I can't name this again. But is worth few words.

It all began on Saturday morning with high avalanche danger all around and 50cm of fresh snow past 24h. So this was the plan: finding some tree skiing, bringing at least 2 friends with beacons and shovels and lets go. Hollyburn up on Cypress mt. To be honest, I was disappointed. Amount of people, snow quality and snow quantity overall was huge/poor :-) But there still was a Sunday, good weather and my wife joining me again in view. I was pretty sure that mt. Seymour with its slightly higher elevation and North facing slopes, avalanche danger drastically decreasing (moderate) will bring us more joy than the day before. So it was. Just few people enjoying beautiful weather and untracked terrain just for us. This was up to this day a highlight of the season on local mountains :-)
VIDEO HERE

Cayoosh mt. around the corner

This weekend I was expecting the best conditions this season. With 20cm of fresh snow, some snowy clouds and temperature around -7C what an disappointment. Everything was fine just those clouds didn't let us go higher up and made my eyes useless. On the open white slopes, I couldn't see anything. Stano said- you need real Goggles! so I'll give it a try next time.

Whistler out of (bounds) people.

With the promising temperatures (-12) and not sure about avalanche conditions (our condition) we went to Whistler once again. We didn't spent much time on the ski runs and tried little bit of the untracked terrain this resort is blocking. Up to this day the best skiing this season and to our surprise just few people around. Unfortunately due to high activity of my son at night, I didn't have the power to do more than 2 laps. Oskar was smiling also just on the way down :-)

Testing some stuff...

Yes we got a new car. The old one still waiting for a new owner, if anybody is interested :-) Of course I was keen to try it somewhere, somehow... Fresh snow up on Cypress gave me great opportunity to test the car and also my shovel.
VIDEO HERE

Valentine's day in Valentine's gully

I was wondering what special could I give to my wife this year. Maybe flowers? Did I say something special on the begin? Lets go for a short ski run instead! We decided to make a small loop on mt. Seymour, descending steep slopes to the East side between 1st and 2nd pump and ascending 350m with one short steep section just beside it. Some fresh snow from the last night made it real fun on the way down, luckily not too much doing the ascent still ok. Elena's crampons did the walk a bit more adventurous, because they were not sharp enough. Otherwise very nice line worth a ski descent if the conditions are better (more snow:) Later that day and watching the line-up in the flower store made me feel good about the decision I mentioned at the beginning :-)
These picture take you in such a remote part of our backyard, still so close to the city. Thank you Marek for checking the conditions last week and Janka for taking care of Jakub. Happy Valentine Eli!
VIDEO HERE

First skiing!

I was getting very excited about this trip. It was the first skiing 11/12 season, but this time little bit special. Our son Jakub was getting 11 months old and we decided to take him up on Seymour and show him, how nice the skiing is. Although his smile was little bit frozen, we believe that he was enjoying the sunset from the carrier on my back as much as we did.

The Lions revisited

On Tuesday we decided to take a look at the beauty of Vancouver- the Lions. 4 of us took the regular trail from Lions bay and spent a beautiful day in the alpine. 8 hours round trip and some scary exposure on the last section of the summit.

Lady peak, Cheam peak

This time, I wanted to show my sister a very nice area. Something where I don't need to push myself too much :-) Instead of that, she pushed me to bag 2 peaks in one day. Why not when you are alone in such a popular area.
Our drive was little bit sketchy while there was a construction on the begin of chipmunk fsr and we had to drive all the way back to Chilliwack 35km to get some fuel (didn't count on this construction and driving around to find an alternate route). Anyway, starting little bit later than expected, meeting just one car with park ranger fixing some sings at parking lot, we got excited about having this popular area for our self. I don't remember details of the climb except I was sweating a lot and the views were beautiful :-) While driving down, we helped a guy with flat tire (borrowed our spare) and met 1 more car with starting problem (couldn't help there :) We were happy, the young guy taking care of the construction started the crane and let us pass the shorter way as it was already little late. Another nice day in the woods.
cheers

First WINTER family trip

It was Jakub's first winter trip, in the snow, in the mountains. Originally, Tom was going to take him up to the Brockton point, the top of the Seymour ski runs, and at the same time Elena with Nika and Oskar were going to hike the first, maybe 2nd peak of Mt. Seymour. It turns out, we are hardly keeping up to the two guys, the dad and the son, as they are nearly running up the hill. I should have known... So first peak of Seymour it is, 10 months old, on the way up 1/2 hour of sleep, on the way down puzzled looks from other hikers looking at this crazy dad who runs and slides down the steep snow slopes with this little baby on his back, all cuddled up in the too big of a snow suit. And the woman taking leaps into the powder snow on her stomach, that's probably the mother...

We also took a sled, but at the end, again the adults were the ones who were having the biggest fun on it. Jakub was not interested.

So now seriously ... conditions are great, nearly skiable...

Leading peak 755m- Anvil Island

There is a small island at Howe sound. Its steep lines are visible while driving to Squamish from hwy. Last year we did circumnavigation with Jakub :) and last weekend I have got this idea of bringing Janka to the highest point of the island- Leading peak. It is obvious you start the hike at sealevel, but the description from internet was little bit misleading. Expecting 755m elevation gain, my time estimate was 4 hours (5max). We started from Lions bay at 2.30pm which was as usual little late. It took us 6.5 hours to finish our trip at Porteau cove at 21.00 with Jakub and Elena waiting for us. 1055m elevation in the legs and 12km on the kayak was really nice. The trail well marked and the gorgeous views just for us. Janka said this was the nicest day since she has stepped on the Canadian ground. Maybe she forgot already about the day spent at CAN/US border to get the working permit :-o

Looking for Angel's Crest

Yup...it took us 3 hours to find it. But let's start at the beginning...

After all the slushy snow, slushy avalanches and looking for the ski in slushy avalanches, my uncle Jano in his 2 months vacation in Canada started to be fed up with "spring skiing" after all and so for a change I decided to take him on a beautiful climbing route on the Chief. The alternate start of Angel's crest is in the gully between the 2nd and 3th peak of Chief, by climbing a tall tree. As we realized long after, there is another gully just little further up and after not finding the tree and starting our climb at a great time at 7am at the (as we thought) regular starting pitch, we spent 3 hours looking for the next pitch, walking the ledges and trees, climbing lots of vegetable.

Only then did we realize that maybe this is not "the gully"... After another real BC bushwack we eventually found the true start. By then it was 10am, we were already tired, hungry and unsure whether to start or not, the main reason being my son Jakub and his (un)sufficient?? stock of breast milk.

Well...off we go...

Right while belying Jano on the 1st pitch I sat on my phone and broke the display... can it get any better today? After all we had a great climb, Jano leading (beside the others) the spectacular "Acraphobes" towers, enjoying the views and some beautiful pitches. We topped out at 5.30, making it 7 1/2 hours, which is not too bad for 13 pitches, given we had a 3 hour warm up in the morning and Jano not having climbed for last 10 years. I certainly hope it was a good last trip for him before he flies back on Monday and he will come back for more.

What does it look like, when you...

...when you lose your ski in a small avalanche, you go there a month later with chances 1:1000 to find it, you see some fresh snow on the way up and you see some new slides on the place where the ski was lost. The day started pretty good, when we saw that the approach to the snowline (1300m) wasn't bushy and Jano lost his lovely sunglasses. There wasn't so much sun on the first half of our climb. Getting closer to the summit of Cayoosh mt. things were getting less optimistic. I was doing some planing of my next trip to Cayoosh in middle of September (3rd one this year) to rescue the ski, while the strong sun was burning our faces. Jano tried to go with his eyes closed which helped him not to get blind :-) When we arrived at the scene, after 2-3 minutes it was clear that I need to come again few months later (if not years:) cause there was still huge amount of snow around. Jano went around to the ridge and I started to go straight up approximately where the accident happened. Suddenly I couldn't believe my eyes... there in the snow I see the post of the binding sticking out of the snow and the rest of the ski just few centimeters under the surface. What a luck!!! I don't have to come to this place again, were my first thoughts. And Jano can leave this land in PEACE on Monday :-)
We have summited half an hour later and in terrible spring conditions (wet and heavy) skied down to Duffy. I was little bit disappointed Jano didn't ski this time on the other ski (only on the other ski) to have the descent completed.

Meeting Lou Dawson on mt Baker

http://www.wildsnow.com/5358/mount-baker-backcountry-skiing-3/

Mt. Rainier 4392m

Still waiting for spring snow conditions...

The weather was playing badly with us last few days. We recieved some snow, some rain but almost no sun. Waiting for the good weather, spent on the local mountains with Jano and Ela and having fun. So far Jano likes his vacation here but because he was getting nervous about the weather, we sent him with Slavo to Vancouver Island to watch the whales. Jano takes a loong ride back on bike- around 500km, crossing to Sunshine Coast, using ferry of course. We are giving him 2 weeks before he arrives. And than the ski spring season can begin.