Snowy!

In the "be careful what you wish for" category ... Vancouver has been receiving truckloads of snow in the city.  Here's our place:

Note sure if you can see the stacks of snow beside Killaine ... I had to shovel the driveway twice yesterday - a day after spending a couple of hours at the NSR embassy shoveling the snow that was collapsing our vehicle canopies!  I actually enjoy shoveling snow ... but this is getting to be a little silly ...

Rescue off Hollyburn

A very successful rescue last night / this morning - a snowshoer fell ~30m down into a steep gully off the west aspect of Hollyburn Mountain - one of his companions was able to climb down to him, but both of them ended up being stuck on a 70 degree slope, hanging on to branches protruding from the snow.

Two members, Al & Jackie, hiked in quickly to the gully, but were unable to access the snowshoers from below.  Myself, Bob, Hannes, Paul & Connie made our way to the top of the gully.  Bob lowered me down into the gully and I made contact with the very cold and very scared couple.  I got harnesses on them, and Bob & team lowered them down the rest of the way to Al & Jackie.  Bob lowered me down, and I hiked out with our subjects.  

Both subjects were fine - the snowshoer who fell in had a few minor scrapes - but both were very cold, but warmed up quickly on the hike out.

A great rescue, and I was very happy to put my rope rescue skills to work.

Some news reports:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/12/16/bc-northshore-cypress-park-snowshow-rescue.html?ref=rss

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081216/BC_cypress_snoeshoers_081216/20081216?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

http://www.news1130.com/news/topstory/article.jsp?content=20081216_084705_15556

A photo of Paul, with me in the background:

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/12/16/bc-081216-snowshoers-saved1.jpg

Quick Toodle up Hollyburn

Did a quick toodle up Hollyburn on Sunday while Killaine did some laps in the x-country ski area.  

Snowshoes were a good choice ... still lots of exposed shrubbery under the unconsolidated snow.  Beautiful, clear but cold day.

A photo taken by some folks on their camera-phone.

Winter is Here!

Finally!  Winter arrived on the North Shore!

About 70 or so cm has been dumped on the North Shore mountains - not "tons" by local standards, but enough for Killaine & I to finally get out.

We did the standard short ski up the alpine trail at Mt. Seymour, starting up at around 11:30am or so.  At that time, the trail tends to be busy with backcountry skiers and snowshoers, but everyone seemed quite happy to finally be out in the snow!

My pager went off as we were approaching Brockton Point (at the top) for an injury on the Dog Mountain trail.  So, we ditched our skins and skied down the runs in the ski area.  The ski area wasn't fully opened, so the runs were ungroomed - the skiing was good in the 40cm of new snow, but extreme caution was needed 'cause of the relative shallow depth of the snow, and that the 40cm was pretty much unconsolidated.

Back at the parking lot, I got my radio from my truck, got in touch with my North Shore Rescue colleagues, and quickly jumped into the helicopter for a very short flight into the First Lake on the Dog Mountain trail.

The subject, a 12 year old boy had slipped off a small log bridge with his snowshoes on and had twisted his knee quite badly.  I helped package him in the stretcher and get him back to the helicopter, where he was flown out.  Bruce & I accompanied out the other members of the party.

By the way - the party was a scout group out for a snowshoe as part of learning how to survive in the winter.  They appeared to be very well equipped with extra clothes, thermal blankets, etc.  It's good to see people getting out into the backcountry, and being appropriately prepared for emergencies.

Will Winter Ever Come?

Howdy folks,

Things have been quiet here on the blogging front recently.  But, aside from that, the current question is when will it snow?  It's December 6th today ... and the snow conditions on the south coast of BC are pretty darn minimal.

I've been trolling lots of weather sites, and have an impressive list of sites to uncover snow depth and weather info.  But, the reality is that this is a very late start to winter this year.  I skied at Blackcomb on November 27th last year - had a 9000m day, and recorded " blue sky, fresh snow, and cool temperatures - a perfect day!".  I recall a great snow pack.  In constrast, right now Whistler/Blackcomb has a 40cm base (that's, like, one foot and 3 inches or so).  On the local hills, there's no snow covering the lower cut on Grouse Mountain, and only a few centimeters of snow up higher.

Further afield, I've heard that folks have been having some good skiing at Roger's Pass - up above treeline. 

I'm supposed to lead an alpine club trip next weekend to explore up the S and W sides of Mt. Sproatt from the new Whistler Olympic Park (that's where the x-country and ski jumping will be for the 2010 Olympics).  But, they only have a few centimeters on the ground, so very likely I'll be canning that trip ... unless there's a big dump of snow down to 1000m or so (not looking good right now).

Ron, Carole, Gord, Jenny, Killaine & I are planning to do the Bonnington Traverse near Nelson over New Years - snow is pretty light out there too (again, 40cm reported at Whitewater).  

Ah well ... one thing is (hopefully) certain ... it will snow sometime soon!

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

Here's a really good little video on the causes, impacts & solutions of climate change:

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

My Friends Have an Adventure

Some "as of yet unnamed" friends of mine had an adventure on a "big route on a sizable peak" somewhere in a Canadian mountain range.  This is how it ended up:

They're totally fine, though they have retired from big routes for a while.

Points if you can identify the mountain range, area, peak or the names of these folks!