EMSC
Well-known member
Solidly decent and kinda lucky for this Jan it appears.
Mustang and all of BC had pretty decent Dec snows, but very little (almost none) precip in Jan. However 6" (15cm) fell on on the first day which hugely helped plus another 1-2 on day 2/evening. Though by day two snow had all sorts of different things going on making it great in places and dense or challenging in others. Combinations of wind, settling, cloud mist kinda drizzling on the surface in just one or two limited spots, etc... plus 6" isn't enough to fully refresh well skied lines from the prior 2weeks of no snow.
Temps weren't an issue. -4C day 1, -6-8C days 2 and 3. Very stable snowpack as well so far this year.
A few oddities this trip with a 'legendary' guest guide (two actually) that clearly didn't remember all the terrain and almost kinda following instructions/recommended runs via radio at times for the first two days... Also us rushing back to the lodge on day 3 just to have almost 2 hours for our group waiting for flight 6&7 heli out...
But also some very nice lines and new friends made. Food and staff as good as ever of course.
I'm going to try to get an Avenza map from one of the cat mates because on my new phone (8mo old s24) that app flat out would not track GPS paths. At some point I stopped trying and used my Garmin watch. But of course those are not super useful without being overlaid on the run names. But alas Avenza also refuses to import those kml files. Sigh. Tech can suck sometimes.
Also keep in mind that this was "small groups steep chutes" program so only 6 in a cat and supposed to be steeper and a bit rougher version of Mustang.
Here is a google earth view of things. Not a lot of context for those that have no idea where the tenure boundaries are or how steep/cliff infused various sectors can be. Red=day 1, purple=day 2, green=day3 (definitely got a cat road recorded once on day one and also one on day 3)
Day 1: woke to predicted snow storm. Only 2cm at 7a though. Probably one of the few times it's really beneficial to have to do avi training for 1.5hrs to start. Snowed solidly all am then in waves in the pm. So conditions started a touch thin as to new powder in previously skied areas to start but then got better and better all day. Not being a resort, things never get literally skied off. But popular runs do get well skied in droughts which it appears January is shaping up to be with no new snow in the forecasts I've seen for BC.
Unfortunately an Aussie in the group had some sort of weird interaction with a small compression/bump significantly injuring his calf muscle and ligaments. Not torn, but bruised and way over stressed. So after only 5-6 runs his skiing for the trip was done. He could barely walk, but was feeling slight improvement by the time we flew out. He handled it better than just about anyone could with a positive attitude.
Day one runs I recall are andiamo twice to start, carnival twice, looking glass & mad hatter area 4 times, short Samba to finish to the lodge.
My Garmin recorded 10.7K of vert but I missed 4-5 runs on the watch.
Not a bad day1 and with the new snow; while solidly steep nothing crazy challenging either. Small sluffs in a couple spots.
As usual, many of these photos will be from the very top, or bottom of the runs that I happened to get down ahead of others. So mostly scenics and run-outs not the pitches or cliff areas (mostly, I have not frame grabbed any Gopro footage as yet).
Day 1 pics:
How to get remote real fast
Avi training.
This was a different group's cat... We had Pussy Riot cat
Sometimes this deep...
Sometimes this deep
Lots of runs I took no pics though either. Not enough time, rotating to be last, etc...
Days 2 and 3 will be in a reply post (either late tonight or even tomorrow).
Mustang and all of BC had pretty decent Dec snows, but very little (almost none) precip in Jan. However 6" (15cm) fell on on the first day which hugely helped plus another 1-2 on day 2/evening. Though by day two snow had all sorts of different things going on making it great in places and dense or challenging in others. Combinations of wind, settling, cloud mist kinda drizzling on the surface in just one or two limited spots, etc... plus 6" isn't enough to fully refresh well skied lines from the prior 2weeks of no snow.
Temps weren't an issue. -4C day 1, -6-8C days 2 and 3. Very stable snowpack as well so far this year.
A few oddities this trip with a 'legendary' guest guide (two actually) that clearly didn't remember all the terrain and almost kinda following instructions/recommended runs via radio at times for the first two days... Also us rushing back to the lodge on day 3 just to have almost 2 hours for our group waiting for flight 6&7 heli out...
But also some very nice lines and new friends made. Food and staff as good as ever of course.
I'm going to try to get an Avenza map from one of the cat mates because on my new phone (8mo old s24) that app flat out would not track GPS paths. At some point I stopped trying and used my Garmin watch. But of course those are not super useful without being overlaid on the run names. But alas Avenza also refuses to import those kml files. Sigh. Tech can suck sometimes.
Also keep in mind that this was "small groups steep chutes" program so only 6 in a cat and supposed to be steeper and a bit rougher version of Mustang.
Here is a google earth view of things. Not a lot of context for those that have no idea where the tenure boundaries are or how steep/cliff infused various sectors can be. Red=day 1, purple=day 2, green=day3 (definitely got a cat road recorded once on day one and also one on day 3)
Day 1: woke to predicted snow storm. Only 2cm at 7a though. Probably one of the few times it's really beneficial to have to do avi training for 1.5hrs to start. Snowed solidly all am then in waves in the pm. So conditions started a touch thin as to new powder in previously skied areas to start but then got better and better all day. Not being a resort, things never get literally skied off. But popular runs do get well skied in droughts which it appears January is shaping up to be with no new snow in the forecasts I've seen for BC.
Unfortunately an Aussie in the group had some sort of weird interaction with a small compression/bump significantly injuring his calf muscle and ligaments. Not torn, but bruised and way over stressed. So after only 5-6 runs his skiing for the trip was done. He could barely walk, but was feeling slight improvement by the time we flew out. He handled it better than just about anyone could with a positive attitude.
Day one runs I recall are andiamo twice to start, carnival twice, looking glass & mad hatter area 4 times, short Samba to finish to the lodge.
My Garmin recorded 10.7K of vert but I missed 4-5 runs on the watch.
Not a bad day1 and with the new snow; while solidly steep nothing crazy challenging either. Small sluffs in a couple spots.
As usual, many of these photos will be from the very top, or bottom of the runs that I happened to get down ahead of others. So mostly scenics and run-outs not the pitches or cliff areas (mostly, I have not frame grabbed any Gopro footage as yet).
Day 1 pics:
How to get remote real fast
Avi training.
This was a different group's cat... We had Pussy Riot cat
Sometimes this deep...
Sometimes this deep
Lots of runs I took no pics though either. Not enough time, rotating to be last, etc...
Days 2 and 3 will be in a reply post (either late tonight or even tomorrow).