Your eyes...

Eli your eyes are the most beautiful and honest I have ever seen.
I went through some of the pictures and you laugh at most of them. How is that possible?
There is so many things running through my mind and it all ends up with a picture of you lying in the snow. You always lowed snow. But this doesn't make sense. You were so full of life. Much more than me.You gave me Martin and Jakub. They are so motivated and motivating. How could I move on without them? They are my buddies. My right hand. They mention you time to time. They are proud of you. I am.
You were much stronger than me, physically and mentally. Why did I let you go climbing with somebody else? Because I know you lowed climbing. You lowed to be out there. And I know you lowed us the most. I know that. I know know you kept fighting until the last breath. Your endurance will fuel me for the rest of my life.
Damn it, my life started when I met you but most of it is gone when you'r not here any more.
I miss you so much, there is no words for it. Only tears. Tears full of pain.
These 9 years with you is something I will never forget. I have no regrets. Only beautiful memories.
I love you Eli.
Tomas

She lived and laughed and loved and left. And the world will never be the same.

Eli I miss you...

First turns this winter. Red Heather.

Thanks to my friend Oskar, I was able to enjoy snow the best way possible. On skis. Well I could still go alone, but it's always better to have a good companion. It snowed quite a lot yesterday and the visibility was so so. Tree skiing would be ideally, but better snow was in the open areas. Measured 1.4m of snow close to Paul's ridge.
More adventure on the car approach then on skis. Really slippery on the steep parts of the road last .5km. We had to stop on the steep hill and could't move forward anymore. Started to back up slowly but when the brakes were touched, the car started to slide towards 10m drop. As the car was sliding sideways and gaining speed, I opened the door and jumped out. I was pretty sure this is not going to end up well. But Oscars driving skills brought the car without a scratch to the lower parking lot. Once again this road proved to be one of the more scary ones around Vancouver.
T.

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 :)

Goat ridge- Sunday afternoon

I always looked at Goat ridge from Squamish and was wondering how the hike and views could be from up there. Last weekend I found out. The trail starting at Murrin park (100m North) is very nice and not very steep to Petgill lake. Right on the begin you need to turn left after 20m from hwy. I went right, then another fork tried left, right, than back, left again. Took me 10 minutes to find the first left turn. Second confusion was the 2.5km long stretch on old lodging road. Didn't know I have to stay on it till the end. This is when the Iphone come very handy. I reached Petgill lake in 1.10min and wasn't really motivated to go any further up. After 20min break I descided to explore little bit of the trail leading to Goat ridge. In 40 min I reached the first viewpoint and as time was against me, after 3min I started to head down. 1h 6min it took me to get down to Parking lot at Murrin where my wife with kids was waiting already in the dark. I was happy to be down after some 3h, 18km and 1100m elev.

Australian gully- Cypress ski resort

I always do enjoy exploration of local mountains. In the previous winters I heard a lot about this gully mostly from newspaper when people got lost, injured and unfortunately dead too. Its situated close to the ski resort so some of the youngsters try to ski it. We didn't try to ski it, but I was wondering how steep it is and if there really is a big drop causing troubles to those who wan to. We followed the parallel ridge above it and then tried to descent. I was here once before and was forced to turn back because the slope was getting to steep and we still could't see the objective through the trees and rocks. This time with Elena, I didn't expect any difference but for some reason we manage to traverse the 50deg. slope and put the crampons on. Few more steps over exposed rock and jumping into the gully was the scariest of that day. With the right people around you everything is possible. But now in the gully we could see below us a drop 3-5m with water running over bare rock. Above us was a crack in the snowy step 1.5m. To the right steep slopes and to the left roks. Without ice axe I wasn't sure which way to go. But I was sure not the way we came from. We decided to go up, which turned out to be very enjoyable. On the top we both agreed that this must be very cool/ scary line 40-45deg. with two 50deg. sections. Will have to wait till next year to come again.