schubwa
New member
It was my second time to Baldface with this same bunch of fellows from Bend. Our home hill was being coated in a freezing rain attack as we left but the forecast was for a cold storm to arrive in the Kooteney's just in time for our trip. It rained all the way to Nelson and there was evidence of wet snow avalanches once we were back in snow country. Roofs on commercial buildings had collapsed in Spokane due to a huge snowpack that had rain fall on it.
We were unable to fly in Thursday night due to bad visibility. The backup plan is to ship folks into the lodge via snowcat but the access road had been avalanched on and was unpassable. They put us up in a nice hotel in Nelson so we decided to hit the town and enjoy the evening, as we usually just drive to the airport and immediately leave for Baldface. They say Nelson is the marijuana capitol of the free world but I just can't figure out what they mean by that...
Friday morning we flew in by helicopter and were treated to about a foot of fresh that had fallen over the rainpack/wet snow from the previous days. The group heading out only rode for two days as the slide danger was extraordinarily high during their stay. One run, Dao of Pow, slid huge and a wide swath of forest was torn out and the debris covered the cat roads. Needless to say, the guides were jumpy and we started out quite cautiously, riding moderate aspects with tight trees. The snow was really good and continued to fall throughout the day.
After another night in the bar, we arose to more snowy skies and another 15CM of fresh. Baldface is at 6600 Ft and you can ride down from the lodge, but typically they ferry the skiers up in relatively short cat rides. We started to tackle steeper and deeper shots as confidence was up from the day before. I got a little frustrated as I thought they were being overly careful; the avie cycle was caused by the previous warm storm and now it was cold and the layers had settled but it doesn't hurt to be safe and not become a statistic!
The best run of the day was "Dads", an open clearcut slope that you could really rip on as we had been spending most of our time on treed runs. The snow moved back in and was forecasted to drop another 15-20 CM overnight so things were going well.
Saturday night was our last night enjoying the great food and fun bar scene as we had missed the first night and only had a three day trip. It was a really fun night as some guy kept buying rounds for the bar and the local lodge gals wanted to dance! I got in pretty late but still had something left over for the next day.
Sunday was again stormy and we got a nice coat of new snow to play in. The sun came out as the day progressed and we were treated to classic BC powder snow conditions with good visibilities. Too bad we had to leave but at least we got it pretty good and had fun drinking Canadian whiskies and beer.
Flying up out of Nelson to Baldface takes only about ten minutes.
The chalets at Baldface, a little more expensive, but nice.
Alex Lopez checking out British Columbiaaaahhh!
Schubwa getting some on his new Lib Tech "Snow Mullet" with Banana Technology.
Cutback by Gerry.
BB Bowl showing typical Baldface tree run conditions.
Lead guide Heath and tailgunner Lanny doing a Shovel Compression test on Sunday.
A cat road with powder slopes nearby.
The guys clicking and getting amped to drop another line.
Flocked trees and a peek at Baldface.
Storm riding, January 2009. Can't wait to go back!
We were unable to fly in Thursday night due to bad visibility. The backup plan is to ship folks into the lodge via snowcat but the access road had been avalanched on and was unpassable. They put us up in a nice hotel in Nelson so we decided to hit the town and enjoy the evening, as we usually just drive to the airport and immediately leave for Baldface. They say Nelson is the marijuana capitol of the free world but I just can't figure out what they mean by that...
Friday morning we flew in by helicopter and were treated to about a foot of fresh that had fallen over the rainpack/wet snow from the previous days. The group heading out only rode for two days as the slide danger was extraordinarily high during their stay. One run, Dao of Pow, slid huge and a wide swath of forest was torn out and the debris covered the cat roads. Needless to say, the guides were jumpy and we started out quite cautiously, riding moderate aspects with tight trees. The snow was really good and continued to fall throughout the day.
After another night in the bar, we arose to more snowy skies and another 15CM of fresh. Baldface is at 6600 Ft and you can ride down from the lodge, but typically they ferry the skiers up in relatively short cat rides. We started to tackle steeper and deeper shots as confidence was up from the day before. I got a little frustrated as I thought they were being overly careful; the avie cycle was caused by the previous warm storm and now it was cold and the layers had settled but it doesn't hurt to be safe and not become a statistic!
The best run of the day was "Dads", an open clearcut slope that you could really rip on as we had been spending most of our time on treed runs. The snow moved back in and was forecasted to drop another 15-20 CM overnight so things were going well.
Saturday night was our last night enjoying the great food and fun bar scene as we had missed the first night and only had a three day trip. It was a really fun night as some guy kept buying rounds for the bar and the local lodge gals wanted to dance! I got in pretty late but still had something left over for the next day.
Sunday was again stormy and we got a nice coat of new snow to play in. The sun came out as the day progressed and we were treated to classic BC powder snow conditions with good visibilities. Too bad we had to leave but at least we got it pretty good and had fun drinking Canadian whiskies and beer.
Flying up out of Nelson to Baldface takes only about ten minutes.
The chalets at Baldface, a little more expensive, but nice.
Alex Lopez checking out British Columbiaaaahhh!
Schubwa getting some on his new Lib Tech "Snow Mullet" with Banana Technology.
Cutback by Gerry.
BB Bowl showing typical Baldface tree run conditions.
Lead guide Heath and tailgunner Lanny doing a Shovel Compression test on Sunday.
A cat road with powder slopes nearby.
The guys clicking and getting amped to drop another line.
Flocked trees and a peek at Baldface.
Storm riding, January 2009. Can't wait to go back!
