British Columbia is a big place, so the weather and conditions can vary quite a bit. Chatter Creek has not done as well in January as Mustang, 3 mountain ranges to the west. There has been no snow for about 2 weeks, though there were flurries this afternoon. 1/3 of their alpine had avalanches after the last storm and they said the conditions in the trees were not that good. With their vast tenure there is still plenty more alpine and the snow up there was fine other than south exposures. But with thick overcast the light was very flat. I skied into 2 blind gullies, doing the first double ejection on my new Head Jimi skis. But the smaller gully was the bigger problem. It's instinctive to ski with muscles somewhat tensed in bad visibility, so when I came up short I strained or locked up my right calf muscle. It' still painful to straighten that leg fully while walking, even though I iced it for an hour and took some medication.
Fortunately there is little demand on that muscle skiing. The last run was the best of the day, with a steep drop through a subalpine zone similar to some of the skiing at Mustang, and my technique was not affected by the dull ache in that calf. We also had two delays, one from a broken hose in the cat which a mechanic came up in a sled to fix, and the other from a mixup in one of the pickup points. So along with first day transceiver drills we skied a modest 9,300.
Fortunately there is little demand on that muscle skiing. The last run was the best of the day, with a steep drop through a subalpine zone similar to some of the skiing at Mustang, and my technique was not affected by the dull ache in that calf. We also had two delays, one from a broken hose in the cat which a mechanic came up in a sled to fix, and the other from a mixup in one of the pickup points. So along with first day transceiver drills we skied a modest 9,300.
