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Dre Enjoying Opening Weekend

J Dogg — Thu, 3 Aug 2006 02:16:43 -0400

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Dre Enjoying backcountry hike at start of blackcomb's season.

Blackcomb Closing Day Closeout

J Dogg — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 13:35:59 -0400

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The following story is true, but the names were changed to protect the innocent.

Yep, it had to happen sooner or later. After easily one of the best season's in memory, Blackcomb Mountain closed it's doors for the season yesterday, April 23, 2006. Hard to see it end, with so much snow still up there to be shredded. But we weren't going to let it off easy. So the 'Silly Web Magazine from Whistler that rhymes with hogpotion' and a not-so-random pack of 60 some odd Whistler locals set out to close the season in style - on Blackcomb Peak of all places.

As early lift closures threatened our plans, everyone diverted in different directions, frantically trying to find a way up to the peak. The whiter one-piece with the BBQ was sighted going one way, while the weiners and Wildcats awaited the Horstman T-Bar, and the buns were nowhere in sight.

But nobody in this posse was going to let lift closures or gravity stand in the way of plans. And sure enough, as the clocked turned 4, a steady procession of shady characters starting marching across the Blackcomb glacier and up towards Blackcomb peak. It's not often you look up the glacier and see 3 dozen people in a row, let alone the bizarre assortment of one-piece outfits, backpacks full of beer, a guy with his pants down, some white trash and even a fluffy yellow tiger.

As soon as the chain-gang started summiting the peak, music was playing, the BBQ was flaming, and beer was flowing - while the 2 dozen more stragglers contiued to stumble in for another 2 hours. Not satisfied with just a BBQ, out came the golf club for some high altitude driving practice - and yes - Tiger Woods himself was among the particpants.

And just as the sun started setting and people starting descending their various lines, the eager crew of late-stayers embarked on a mission to build the first-known booter on Blackcomb Peak. Sure it had a landing flatter than Mantioba, but that didn't stop everyone from busting daffies, frogs, and 360 spreaders until the landing ditch got too deep to bear. So without further ado, reluctantly, everyone strapped on their skis and shredded the half-refrozen schmoo snow in every which direction from the peak to Merlins.

At 9 something oclock, we'd strectched out our last day on Blackcomb as long as we could. Sure it'll be back next year, but that was the last thought on everyone's mind. While we sat daydreaming about the season passed, I suspect everyone was simultaneously hit with one of those surfer-dude movie voice-over guys tapping into our mind telling us... "Hey, it's over man. It's over. Just let it go man, just let it go. Can I borrow a dollar?"

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Mt Suksan - July '06

J Dogg — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 02:35:52 -0400

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Did somebody say heatwave? Apparently we weren't listening, as we packed up and headed south to ski Mt Shuksan, Washington. That wasn't the only detail we missed.

First off, I rolled up to Bellingham in a pimpin' Cadillac sedan, only to learn that Andre had given his car to someone else, and was planning on heading up the mountain in my car. Hmmmm, the cadillac it was.

Only minutes after we hoisted our heavy overnight packs onto our backs, we crossed a skier who'd just come down from his 'day trip' to the summit and back. Strike two, we coulda bagged it in a day. Oh well, good excercise I guess? The rest of day 1 was a bushwacking slog to snowline for camp.

Day 2 was a scorching ski tour up to the peak pyramid, only to find that the last 500 feet, the only 500 we wanted to ski, was all rock. So basically we had devoted a weekend to farmers tans and flat ski touring. Right, well atleast we scored some inspiring views of Mt Baker. So much, that we were due to return a week later.

Wedge Mountain Mission

J Dogg — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0400

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Let's pretend we were up at 1 o'clock in the morning to get an early mountaineering start on our climb up the North-West Couloir of Wedge Mountain. In reality, we were only awake at 1 am because we had just arrived at Wedgemount Lake and set up camp after a late 9pm start and some long headlamp-hiking in the dark. It wasn't ideal, but we'd all done the 3-4 hour hike up the Wedgemount Lake trail before, so climbing 1200m up this steep and rooted trail in the dark seemed like a splendid idea at the time. Tired and sweating in the dark at 1 am, we threw our bags down on the first somewhat-flat rock we found, and called it 'camp' for the night.

Not enough hours later (about 4:30 am), we heard neighboring campers packing their bags and starting their climbs. We knew it'd be a good idea to do the same, but it wasn't going to happen on 3.5 hours of sleep.

So when 6 am rolled around we got our acts together, and compared tales of how lame our sleeps were while we chowed down on oatmeal. It was also our first chance to take in the surroundings that we couldn't see the night before, and couldn't help but notice a slew of awesome, flat bivy sites all around us. Hmmm, guess we'll show up before dark next time.

At 7:30 we threw our day packs together and started the hike around lake to the Wedgemount Glacier. At the foot of the glacier we were greeted by the sun, which had already done an impressive job of warming things up around us. Skinning up the slushy low-angled glacier was no worries, but climbing up the couloir with a high rock fall hazard wasn't on the top of our wish list.

We raced the sun over to the couloir, threw on crampons and axes, just in time for the clouds and fog to roll in. It did an awesome job of cooling down the temperatures, but didn't bode well for a good ski run. But we kept on cruising, and even when we were a fewfeet from the top it still seemed like we were going to get skunked.

We only had time for a quick snack at the top before a beauty window of sunshine came over our area, and we dropped in one after another to shred some slush down the juicy 45-50 degree slope below us. Starting from the narrow top section, it wrapped around to skiers right, yielding a steep, wide open couloir for hundreds of feet to come. Sweeeeeeet. It was easily one of the best runs we'd hit all year, and it was July!

And just our luck, as soon as we bottomed out, we could already see nasty rain/storm clouds b-lining up the valley... through Whistler... towards us. There was no escaping it, so while we chilled out for lunch, we watched the storm pass through Whistler, imagining how restaurants with patios would be frantically herding their surprised customers inside.

We cruised down the glacier back to camp, and reluctantly hauled our heavy over-nighter packs and skis back onto our backs before the 3 hours of nasty hiking in the mud and pouring rain to come. Nobody really cared though, because we had just bagged an unreal couloir with of dreamy slushy snow and blue skies. Not a bad way to kill a day in July.

DETAILS...

The turn off for the Wedgmount Lake trail is located on Highway 99, about 2 km North of Emerald Estates, the most northern neighbourhood in Whistler. The turn-off is well marked on the highway. Hang a right at the turn-off and follow the gravel/dirt road to the trailhead. A vehicle with high clearance is recommended, or just a car you don't care about anymore. From the trailhead, the well marked trail climbs 1200m to the hut at Wedgemount Lake. It's a tiny hut in a busy place, so bring a tent or bivy sack when you go. From there you're in a good loction to ski the NW couloir the next day, or to climb one of Wedge's many great mountaineering routes.

Spearhead Traverse 2002

J Dogg — Sat, 15 Jun 2002 00:00:00 -0400

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To anyone who thought winter was over, it's time for a wake up call. We just got back from four days in the Whistler backcountry on the classic Spearhead Traverse, and even with temperatures hotter than Britney Spears we still had mountains of deep, dry powder all to ourselves.

As true slackers do, we got off to a late 12 something start on Whistler Mountain and skinned over to the Russet Lake Hut with our overstuffed packs drooping from our backs. By the time we reached the hut it was so late that most normal skiers were probably detoxing down in the bars. But we still had a peak to bag and we knew the May sun would be kicking around for a few hours yet. We dumped our bags in the hut and booted to the peak of nearby Fissile Mountain, a Whistler area classic. There's nothing easy or boring to ski off this peak, and as the Sun got ready to pack it in for the night we debated over which of several 50+ degree chutes or faces to drop into.

All votes were for the wrap-around 'Elevator Chute', an aesthetic line dropping from the right shoulder of the summit that funnels into the main chute. We were greeted by good ol' spring conditions, stuck with super-skanky crust up top followed at the bottom by the deepest snow I've skied in months! Not a bad start to the traverse.

The whole traverse took four days because we took our sweet ol' time and bagged a few more peaks as we went. Of note, Mt. Iago was a gem we'd been eyeing for a while, and it's 580m of 50-something-degree face skiing yielded some epic turns. On the flip side, our hike up turned into a sketchy, blind traverse above who-the-hell-knows-what as the weather started its series of 'pregnant-lady' mood swings of doom. Nothing like being stuck on a steep and crusty boot-pack route with no game plan, wearing a t-shirt and sunglasses, and no ledges to get your skis or jacket on. Good times.

The other highlight had to be our 2-run session on Mt Tremor; a 55-degree face with unexplainably bottomless powder the whole way down. How you get snow like that in May is beyond us, but we weren't complaining.

All in all it was an amazing trip, and we scoped tons of peaks that we now have lined up for next time, and Mt Fitzsimmons is on the top of that list. It's funny to think that most of the steep descents in the area weren't skied until the early 90's by guys like Trevor Peterson and Eric Pehota.

The slacker mountaineers before then must not have known what they were missing.