Black Tusk in a snail pace 4.20h

Just came back from this hike. Forgot to bring my camera but this lack of weight still didn't help me to go fast as I wished. I though I can do it easily in 4h. But some snow higher up, my legs... I was happy I didn't crash on the last 6km downhill. Legs couldn't hold my weight. I am not use to running. Not yet. 29km and 1740m elev.

Mt price and Taylor meadows 23.feb and 2.march

I was very excited to meet this for me new group of locals who I believed were good skiers and even better uphillers. I wasn't wrong and with some fresh snow after couple weeks of sunshine group of nine headed towards mt. Price 2052m. We divided into 2 groups. 1 did stay in the trees to enjoy better visibility and 2 went for the summit. It was little bit sketchy as the avi was high and I as the last 4th person was left on the slope alone. Somebody even cut small debris 5cm by 10m but again I was alone and I needed to catch up with them. Or turn around. Too late. Next time. Skiing from the summit was fine, I only hit rock once :) I couldn't see much, everything was just white. Straight into the trees and my eyes felt happier. I was sinking in the snow (30cm) a bit and could't get enough speed but still great skiing. On the way down we decided to give the Barrier a try. Which I wasn't happy about. I didn't think there is enough coverage. Which was partially truth. On the first turn i am hitting rock and my binding release. Damn! Time to turn around. But everybody just goes down. Ok, lets see. I hit rocks couple more times but the Trabs prove to be a good quality skis. 30-40cm of fresh with not much base led us to the first switchback at 820m +- Thanks to Paul we found the turnoff right away. Great day out for sure. 26km and 1500m elev.g.
Last weekend we went with Nicolas out and with heavy snow starting right in the morning we headed towards familiar terrain. Friend of mine reported some sun crust everywhere except N facing slopes but on Sunday we were lucky to have this crust covered by 20cm of fresh. We did 2 laps under Black Tusk and we would for sure do more if I didn't have birthday on Sat. Terrible driving conditions on the way home (slippery, slow traffic, accidents) reminded me again how precious the time is.

Tszil mountain 2377m

Not much skiing, but the little of the good was great. And a lot of very bad was really bad. Especially coming down the Joffre lakes trail was a nightmare. Rocks everywhere inviting my skibases to touch them. But I could resist and enjoyed even this part. It was great to be out this season for the first time out of Vancouver on a new mountain for me. Unfortunately Nicolas wasn't able to join me all the way cause his toes were freezing (-17deg.C). I was on the edge with mine but manage to keep warm for the rest of the body. Didn't see many people up there. This season is way beyond the "regular" snow pack which is one of the reasons probably. Hopefully next week 50+ cm will cover some of the rock...

This winter is bad. But not as bad as in...

...Europe :) I always like to compare. So why not with Europe? This winter here sucks. Not enough snow and even not enough rain. Yes RAIN. I love rain. But only if the freezing level is 1000m or lower. When I talked to my friends from back at home, they enjoy spring like weather and no snow winter. Alps are little bit different but 1.2m coverage doesn't sound exciting. So I just keep doing my loops on Seymour and Cypress. But last weekend Cypress was so bad, that I didn't even try the backcountry, as the skiresort had minimum coverage allowing so so to go up on the closed runs. But down I rather choosed the "fake snow" run with crowds :-) Seymour bc is still doing much better although south facing slopes are sowing lots of rocky teeth.

Rice lake loop

This is a classic walk for our family and everybody finds his own. Ela runs for about an hour at lynn creek, Martin enjoys the scenery from the chariot, Jakub trains his bike skills on the descents and me? I am just enjoying. Looking around and I always find something interesting. Awesome Saturdays mornings. How can the feathers freeze? Delicate hourfrost (pretty good for an I phone crap :)

Singing pass

I wanted to check this place in summer for a while. Running sounded like a good option. We took the singing pass trail which is really nice, worth checking on the bike too. Once we reached the alpine views surrounded us especially the huge glacier towards Castle towers. We followed the ridge towards ski resort and the plan was to run/walk to the village. This was a problem. 1200m elevation loss is heavy for already tired knees and as we found out halfway, we were not allowed to walk in the ski resort area (because of the trucks driving up and down on the road we were on...). I asked the person who stopped us, how to get down since we are very poor and have no money :) The tram is for free going down she replied. Well, we are not that cheap we told our self and run to nearest tram station. This was luckily downwards since my legs were pretty tired. After 16km and 1200m e.g. who wouldn't be :)