My favourite Vancouver Island ski hill, Mt. Cain, opened for the season this Saturday (December 10th, 2011). I swear that place is a bubble of happiness. I am satisfied because:
a. I helped get the upper tee-bar open by shovelling hard-packed snow onto bare patches Saturday morning (and was one of the first people to ski off the top tee).
b. I went on an excellent ski tour Sunday up the Abel Bowl, into the Echo Bowl and up the back side of the Dream Chute and down the Dream Chute - my second descent of this iconic Vancouver island run.
Yes - it was that really steep bit on the upper tee that needed fixing...and it took five more of us (ten peeps total) to fix the whole upper tee run!
As soon as we were done, Dancing Dan Boucher and I popped into the West Bowl to have a look and saw this. Kind of an "ice-bow". Pretty awesome!
The weekend didn't start so well though. In an effort to be efficient, I hit the coffee aisle at Thrifty's, grabbed some Salt Spring Holiday blend (it was on sale), popped it in the grinder, quickly shoved the bag under the spout and ran off to grab bread and oatmeal...well...I should have spent at least a second checking the coffee as the bag wasn't under the spout of the grinder and I came back, with bread, to a nice neat pile of coffee on the grinder base! I let one of the store staff know, scooped what I could into the coffee bag and left a toonie in the bottom of the grinder tray...I could still see the pile of coffee on the ground at the check out!
Friday was excellent. Ran into old friends and had beers in the old lodge. Woke up early Saturday raring to go, and when I wandered outside after breakfast found the panic of "we can't open the upper tee" in full flight. Well, that's just not the Cain way and a bunch of us headed up with shovels and water jugs to patch the bare spots and get er done! It only took two hours or so...
That afternoon, for some unknown reason, about six of us ended up on top at the same time and proceeded to stomp out about 20 quick runs - boom boom boom! My legs burned in new places! Saturday night was pretty chill, and I woke up again Sunday ready to rip.
I found Dan, and started chatting about a tour - somewhere. He told Todd who said "I know just the place". And so the Ass-backwards Abel Bowl tour kicked off!
Classic touring image. Traversing under ice falls to cross the creek flowing out of Abel Bowl. The traverse to get here was NASTY!
This is about half way up Abel Bowl en route to Echo bowl. Todd and Dan hike it out.
We skied down Echo Bowl and then climbed up the same ridge to the top of Dream Chute. This is the view back towards the ski area.
View from the top of the Dream Chute. The Chute itself is to the right of the sub-peak directly in the foreground of this photo.
"Da boyz" chillin at the top of Dream Chute.
Looking down the Dream Chute. No, that is not untracked pow - that is Van Isle Boiler plate!
Looking back from the upper tee to the Dream Chute. We were right at the top!
End of opening weekend looking past Mt Abel.
So, here's the quick trip summary. We skied out the east boundary, across the East Bowl, around the ridge at the bottom of the Abel Bowl (sketchy - nasty traverse), up the Abel Bowl, down the back of that into the Echo Bowl and then up the ridge again to the top of the Dream Chute. after we dropped the Dream Chute we hiked back in bounds across the East bowl . The whole trip took almost exactly four hours! I got to use my crampons and ice axe to maximum effect!
Despite the ache in my legs (and arms, and abs, and back...) I am already stoked for the next tour!