MTN

Go Go Gadget
Adventure Man does it right with GPS navigation, bear bangers, knives...all at his finger tips.

Playtime

I am now a few adventures behind, but by the end of today I hope to be all caught up. Photos from the adventure two weekends ago are unavailable as my camera froze. Here is how that happened.
It was Sunday and time for another mountain escape. I was unsure if it was going to happen as the weather had turned for the worst with snowfall in the city and bad roads to our now familiar play area to the west. However, the J Sparls adventure mobile never fails to "grab life by the horns" and with only the core of the group in attendance, Sparls and I, we took the higher road and embarked on another alpine thriller. Once on Hwy 40 conditions deteriorated quickly and once we saw a truck upside down in the ditch we knew it was go time. We soon arrived at the trail head in driving snow and sub zero temperatures. Fortunately I had thought to pack some extra clothing and once we were suited up we hit the trail to the first destination which was an alpine lake at moderate elevation gain some 6 km down the trail. We made excellent time with our new found super hiking form and soon started reeling in fellow adventure seekers including a large group of university foreign exchange students in blue jeans, which needless to say took our extreme meter into the negative digits. We had to take it up a notch so we attacked the lower slopes of the ascent to the lake and soon found ourselves overlooking a stunning alpine scene as we looked back down the valley where we had come. The constantly shifting cloud cover let limited light through to the snow blasting off the surrounding peaks. We pitted for a quick bite and then ripped the trail back down to the lower lake and back country campsite in true skiing sans skis fashion, pole plants and jump turns included.

At this point we decided that we could get substantially more out of the day and ran back down the trail a couple of kilometers to the Guinn Pass junction. As the sign read "Not recommended for winter travel" we knew this was our ticket to ride and headed off up the steep trail in what was now about a foot of snow. The trail quickly vanished into a small gully that pointed straight up towards a windswept open scree slope. The snow in the gully reached waist deep at points, but with trekking poles in full swing we pushed on to the summit. It was tough going but within an hour we cleared the gully and made the final push up the snow covered scree slope to the knife edge cliff nestled between two lower peaks.
Up and Away, the only way.

On the scree we encountered a group of 6 baby snow owls and Sparling saw numerous wolves, cougars and other predatory mammals. This was the closest to a pure mountaineering feeling I have ever been. The wind was incredible and the alpine bowl that opened up beneath us at the summit was breathe taking. There are some stunning photos of this section which I don't have yet, but I will try to get them asap.

The trip back down was fast and fun with more sans skis ski like maneuvers. We have become refined in our craft and even with two major ascents on the day we managed to cover nearly 18 km in around 5 hours of hiking. Arriving back to the parking lot just before darkness set it another day was done and final training had taken place for what ended up being another magical mountain adventure this past weekend. Two days , 28 km, snowshoes, back country log cabins, rope assisted ascents and descents...its all coming your way soon.

Putting on some warmer hand wear. We had climbed out of the valley you see behind me.