ASCEND & WANDER

Cranbrook was easy to get to with flights into YXC, Canadian Rockies International Airport. It is a hub between Vancouver and Calgary. This page is getting from the airport to Fernie in a day with a stop and ski at Kimberly I think a similar plane as the one bond for Bella Coola flying out of the south terminal Canadian Rockies International Airport Kimberly BC Very chill vibe here on a fair weather day Looking back into the city from the chairlift Riding the lifts with some limited terrain open. I think the resort is going to close by next week? Interesting storage of the patrol T-bog Former CMP Lumber Millhouse Inside the town of Wardner. A chill place to stop just a few KM off the highway with everyone driving trucks and waving at you walking along the road, volunteer run parks and playgrounds and people just leave their baseball bats and balls lying around at the local pitch.  The streets in downtown Fernie Views from within the city Mount Fernie, Three Sisters, Mount Hosmer, a...

  I'm writing this post at midnight in late May coming off 8 days of night shifts and thus my memory is a little foggy from these couple days but it is coming back to me now This fellow is boot packing up the flute access road with both skis and a snowboard The apostilles were in perfect condition   Like my memory, foggy weather as you rode the chairlifts up high and skied the backside of Flute. I tried to stay high while enjoying the downhill and took a tumble on this relatively simple terrain from a wind drift that I didn't see Morning at the hut and shoveling the stairs Swapping the very heavy propane cans Finding the buried helicopter landing zone flag in the snow Discussing our route out of the hut and back down to singing pass Tons of fresh pow Approaching Melody Creek I started punching in a skin track back up towards the hut but it was too time consuming with all this fresh powder and it was still a mission in itself to get back into the city by this afternoon/eve...

  In mid March the Brockton chairlift at Seymour was closed for repairs. I think it was missing and needing a new part. And while the rest of the resort was busy, I skied laps of this zone after using the Provincial Park Winter route trail up the hill. Pump peak was hidden and the weather was poor so this turned into a great day of laps and surprisingly I think this was the first time I actually skied this portion of the resort. I always spent most of my time at Grouse and Cypress so this hill always gets neglected Chairs were removed so that is it for the season, folks Some nice but short runs on good snow days Laps and good transition practice. A few others were taking this route down from Pump peak but no one else stayed to lap it on this Saturday in mid March. Prime time hey?

I am constantly trying to get better and determining how much now snow an area gets and this day proved I still have lots to improve on in this arena. Myself and TS had a great day up here midweek and it was fun showing off this zone to a new ski buddy. The pow was just a bonus on our lap of Stadium Glacier.  I posted this photo on instagram and surprising got lots of kuddos for it. Even a question of whether this was heli skiing. Pretty cool how one can get to this zone in a few hours while others consider it good enough to be heli skiing Stadium gully trackless and probably for a good reason... would be a little sketchy to drop in on a day like today 

  I remember this day being rather short, stormy, and very touchy snowpack. The avalanche danger was hovering around considerable at tree line and alpine. I was the first person putting in a new skin track on top of an older one and despite there being a few cars in the overnight lot, none went to the usual entrance that avoids the steep terrain so they must have left their cars here and ventured elsewhere? Tree skiing looking fine as I ascended through the forest Fog rolling in and it was getting wet also  The ridge on the watershed boundary Immediately at tree line and anywhere without an obvious canopy above, the snowpack was very touchy. I released a few small slabs as seen in the pictures below  Always a humbling feeling when the snow starts sliding and I was careful to always keep myself in a position out of harms way if anything bigger were to come down

  Day 1  Oboe Basin to Singing Pass along Oboe Creek  February 2025 GPX Between Oboe basin the creek Oboe Creek Some open water but it skied well. The bottom lead to a steeper canyon feature on both sides but if you stay high and skiers right at about 1500m you will avoid the worst of it. I was able to keep skins off the whole time. Tracks on the backside of Flute. I think this is the run called Flute Cruiser  Seeing the terrain of Cowboy ridge from the Singing Pass trail Size 2 avalanche seen from the hut window above Russet Lake Overnighting at the Kees and Claire Hut Day 2  GPX This was a fun loop from the hut to Russet Ridge then dropping down the Adit Creek / Russet Creek junction and skinning back up to Adit Creek and down Cowboy Ridge to Singing Pass An private group from Washington leaving the hut and doing their AST2 course  Adit Lake from Russet Ridge My Ski run down Looking back up at my line Russet Creek and Adit Creek confluence The glacier dra...