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Awesome!

2017-01-22T17:43:00+0000

Super nice day!! Great peeps! New friends!Thanks to all the organizers for pulling this off! We learned lots! Link to my documentary I mentioned at dinner: http://listenremember.org Hope to see y'all again soon? PM me if you want to go out for a ski! Cheers, Mark

Appa Peak

2015-03-09T06:00:00+0000

Appa Glacier Heading down Rutherford FSR it didn’t take long to hit snow and ice, from around the 4km mark we were in compact snow. Something weird about this road, it seems to be made up entirely of bumps in most places. Had to go quite slow 15 kmh or so otherwise you were in danger of hitting your head on the roof. Difficult to pick up speed for the hills, we got stuck on one at the 17km mark and decided to turn around and park at the flat area. I pulled of the compact snow a little too far and sunk into the ditch. After trying to dig the wheels out and rocking back and forth etc, the other vehicle had to pull me out. Luckily I had some rope with me. Up the road another km or so to the turn off, the road forks down to the left and a couple of hundred meters later you see a large yellow sign for the Trail. Patchy snow on the road a couple of big hills and 2km or so your at the cabin. Shortly after the cabin the trail opens out and you make your way along the creek. We follow the snowmobile tracks up to the lake. I had trail crampons on from the car but took them off crossing the lake as they kept balling up with snow and I got tired of having to knock it off with my pole. A few snow bridges to cross and we were at the glacier, kept on the tracks up the left hand side of the glacier until steepness levelled out a bit.Soon we got a view of our original objective, Appa Peak, however with the delays earlier in the day it was 1.30pm by the time we were on top of Appa glacier. Some of our group decided to stop here.With 2 hours or so to our turn around time there was no chance of achieving the peak so we decided to to the ridge south of Appa SW2. Distances on the glacier are hard to judge, it takes a good while to cross or get anywhere. Put snowshoes on from here, I was sinking in to just above the ankle. A steep climb and I’m the first one on the ridge. Kwtamts Peak looked invitingly close but with a too heavy pack slowing me down and little daylight left this was the e... Read more

Ashlu roundup

2015-01-14T14:17:00+0000

Just a quick report to save everyone a trip up. I was up the Ashlu Main on Sunday, January 11th to see what's up with the snowpack. The road was plowed to the power plant at the bottom of the mainline (about Mile 22). Skinned up from there on an inadequate base for skiing down. Quads had made it to the top of the hill above the canyon just beyond Cassetta Creek. After that it was just snowmobile tracks all the way to the head pond at Mile 26. Took just over an hour from the bottom. No trail breaking to that point. The snow was deep enough for the ski down from where the quads stopped. They'd really churned the snow up. Broke trail to A620 Pokosha Creek road about 2 km beyond the head pond. Turned up the roadbed to the end, another 3 km. Snow depth actually decreased once off the mainline. It might have something to do with cold air drainage or perhaps the roadbed is not cleared as wide so the trees trap warmth better. I had to walk with the skis for at least 500 meters just beyond the 4x4 parking and then there was lots of running water to cross all the way to the end. Once on the trail proper, in the trees the snow pretty much disappeared. It took me about 3.5 hours from the bottom to reach the trail. Snowpack is desperately thin all the way to the alpine. Called it a day.