts doing stuff like asking for water then storming away before you can hand it to him. He is completely convinced that we must follow our ski route directly up the cliff to the ridge. Craig and I disagree and veer off our ski tracks after a while and follow a little drainage towards what we suspect will be a col. Reluctantly Scotty follows. When we hit the col Scotty is still convinced that we must traverse up the ridge to our down track. Craig and I ski away to traverse the slope below the cliff band and head directly toward the lodge. Scotty follows still muttering about taking the ridge.

We have radio contact again and tell them to start cooking dinner we’ll there in a half hour. I had the best danm burrito I have had in while for dinner when we arrived at about 9:00pm.

I think next time I see Scotty I’d just as soon punch him in the teeth as say hello.

Day 2

Nice leisurely breakfast then with Toot and the Maytals “54-46” running through my head we head out. 600’ vert. Run from the lodge and we skinned up and headed along a drainage with Aaron leading. After the evening before I was a bit tired but still capable. In the fog, in terrain he had never skied before but had seen photos of parts of, Aaron lead us up and down all day long trough some awesome terrain. Early season conditions persisted so launching was not a good idea but the potential to huck your meat is unlimited up there. Spectacular tree skiing and glades were skied in knee deep semi consolidated 3 day old snow. Face shot were received. The only problem was that Aaron is like the fucking energizer bunny and dragged our asses farther than we would have had we been out on our own. At the top of the last run my fatigue was forgotten as I screamed by Scotty as he tried to snake my line leaving him with no choice but to ski my tracks for a couple hundred vert. The day’s skiing ended with a 45 minute skin to the lodge that should have taken about 30 minutes.

Elk sasugae fresh from Pass Creek in a nice marinara sauce over linguini noodles for dinner with some other stuff like salad ‘n’ shit for dinner was superb. A couple glasses of red wine and a few beers and the day was done.

Day 3

Woke up, went home. We sledded out in 6” of fresh –8*C powder that had been dropped overnight. I think I’ll be heading up again soon.

Spam - Aaron & Daves lodge http://www.solmountain.com/