While my friends in Utah are still suffering from the early season doldrums, winter is back in full force in the Whistler area, providing badly needed powder for the Christmas vacation crowd and snow-starved locals. A combination of factors has led to the establishment of an uncharacteristically unstable coastal snowpack, making the new snowfall a maddening exercise in patience and restraint, as everyone is chomping at the bit to get out and into the gnar. Two BC skiers succumbed to injuries sustained after being caught in avalanches this week, a sobering reminder of the dangers that exist within our mountains.

Wanting to escape the holiday crowds at Whistler, but leery of the heightened avalanche risk, I headed out to a pillow zone off the Duffey Lake Road with the Surface Skis crew on a greybird photo / video mission. The lack of snowfall has left me with very little to shoot over the last month, and I was eager to get out for the first ‘work’ day of the season. The light was flat, but the snow was excellent and pillows well-developed, with plenty of protected stashes hiding in the forested shoulder of Joffre Mountain. Just another day in paradise…

Condolences to the friends and families of the two skiers that died doing what they love. May the powder be plentiful in the afterlife.

Related posts:

1. Joffre touring
2. Tremor
3. Deep Winter 2011 Recap

Tremor was one hell of an adventure and I’m stoked we made it out there – the hourglass is a line I won’t be forgetting any time soon. I was quite pleased with how easy the trip was on my splitboard – I can’t imagine doing a day trip out to Tremor on snowshoes. Speaking of, anyone want to buy a pair of MSR Denali Evos? I won’t be using mine again… ever.

Splitboarding is the answer.

A few more photos from the trip to Tremor:

Related posts:

1. Sun Days
2. Off and On
3. Joffre touring

We tried to gain access to a great looking couloir but short of booting up the gut, couldn’t find an ascent option we were comfortable with and decided to back off to a different line. We were again shut down trying to get on top of the Heartstrings zone when the weather socked in, eliminating our ability to navigate above treeline, in an area with more than enough death-gnar to do around… not the kind of place you want to be moving blind. Entering the line further down the ridge, we were rewarded with a playful and pillowy 600m descent to the valley bottom.

Of note: I was able to ride my split all the way back to the lower lake with ease, making Joffre the most splitboard friendly tour I’ve done off the Duffey to date. A quick transition to put skins back on, and I was first back to the car – doesn’t happen often when touring with skiers! Despite being turned back of our two objectives, our exploratory mission was a great success, and you can bet we’ll be back soon…

Related posts:

1. Off and On
2. Spring Touring – Cerise Creek
3. A little help?

We thought the snow might be a little sloppy up high, but avoiding sun-baked aspects led to a late April powder harvest. Gotta love that spring crop!

Related posts:

1. Cerise Creek / Keith’s Hut
2. Joffre touring
3. Pre-season shred

John Swystun getting it done on both sides of the lens:

Read the full post for a story about how easy sledding is and a short whis park video from Eric Poulin:
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…Unfortunately, Dave Craig suffered an equipment malfunction on the landing of a step down and had his board double eject (wtf, I know) and take off ghost rider style down to the bottom of the bowl. With his board a 500 feet below us, we decided to bugger the sunset shooting and call it a day.

This…

…turned into this:

Is this why we’re supposed to wear leashes?

Fast forward a week to last Sunday – the weather was prime again so I took up an offer to head out on a sled trip into the Whistler area backcountry. I’ve always heard people say how much of a bitch sledding can be when you first start out, but I was not prepared for the beat-down my body was about to receive.

Making matters worse was the fact that I wasn’t actually sledding up to the zone – I was being towed, wakeboard style, into the alpine. I like to think my legs are in pretty good shape, but my arms? Please. I’m a photographer, not a longshoreman. Now I feel like Stretch Armstrong – and don’t even get me started on the roller coaster ride up to Tricouni…

Complaints aside, once we were up it was about as glorious as it gets. We had some rad laps in the trees to start out, then hit some mellow terrain in the alpine and built up a perfect huck-anything step over.

Eliel Hindert found a nice spine area in the trees to rip:

My prior sledding experience is almost exclusively ice fishing trips. Not today.

Andrew Narkewicz, double or nothing:

Gideon Baldridge plays backcountry chauffeur for Eliel:

When we arrived at the trailhead in the morning it was an absolute zoo, so Gideon got a little creative with his parking skills. It cost us when we got down; the snow he parked on had melted under the heat of the car and refrozen after the sun set, pretty much welding his Land Rover in place. It took a bunch of digging and a pull from Hockenstein (thanks buddy) before we were on our way back to the city… we rolled home 15 hours after we left in the morning, dead tired and super-stoked.

Meanwhile, back at Whistler, Eric Poulin did some filming and threw together a little edit of how he spent his sunny Sunday – check it out!

Last Sunday from Eric Poulin on Vimeo.

Related posts:

1. Beach Days
2. Spring Touring – Cerise Creek
3. Tremor

Not too shabby for the first turn of the season…

The sunset view down Howe Sound was a great bonus after an awesome day of shredding:

More photos and words after the jump:

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Up, up, up…

Are we there yet?

The only bad thing about our day was the fact that Poulin and I don’t have snowshoes… yet. Still, finally snowboarding again was well worth the extra effort. Dear loving parents, Christmas is in a month

Group shot!

Check out the rest of the day here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewstrain/sets/72157610014159230/

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