Can I ski with you?

[highangle]

interrupting the stoke for just a momnt...

by international treaty, dogs are illegal in Antarctica
also, no one is going to arrive in Antarctica in an Otter, as it doesn't have the range to cross the Southern Ocean



some very good winter reading:

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World[/ame]

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14363

[LeeLau]

DOA - Husume - Corona - Stairmaster (to Phalanx and around) in one day! That's a good day

[XXX-er]

having had a Husky for awhile I found it amazing they could train a husky to do anything more than run away ,a buddy of mine did a bunch of carpentry work on the movie and he said those dogs were amazing

8 below brought some good money into the valley ,a good place to film ,friendly locals and close to facilities/airports/ect

[carpathian]

^^ You work for Tourism Smithers now or what?

I apologize for being tardy with this next post. I was tied up trying to sell a couple of these shots. It was horrible because all I wanted to do was post them up here for free and keep the stoke going if not the story of exploring Hudson Bay Mountain.

What would a maggot do?

Methinks another TR!

On Tuesday I made the call to Bill. It dawned Bluebird and we knew it was time to go back to Transformer Ridge.

A quick AM beer at base camp.



We decided it prudent to punch in a bootpack trail so that we could ditch heavy gear at Base Camp and just go fast and light. The ridge top is so wind blasted that skinning is more hassle then it is worth.

If you recall from the previous post with my two fingers pointing at the ridge top...? This is Bill dropping in where my right finger is. We named it Decepticon because it is deceivingly scary getting to the entrance. So this is Bills first run on his new Carpathians and it is a first descent too. Yes, he is in jeans.



He ski cut the gut and is in safe spot.



It is awesome once you get on the face. The sun is warm and the wind is nil. You can see all the features and it feels like you could billy goat any which way.

I hop skipped past him to the bottom. You can see where we came in on the left and basically poked the snow and tried to become familiar with the terrain.



Bill was trying to get skiers left into a little chute thing. He traversed too far over the blind roll and cut this nice little slide right off the edge.



He got back on track and slashed these turns:




You can start to see the scale of the features. Nicely sized and spaced...


For the next run we made an attempt to get in another first descent, named Skeletore. Here is Bill looking into the abyss. I looked in first and and looked straight down the to the bottom. Scary fo realz. Decided to wait for the harness so we could chop the cornice and make a nice entrance. You could ski it with a gun to your head as is buuuuut.... Save it for another day!



After feeling so gripped on Skeletore it was good old fun dropping into Optimus Prime, our 'go to' run.



Bill power slides in and shreds turns to the bottom.





As the sun pulls across the face the sun and shadows change. We went up for one more lap in the late light. It was quite windy. The snow is firm with a variable wind skin/ drummy combo going.








We are going to build a sweet Base Camp with barbeque and boom box and cooler with beer. There are a lot of lines in this one area and we will do our darndest to get the shots to YOU!

[XXX-er]

^^ You work for Tourism Smithers now or what?

!

I made me a few easy taxfree $ last year doing raft/kayak/fisherman shuttles on the down low

a little spare change for the freaks and wierdo's (you & me) from nonrampant tourism is a good thing eh?

[carpathian]

I know, I know a few more people kicking around would be all right. Like maybe 10 or 20.

It was pretty quiet today out at Hankin. It was my first day to the new area. Bill worked on cutting trails in the trees and knew his way around. Good thing because we covered a lot of k's and I surely would not have known how to get where we did.

The area seems to be a snow belt. Combo of volume from coast side but cooled more then Shames.

Bill leading the way


Our destination? The newly accessible alpine flanks of Hankin Mountain.


All the good terrain is buried deep in northern aspects. The light was low through out the day


Evelyn Pk and Hudson Bay in far back right


We decided on the first line that looked like fun. Started bootpacking up face.


Chest deep/steep snow in jeans


It was very difficult going. Serious chest deep along the rocks at edge of main avy chute. We were trying to stay out of middle of chute. Eventually made it to narrow section and was able to boot easy steps in firm snow.

I lead up to crus and had trouble as i wallowed over shallow rocks/hip deep hoar. Greg and Bill tucked under 'safe' spot as I negotiated into next section. Real steep scrambling on rocks now. Like the snow is 6 inches from my face as I skid on rock for scant purchase. I finally gained a view of the next section and blood ran cold. Our steep little section was bottom of much wider (10x) mini bowl; within chute. Sure hangfire as I was already sniffing danger.



I conceded that we should turn around. Now if I triggered anything it would most likely propagate straight up slope, rendering Greg and Bill 'safe' spot useless.

Greg was nervous having just got back out west from three weeks of holiday in Ontario. He scraped and slid a ways down to a spot to get his board on. I could not move as any touching the snow would shower directly down on both of them. I perched on the nub of rock for what seemed like eternity as Bill finally skied out from under me.

I could not down climb what i came up so had to balance on rock to put skis on. I knew I would have to just jump of rock into straightline away from hangfire...

Anyway, we made it down and started hiking up our next run. We laughed when we say that we basically rolled into the unknown terrain and attempted to boot up the steepest meanest of the runs. But did not know it until higher vantage.



Our next goal was to get up the big happy gulley.



Bill 1000 feet into our 4000 to the truck



The last 2000 feet is this.


Overall I give the area a solid A for access and potential for fun. Bill thinks we saw about a third of the terrain. In this last shot we were in the lookers right main bowl.

[telkwa]

View from my house:

You live near Lake Kathlyn? Hello from Smithers.

[carpathian]

^^^ Near Slack Rd/Simcoe Loop.

[XXX-er]

I think we were all part of the same stimulus package for dirt bags ,I got a days work surveying a forestry campsite at chapman lake ,its one govy guy who's name I fergit ,buddy has a budget to fund small projects (<400,000$) like the bike trails & Hankin

If the ski hill didnt have their heads stuck up their asses they would get in on the same gravy train ... I hear powder king got some of the same $$



And speaking of the hill whats the story ,the news sez someone hit a tree in-bounds and has become a fatality ?

[carpathian]

The snow if holding alright from 3000ft up. Thrilling Thursday all the way!
Pissing rain in town for several days now...


Every time I come bombing down through the bottom of Ptarmigan I look into the trees where that lady hurt herself. VIBES to her family.

[XXX-er]

Yeah it sounds like she blew up on the G-out at the bottom of Ptarmagin and into the trees on the other side of the cattrack ?

I been in vancover since boxing day so Its just what I heard from tele babe

I have often had mortal thots while maching thru that G-out

maybe they should cut them trees out eh?

[telkwa]

The snow if holding alright from 3000ft up. Thrilling Thursday all the way!
Pissing rain in town for several days now...


Every time I come bombing down through the bottom of Ptarmigan I look into the trees where that lady hurt herself. VIBES to her family.

Was it off the very bottom track that comes back from chapmans?
I always thought that the foggy rollers just before the chair towers were the most likely spot for a bad crash on ptarmagin.

[carpathian]

Yeah right zips in on the last track out from Chapmans. You can see a bunch of packed snow where the rescue took place. Seems like some fencing wouldn't hurt.

[telkwa]

Damn. RIP to her, and condolences to the family. That's the only death at this mountain I know of; starting skiing ski smithers in 92, though was gone for most of decade zero.

[Skifreejh]

Guy, If you want to be in tgr apply for an intern job and then go from there instead of just showing them some photos of you and a couple videos of you.

[carpathian]

An intern does what, make coffee?

[carpathian]

I finally got to ski with the wife yesterday for the first time this year. We got a baby sitter and made a couple of runs over an extended lunch break.


I have finally remembered how to ski with sidecut again.


Today Bill, Greg and I made another attempt at cracking some new lines on Transformer Ridge. The weather was less then cooperative. It dawned blue then the clouds obscured the sun.


Bill did have a new line he wanted to show me. We called it Gang Banger because it is a good little initiation run into the club.


I did not think he was going to straight line the whole thing!


You can see our lines in the background.




The light turned real flat so we bailed off of Optimus Prime, our supposed 'go to run.' There was a couple of feet of new snow drifted in so not to make excuses buuut... it was scary. We have had to back out of 4 different lines in the last 2 weeks. Doing something right I guess.


Then just like that, at the bottom of our run the sun broke out for five minutes. It is amazing what a little sun will do for your confidence.


Up for round three.


So we shredded some pow after all. We named the lower ridge line Shred Hill.



Greg in distance.

[stuckathuntermtn]

so this is where all the stoke is.
cool!

[carpathian]

The weather has not been very good all week. I was stuck working in an attic doing vapor barrier and insulation stuff anyway. The sun finally came out on Saturday just in time for my once a month Park Ranger volunteer gig.

Bill thinks a mouse has been living in his jacket. We could hear it squeeking but did not know how to get it out.


Since everything in the terrain park seemed to be in order, we decided to slay some mini mountains nearby.


Taylor the ski patroller was ready to throw down.


Nice three


I need to figure out how to get a logo in the base p-tex:


After a tough day on the hill we went back to the Ranger Room and feasted on some slow cooked pork stew and home brew.


Things started to get sloppy so we went for one more power hike in the dark to the warming hut.


After a few more drinks this is what town really looked like.


Taylor and I skied the groomer 4000 feet to town drunk and at high speed with no head lamps. The bottom was refrozen ice. You just gotta stay loose and go with the flow as your skis clikity clack along.

[telkwa]

Any risk of base damage on the run into town? I decided to hitch down today after racking up 20 runs on the chair.

[carpathian]

20 runs?! Good god man! You're willing to sit on the chair for 400 minutes but worried about the run to town?

It's all good, I ski right to the railroad tracks and then double pole home.

[telkwa]

20 runs?! Good god man! You're willing to sit on the chair for 400 minutes but worried about the run to town?

It's all good, I ski right to the railroad tracks and then double pole home.

I figure if the run to town is closed, I don't want to risk my new-to-me skis on it without getting a report. I like going fast but yeah, those 250-270minutes on the chair sure got boring in a hurry. Slowing down makes the skiing boring, and going fast makes the chair rides boring... what to do?

[carpathian]

Go rip the T bar, Brah! The wind has been going in the opposite direction the last few days so the little rolls that are normally wind scoured are now sweet pow drops.

I was stuck dry walling but Vesna got out and made some turns.



Leah shredding:


Another day in the terrain park for Ben the park manager:


Taylor was there too




This is Vesna's biggest air ever with a successful stomp and ski away! Scott Schmidt would be proud.



S.T.O.M.P. !!!



So I don't have to work tomorrow, that is sweet. I feel like stomping some cliffs my self. We shall see what the weather brings...?

[carpathian]

You gotta admit Todd... I'm pretty funny.
That bit with Atomic and the 'Can I ski with you again?' Priceless.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Especially if the horse is dead and I keep kicking it.

Today the weather came in hard and we did not see even a scrap of blue sky.

That is OK because we dropped down into The Nest, a safe refuge from the storm.



The thing with the Nest is that once you go in you have to get out some how. We are contemplating the heinous boot pack ahead.


Yes, that is chest deep wallowing at it's best. Bootpacks only really work in special instances where you want fast clean vert to the goods. For multiple laps. In this case, the bootpack did not become real user friendly until the 9th person, ie 3 of us for 3 laps. Bottomless... maybe not Utah bottomless but bottomless nonetheless.




I did not even have to wear goggles


Bill got into some gnar


Power slide out the bottom


We hiked 4 laps on the one side then dropped to the bottom and climbed up the other side and then dropped back to the creek for the final slog out.


Greg is the 'Snow Walker'

[carpathian]

Another grey day with new snow. I held down the fort and Vesna got after it again.



When Jeremy isn't scoring hat tricks for the Steelheads, he's slaying pow




I'll lean this way if you lean that way and we should get there all right...


Empty chairs


Get a job hippy!