Roger's Pass

I know this may be old news and the time has past of wet, sloppy, early season snow, but here is a little recap of a Roger's Pass adventure, complete with a chilly dip in Connaught Creek.
It was the last weekend of November and still no snow at the resorts. Nick and I drove up to Revelstoke to meet Dylan, who was at the Village Idiot pub on the main strip. We walked in to find him with our group of friends, slanted in his chair with a meek look on his face. "We should ski Revy tomorrow instead of Roger's" Dylan said, with some slurring and agression, as he bear-hugged my waist. Really? resort tomorrow? I thought it was shit right now... I thought to myself. This sparked a domestic argument between Nick and Dylan, that I tried to mediate.
As the night progressed I casually began to forget things after each Tequila-tonic, and only remember thinking how unpleasant the next morning was going to feel. Dylan and I scuffed our feet around the dance floor following inpredictable arm movements, calling it dancing.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Nicks alarm went off on his phone. "urrgggg what time is it Nick?" I asked, as we each had our own couch in Kurts living room. "7am...snorrrrre..." The electric fireplace kicked in and shone gold across the room. Warmth. It seemed the hours had passed and I was awoken by Nick telling me to get ready. It was 7:45am, and we needed to get going. The three of us hussled to get our things together, jumped in the car and off we were to the pass.
The parking lot was relatively empyt compared to the previous weekend. We had our touring gear on quickly, Dylan casually releasing his tequila gas. My head felt like a football.
the day was a warm, light snowfall over night, and the touring path was like a freeway of skiers heading into the mountains. The trail was packed and icey in some spots and rather wide, so we crossed Connaught Creek and fumbled our way through the Alder bushes that tangled the far side. Up, up and up we went into the clouds. the snow became thicker and untouched, and we found an uptrack heading towards Ursus Major. Finally the trees became thin and short, and we were spat out into the base of an open bowl where the wind was bitter.
We were at the freezing line, so the temperature drop was significant compared to the bottom where we started. We ate lunch here and engaged in light humour, laughing and searching for our next uptrack line.
We were off, climbing again into the wind and clouds. There were times when I couldn't see Dylan because of the haze, as he was leading us up higher. The wind was strong, and I was getting tired. As we shimmied along a ridge top to a drop in point, which was found at the top of a chute named 8812, presumably it's height in feet. We couldn't see a thing. I put my splitboard together, and we waited for the clouds to part in the sky so that we could make our way to the bottom. The turns were great, the snow was heavy, but the run was long excellent considering the conditions for the rest of the province. It was worth the 8km tour and 3000ft of climbing!
We made our way back ot the creek that meandered through the valley. Close to the bottom there is a weir that contains a pool of water about 4 feet deep, icey and cold, merky along the bottom with slime. All of us were sweaty and hot, and the small pool was inviting. Suddenly we were in our underwear, one at a time dunking our heads and bodies into the crisp water. Slightly hypothermic, Dylan didnt bother putting his snowgear back on to ski the 800m to the parking lot; he journied down in some boxer-briefs. Nick and I, both with purple lips, geared up, jamming our wet bodies into sweaty snowpants and tight boots, down into the parking lot, laughing as Alder bushes whipped Dylans exposed Bambi legs (a nick-name Nick blurted out on the climb up). Alas we made it to the bottom, the Subie was sitting there waiting for us to warm her up. I was exhausted, and content. The first tour of the season was successful for me, and my new board performed a in a magical way.
I slept the entire 4-hour drive home to Kelowna, except during the Tim Hortons stop where I got my hot chocolate....happiness...mmm

Revelstoke Pictures

Ivan's climbing trip to Revelstoke, BC. Be sure to check out the new uploaded pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0DBO_COUnlLqrvi_2BgPqg

Early Season Snow

First ski trip of the year, Dylan, Yannik, Loic, and bunch of others headed out to the pass. The only place that seems to have snow is Rogers Pass. We hiked back to 8812 bowl to get some sweet early season turns in!!