Spring Change

Spring is a time for being busy; watching change and getting things done. That is exactly how I have found myself in the last few weeks: busy watching change.  Since last blogging I have been on an interpretive guides’ course and passed the final IGA exam. Technically if I had a visa I could work as a ‘guide’ in any national park in Canada.  I say ‘guide’ as this means different things to different people; anyone doing any sort of guiding in a national park has to have passed an IGA assessment, but it doesn’t mean you’re qualified to take groups out on alpine climbing expeditions or anything exciting like that.  It means that I know a bit about the history, geology and eco-regions of the national parks and the flora and fauna found within them. Enough to make a simple hike along the many trails a touch more interesting for your average city slicker who is daunted by the prospect of seeing a deer in the wild or confused about the migration of the Native Peoples from the sub-continent of India.

The Back Country

The IGA course was a minor diversion from the main activity of the last few weeks.  Skiing and learning how to ski and survive ‘safely’ in complex, back country, avalanche terrain. Something I evidently achieved. Using ski touring [or back country skiing] as a vehicle to learn winter camping and navigation skills, powder and glacial skiing and for the practical elements of the Canadian Avalanche Associations, Avalanche Safety Training [AST] levels 1 & 2.  Yeah, more qualifications to add to the list.

Heavy bags and rest

So what did I learn?  Ski touring, with all of your camping equipment, is hard work. On average we managed about 7km a day [something I’d run in about 30 minutes]; and those 7ks were gruelling, head down, hot sweaty, silent kilometres. With just day equipment, the skiing wasn’t quite so punishing but we only skied downhill for about 15 minutes, taking 6 or 7 hours to do the uphill. This just doesn’t seem quite worth it; not enough bang for your buck. Yes skiing through untouched light fluffy powder is quite delightful, and climbing to the top of a mountain peak is always a fun achievement, but combing the two just doesn’t seem to work for me. And it’s definitely not worth it when you have to carry a tent, stove, food, avalanche gear etc. However there is something quite magical about the process of skiing up a hillside and not sliding backwards with every step you take. Curiously skiing up hill and along flats is still called walking even though you are skiing. This lead to me being a touch confused and making the first few hours of my first tour even more hard work as my my boots were in ski mode not walk mode; to me I was skiing not walking.  

 

Happy to be on a summit and not skiing up any more

Digging a storage hole

 A very heavy bag and dehydration seem to be my most memorable points about winter camping.  At the campsite one is perpetually melting and boiling snow, for either cooking or drinking water.  Everything you need to camp is heavier than in the summer, in order to keep you warmer and or drier; which are both much appreciated.  This leads me to conclude they build mountain huts and lodges for a reason [on several occasions we camped within a kilometre of such structures of happiness].  On the plus side you can make the camp site very comfortable, digging benches and tables out of the snow to make group kitchens, sleeping on the soft snow under the tent and being able to dig nice storage areas in the tent’s vestibules. Also as it gets dark quite early, there is not much to do apart from boil snow, it’s cold at night and it’s cold until mid morning, you get to spend a long time in the mostly comfortable tent. In fact I didn’t really have anything against winter camping, apart from the means of getting to the campsite.  

You can't wild camp in a national park, so we pitched our tent about 2m from this sign

Simple camp kitchen

On our first trip my tent buddies and I awoke to find that some small night creature had stolen all of our food, leaving one tea bag and a portion of lentil curry. Another important lesson about wild camping learnt the hard way.

Before my second ski touring/camping trip in a bid to reduce weight I removed everything from my bag that I didn’t use on the first.  This helped, but I couldn’t help but feel that I had left some important things behind. For example my first aid kit became 3 blister patches. 

Nice Trail

Whilst I complained [internally of course: I am British] about the camping and my heavy back pack, the actual skiing was quite good fun. I enjoyed being at the front and breaking trail through the several inches on of untouched snow, and skiing down a climbed peak was pretty amazing.  Skiing through reasonably thick trees is pretty scary, but certainly focuses the mind and makes a good change. One of my favourite moments was emerging on to a groomed piste at Sunshine Village, having just finished a 3 day back country tour.  Although this served as a reminder that there is a good reason ski lifts were invented.

I was also lucky enough to get a second lap, both up and down of one peak due to the fact one of the group fell and twisted her knee.  We had split in to two groups, for once I was in the advanced group. My group had reached the bottom of the mountain when our guide got a radio message saying we had to go back up.  He shot up at a super fast speed, I took a much more leisurely 40 minutes, draining the last of my energy going back up a peak I thought I was finished with. The group the casualty was with had made it about 100 meters from where they started.  I arrived back at the top just in time to see the casevac helicopter land with perfect precision right next to the casualty. Seeing the amazing flying and the speed at which the rescue happened filled me with confidence about being in the mountains.

Too Much Snow

Having slogged our way along 8kms and up 700m of vertical gain to set up camp for our next trip, it started to snow quite heavily. Over the next 24 hrs we were graced with about 90cm of snow.  Yeah the amazing mythical powder I came to Canada in search of!!!  Turns out you can have too much snow; the avalanche risk reached extreme. As we were on our AST 2 course we could figure this out for ourselves and understand the implications of type and amount of snow.  So we spent a day in our tents, only emerging to dig the tent out to stop it from collapsing or to boil more snow. On the third day our only option was to cut the trip short and ski out as the avalanche risk was only going to increase even though it had stopped snowing. 90cm of snow is too heavy to ski in, you can barely turn and woe betide you if you are foolish enough to stop as getting going again is quite a problem.  On the way down walk/ski mode on my boots also caught me out again; leaving my boots in walk mode whilst skiing down, causing me to topple backwards several times.To be honest I was quite glad this trip was cut short as I picked up a touch of man flu before setting off, meaning I was delirious for most of the ski out and spent the two nights and day, alternating between boiling and shivering in my sleeping bag, whilst coughing up copious amounts of brown goo.

Hiding from the snow

A More Advanced Kitchen

In between my last ski touring trip and the adventure medicine course which starts this weekend I have managed to squeeze in my 50^th day of piste skiing in Canada.  Quite a milestone for a never-ever skier such as myself.  Although it felt a little bit wrong to be skiing in 22˚C bright sunshine; more bikini than salopettes.

I have enjoyed watching the mountains, and the view from my window change; the snow is almost gone from the peaks and treeline is getting greener and more abundant, and somehow the sky framing it all is bluer than before. Living in the mountains is truly beautiful.

I have learnt that any change in conditions, particularly sudden change, is bad for increasing avalanche risk.  But I also learnt that avalanches are really important for creating food sources for the sleepy bears that are waking up in the spring sunshine. So a bit like life some change is good and some is bad.

Up to no good

Sometimes it is possible to not see the changes that creep along day by day, until you step back and look at the bigger picture.  It has only just hit me how much my daughter has changed in the four months that we have been in Canada. You can now have a full conversation with her, whereas before she only had a few words. Her long arms can reach any table top and most shelves, leaving nowhere safe to leave glasses, phones, and scissors. When we first arrived the furniture seemed to dwarf her.  But most significantly of all she is finally turning in to a little person, all be it a slightly manipulative, mischievous and naughty one. Someone it is almost fun to spend time with. A very significant change for me.

And lastly my thoughts about the future are changing. I never really came to Canada with some great plan to implement, more to just see what turned up. I thought I liked the idea of being a mountain guide, now I’m not so sure: some things are best kept as hobbies. Maybe my life back home wasn’t as bad as I thought.  Certainly something for me to think about in my last two months here; although I’ll probably change my thoughts on that several more times before going home.

As for my course, well it’s finally time to say good bye to winter pursuits, and make the change to rock climbing in the sun.  All via a 10 day ‘adventure medicine course’; with another exam and two big manuals to read.  Isn’t change fun?