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Canada 2009 With the Eagles Ski club 28 Feb - 18th March |
 Looking towards Kokanee Cabin |
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I flew to Calgary with Ali Bramall & Roger Upton. We hired a 4x4 car there for the period and headed for Fernie where we met up with Steve Gould and Andy Sinclair. Fernie, Castle Mountain, and White water (Nelson) The five of us stayed at the Ragging Elk hostel at Fernie, which left a lot to be desired! We had a day skiing in Fernie and half a day skiing at Castle Mountain. A great time was had at Castle Mountain as we were showed round all the best trails by three locals who adopted us. We had intended going on a tour the following 2 days but we walk
up to rain and a high avalanche risk so opted to go to Nelson sooner
than planned. In Nelson we stayed at the Dancing Bear Hostel (very nice)! The following three days were spent in and around the White water ski resort. The second day, all but Roger who stayed in resort to test some skis, did a tour up to White Queen, the mountain above the resort. |
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Kokanee Cabin By Friday night there were 10 of us all but three being members of the Eagle Ski club plus Marco our mountain guide and Kelly our Chef, this made 12 in all. We were all due to be flown out the following morning by chopper in 4 trips. Saturday dawned snowing, we arrived at the heli port at 08:00. All but three of us, of which I was one, eventually got transported up to the cabin by chopper before dark, the weather at the cabin had been bad till late afternoon and then the chopper developed a fault and had to be changed, finally it went dark and they are not allowed to fly in the dark. The three of us were back at the heliport for 06:30 and were all up to the cabin with all the gear by 0830 on Sunday morning. Six of us were guided by Marco, four others did there own thing. Only the second day, Monday, was it not bright and sunny, although very cold until Thursday, -20C most mornings. Monday was spent Yo Yoing to the north of the cabin. As the there was a high avalanche danger above the tree line. We climbed (skinned) up to the top of several peaks including "Mount John Carter" at 2610m and Esmerelda (Kokanee Glacier) at 2800m. Fresh tracks every day on brilliant powder! |
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Revelstoke, Roger's Pass and Kicking Horse (Golden) Most went there separate ways although some teamed up to do some more. I continued on with Ali and Roger. After some shopping and another session in the hot springs we headed off to Revelstoke. We stayed in a very nice B&B there. Roger managed to aggravate a knee injury early on in the day so Ali and I had to enjoy the tremendous back bowl at Revelstoke on our own.
We then headed to Roger's Pass for a short tour, we arrived there before 1200 and after some practice in the beacon park and having paid the park fee and taken advice on a route headed up Grizzly Ridge. After 1 Km Roger reluctantly decided his knee needed more rest so headed back. Me and Ali skinned on up to a high point of 2065m before we picked our way down the 35 / 40 degree glades and trees for a 745m vertical decent. We joined Roger in the Lodge bar for a jug of beer before we headed to Golden. We stayed at the Rocking Horse River Lodge at Golden another nice
hostel. Ali and myself had a great time there some excellent off piste bowls, we tested several sets of skis over the day. We had lunch in the Eagle's Eye restaurant at the top, very nice. Around 15:00 Ali got carried away with her latest set of trial skis and managed to break a chip off the top of her shoulder, I finally found her just before she was carted off by the blood wagon. Fortunately it only needed pain killers and strapping up, we were able to be on our way to Canmore by 18:45. Staying at the Bear Hostel there before heading to Calgary in the morning for our flights home but not before a final visit to the Mountain Equipment Coop. |
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 Track from Roger's GPS of our routes from Kokanee cabin. |
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Guide; Marco Delesalle, http://www.greatdividemountaineering.com/
Kokanee
Canadian Alpine Club Cabin. This was not a cheap
trip. I spent in total some where in the region of £2,700.
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