Short tour in Panorama

Steve and Anne arrived here in Panorama after a couple of days of travel. We went for a little leg stretcher before heading up to the hut tomorrow.

Big peaks.

Firm structure.

Up a logging road.

Down a log cut. Tad sketchy on the firm snow.

Beer!

Up to the hut tomorrow!

Fat Biking in Panorama

Dori and I rented fat bikes and went out for a spin.

Ideal conditions. Packed snow with a skiff of fresh.

Beautiful day too.

Made it up to the Hale Hut.

Rolling!

Toby Creek

Not as fun as skiing powder, but quite a lot of fun nonetheless!

Delphine Creek

I felt the need for exploration so I skinned up Delphine Creek up canyon from Panorama.

The old logging road made for pleasant skinning as the valley unfolded.

There was lots of great ski terrain, but poor coverage low down kept me on the road.

Surface hoar in the valley bottom.

Skinned past a couple of landing zones for heli skiing, so I was in the right place. Wrong time though.

Skiing Panorama

Next up was a day skiing lifts at Panorama ski area.

Fine views, but mediocre skiing. Winter snow prevailed on the upper half of the mountain, but was all skied out. Firm conditions were found lower down allowing us to work on our carving/edging skills.

Panorama from Panorama!

I hike out the ridge above Taynton Bowl. A few little pockets of powder remained up high, then steep but soft bumps, then an icy cat track back to the main runs. Fun. Sort of.

Thanks to Dori for the pics.

More Canada

Rest day. Our 10th anniversary!

We spent a soothing late morning at Radium Hot Springs near Invermere.

Anniversary pic near dramatic gorge.

We drove up Toby Creek above the ski area where Dori spied this Moose.

Wild.

Canada Day 3. Skinning up Sunshine

The goal for the day was to get a little exercise skinning up Sunshine Ski Resort.

Right off the bat I spied this incredible ice waterfall replete with a climber about to top out!

 After a bit more than an hour skinning I arrived at the ski area boundary. Nice terrain in bounds.

Nice terrain out of bounds too! I managed to find a nice little slope with untracked powder near here.

 Loads of amazing scenery.

Wow!

Canada Day 2. Lake Louise XC

After the so so day at Lake Louise we decided to try a little cross country skiing.

More stupendous views.

Fun on the trails.

Lake Louise itself was a fun and gorgeous spot.

We treated ourselves to a fine meal at the Chateau.

Canada! Day 1 Lake Louise

We woke up in Calgary and made the amazing drive up to Lake Louise.

Skied a half day at Lake Louise.

Really pretty, but mediocre conditions.

Duck Pass Tour

Took a short tour with Steve up to the Duck Pass area.

It appeared 8" to 10" of new snow had fallen before the snow level rose and rain prevailed. After the rain stopped, freezing levels dropped again so the whole mess tightened up pretty well. We were traveling on supportable rain crust all the way up to around 10,300'!

A second storm was developing throughout the morning, making for a good wintery mood.

The crust was firm, but not icy. Fast traveling!

Steve skates across Skelton Lake.

The turns were fun as long as the supportable crust remained supportable. Lower elevations in the trees was a bit dicey.

There were signs of instability. 

Seemed like the most problematic areas were in the higher, north facing trees where the faceted snow was still prevalent prior to the storm. We experienced numerous collapses (whumps) near and just below treeline.

Nice little leg stretcher.