Introduction to Backcountry Skiing

by Bob Hawboldt

[This post has been updated on January 14 from the original post]

This trip is intended to allow people new to backcountry skiing a chance to give it a try, and allow more experienced skiers to get out and do some skiing.

Preliminary Itinerary:

Wednesday, January 27, 1930h – 2100h

Presentation and Gear Review

Location: at the U of S - exact location to follow

Thursday, February 4

Travel to Canmore

Pick up rental gear in Calgary if renting there

Accommodation: Boswell Hut at the ACC Clubhouse location.

Friday, February 5

Pick up rental gear for rentals in Canmore

Ski at Sunshine

Morning: learn how to use gear and get some turns in

Mid-day: work in avalanche beacon basin

Afternoon: Some tours/turns within or just outside of ski area

Saturday, February 6

Tour to Burstall Pass - there is a beacon basin there for extra practice

Sunday, February 7

Tour in Kananaskis (Black Prince or Tent Ridge)

Return rental gear

Return home

Requirements:

Must be ACC member to participate.

Reasonable fitness (we will be moving most of the time).

Reasonable alpine ski ability (can ski Blue runs at a resort). Backcountry conditions are highly variable, and you will require a higher fitness level if you are a novice skier. It takes energy to dig yourself out when you fall.

Alpine touring or telemark ski gear (details below)

Avalanche safety equipment.

Detailed gear list provided at presentation.

Ski gear:

Alpine touring or telemark ski gear are recommended. Snow boarders might find the terrain frustrating in that there are often flat areas. If you have used alpine skis while resort skiing, then use alpine touring gear for backcountry skiing. If you don’t telemark, don’t start during this trip.

Gear rental:

Ski and avalanche safety gear can be rented at Gear Up in Canmore or at MEC in Calgary.

Cost:

Gear rental for three days (based on info available on web sites)

MEC Gear Up
Ski Equipment $81 $125
Avalanche Safety $35 $54
Total $116 $179

Accommodation for three nights: approximately $125

Lift ticket at Sunshine: approximately $80

Other costs will include travel, food and beverages.

Travel:

It would be worthwhile to carpool, particularly for those who would like
to rent gear from MEC in Calgary. You could stop on your way to Canmore
for gear pick-up, and we would arrange our Sunday tour so that you could
be back in Calgary prior to MEC closing at 1700h for gear drop off.

Contact Bob at: training at accsask.ca

Section AGM - November 24, 2009

Minutes of the ACC Saskatchewan Section Annual General Meeting: November 24, 2009

Present:

In person -- John Howland, Kendrick Hamilton, Angela Spence, Don Chodzicki, Joel Bruneau, Bob Hawboldt, Ivan Hitchings, Glen Phillips, John Mollison, Myrene Mollison, Audrey Doepker, Deanna Miller, Bette Boechler

Via Skype – Brenda Desnoyers, Logan Grauer

1) Welcome

2) Agenda:

3) Minutes: available on the website, and filed with the Chair; motion to adopt will be deferred to the next meeting to allow those who didn’t realize the minutes were available electronically to access and review them.

4) Officer Reports

• a) Secretary: the minutes of the May 13, 2009, meeting were entered on the website in summary form as per the resolution at that meeting.
• b) Treasurer: a summary spreadsheet was circulated and reviewed.
• c) Activities:

General Mountaineering Camp. Joel reported on the camp scheduled to be held this past summer at the Stanley Mitchell Hut. Unfortunately, a small fire in an adjacent valley was of enough concern to the park staff that they refused permission to use the hut. There was no “Plan B” so to speak, and in general the group dispersed. Ivan and Kathy took a small group to Wasootch and on two different scrambles, but had only 3 tents and 4 sets of cooking gear so couldn't accommodate the full group of 24 signed participants. After discussion of the issues involved in leading trips, it was determined that a trip leader process for planning and organizing trips would be of benefit; Bob and Joel will develop that, likely in January next year.

• d) Membership & Website. Angela reported that we have 95 members, slightly down from the last report of 100. The reduction is likely due to non-renewal of members who joined for the PPAR which we will not be continuing.
• e) National Report. Angela was unable to attend the fall meeting. The minutes of the national meeting have not been posted.

5) Information/Discussion Items.

• a) Banff Mountain Film Festival. Saskatoon—John & Myrene are coordinating, and all activities are progressing well. The Banff Centre has included a new item in their contract: a requirement that we provide copies of all promotion material we use. They require us to request approval from them prior to making changes to the graphic materials they provide, and are very concerned with tour hosts being consistent with the branding they have developed. We will use the Banff Centre poster this year for our posters and tickets, as well as for advertising on the Saskatoon transit system through exterior side boards on two buses, and discuss using other pictures in the spring next year if we prefer to do that. The bus ads are a new promotion venture for us, and we’re hoping it will make a noticeable difference in increasing attendance. We’ll also advertise through the U of S Plasma boards, another new venue. Doug’s Spoke ‘n’ Sport will not be sponsoring this year, but all other traditional sponsors have signed on, and we have two new ones: Escape Sports, and Table Mountain Ski Hill. The core movies should be determined with the next couple of weeks so we can update the website.
• b) Urban Adventure Race. – Howard did a great job organizing the urban race. He hasn’t said if he would like to organize one next year. There were some comments that people would like to see more than just running and biking.
• c) Leadership Development – the committee has met a few times. We are waiting for more information from National on the program they are developing.

6) New Business

• a) Wilderness First Aid – In Saskatoon there are courses available. Brenda had some questions on how to organize something in Regina; Bob indicted they should be able to contact a local provider and arrange for individual club members to attend with such a provider—as long as the club is not providing the course there will be no liability to the club for members who choose to attend a course provided by another organization.
• b) Avalanche Course – People’s scheduling didn’t work out for the December 5th weekend. Will look into taking the course at a later date. Brenda talked about organizing one in Fernie area.
• c) Regina Report. Brenda indicated they have approximately $1900 in an account from the 2009 Film Festival there. There was some discussion of the legalities of holding funds outside of the general section bank account, and the executive will pursue this separately. The Regina group requested the purchase of some winter equipment (transceivers, etc.), and will ask Drew to look into needs and costs. Brenda agreed to take on equipment management for the southern Saskatchewan members, and will work with Drew to determine what items of the current equipment inventory should go to Regina.
• d) Training for the coming year – Kendrick will work with the executive to develop a budget for this by January 1, 2010.
• e) Climb 306 – Kendrick reported that Mark has sold the building to a developer and is in the process of selling off the business.

7) Elections

• a) Angela advised that she was stepping down as chair and nominated Bob Hawboldt, who accepted. Nominations continued with all positions filled by acclamation; the results are presented here although the item was deferred to later in the Agenda during the meeting.

i) Chair – Bob Hawboldt

ii) Secretary – Myrene Mollison

iii) Treasurer – Kendrick Hamilton

iv) Activities Coordinator – Shelley Ballard-McKinlay

v) Website – Dave McCormick and Allan Janzen

vi) Membership – Ivan Hitchings

vii) Equipment/Library Custodian – Drew

• b) There was discussion on the role of members at large, and whether such members should hold specific responsibilities. This will be further discussed at a meeting of the executive to be called by the chair in January, 2010, where this item as well as the club constitution and mandate will be reviewed.

8) Photo Contest. Don reported that there was limited response but he feels it`s worth continuing next year. We'll discuss it at the spring meeting, but maybe we could consider something more than the $25 gift certificate for the four categories, possibly a year`s membership. He presented a slide show with the entries, and all enjoyed.

9) Meeting adjourned, 21:00.

Wilderness First Aid Course Proposed

The Section has organized a Wilderness First Aid course, a 20-hour program that will prepare participants for unexpected problems in the backcountry,

A total of 8 participants are needed for this course to run.

For more information, contact Bob Hawboldt at training@accsask.ca

Deadline for registrations is November 2nd.

Sask Section's Fall Meeting

The Fall Meeting of the Saskatchewan Section will be held on Thursday, November 5th. As a bit of a departure from the usual venue, the meeting will be held this time in the Auditorium of the J.S. Wood Library on the corner of Landsdowne Ave and Taylor St in Saskatoon.

In addition to the "meeting", photos from the 2009 Photo Contest will be shown and elections for the various Executive positions will be held. There are two positions that will be vacant, that of Chair and Activities Coordinator. Volunteers for those positions will definitely be needed.

Coffee, juice and desserts will be available.

Everyone is welcome to come out, attend the meeting, volunteer for a position on the Executive and enjoy an evening of socializing with other Section members. The meeting starts at 7 pm.

Thrashers Reloaded 2009

by Kendrick Hamilton

This year the Sask section hosted the second "Thrashers Reloaded" rock climbing trip. We tried moving away from a long weekend as an experiment this year, the idea being there would be fewer people if we climbed during the week. So this year we tried Sunday July 19th to Tuesday July 21st. Saturday was left as a day to drive out to Canmore. Five people signed up including
the leaders which was unfortunately a pretty small group. One of the members of our group had to drop out prior to starting due to a biking injury so we were down to four. Good things come in small packages and we took advantage of our small group. Accommodation was at the ACC clubhouse in Canmore.

The first day had a brief stop at Gear Up to get climbing shoes then off to Wasootch Slabs. For Darrell it was a chance to practice belaying a leader (his first time doing this) while Allan set up anchors for top ropes. Darrell also got introduced to cleaning anchors. Solange got reintroduced to belaying with an ATC. She had used a Grigri prior to the trip and many years earlier a figure eight descender. Later that day Darrell learned to clip into carabiners for lead climbing. He did a simulated lead with Solange belaying the lead rope. Unfortunately for Solange the lead rope Darrell was using for a simulated lead was a thick old rope that is now only used for setting top rope anchors. Darrell was pulling it up to build another top rope. This thick old rope made it harder for Solange to pull in and feed out. (Note: in a simulated lead climb, the climber climbs up a lead route setting quick draws and clipping the rope in, but the climber has a top rope that they are being belayed on. If the climber falls, the top rope catches the fall). Soon enough Darrell did his first real lead. If that was not enough for Darrell and Solange, they both learned to do a switch over into a rappel and rappel off the wall. I got a few leads in as well. We also took a few moderate breaks between climbs as to not wear ourselves out the first day, a pattern that would continue the next day.

The second day we drove off to Lake Louise. Ordinarily, with the larger groups, the spring Thrashers Weekend avoids Lake Louise. With only four of us we did not need to go to a place with a large number of adjacent routes or worry about monopolizing the entire climbing area. We went to the outhouse area, chatted for a few minutes with some other climbers doing the route we wanted to start on. I lead up "Men with Brooms" a 5.6 with a star (really good route) and set a top rope anchor. I also lead up "School of Rock" (5.7) and "Neverland" (5.8). I only missed one clip (the bolt was the last prior to the anchors and I spotted it as I was rapelling). Darrell got extra practice belaying a leader by belaying me on some of these climbs. He also lead "My Little Pony" and got more practice cleaning routes. After this we hiked up to "Blob Rock". Here I lead
up "Castle Anthrax" a two star 5.8+ route. I used a couple of takes to rest and look for my route. The gym routes are somewhat shorter and a lot better marked than outside. I guess I should do more laps in the gym just to get in better shape for the real world. Darrell climbed it on top roped followed by Solange. She had only a little concern about whether she would be able to do it. Off she went up this 5.8+ having only once having done one in the gym. Though she had a couple of takes she made it to the top. It was left to Allan to climb and clean the anchor.

Instead of taking the #1 highway back to Canmore, Allan took us back on the 1A, a slightly slower route but more scenic. He regaled us with a tale of ACC Sask Section members spending a night at the top of Grillmair Chimney with what he thought were ants crawling on him. We also stopped at Castle mountain lookout for a few pictures. Allan, being a graphic artist, was disappointed he did not have his camera (the bag he forgot to bring) but was able to give hints for taking better pictures.

The third day we decided to do a scramble with Allan leading us up Yamnuska. The hike started briskly through forest but was quickly slowed down as many opportunities to get wonderful flora photos presented themselves. As we hiked up the mountain we ran into a group of four guys
also doing the same scramble. We took a rope and harnesses to assist with the crux of the scramble. When we got to the crux, Allan discovered a wire cable had been placed. It acts as a hand rail and the rope was not needed. Harnesses were optional. After crossing this highway (as Solange put it) with the hand rail we sat down for lunch and watched the guys explore the different options for the crux. After lunch we proceeded to the summit for many pictures. After we took the scree slopes down. For those who are not familiar with this descent route, you take a couple of steps down in the scree and soon are being carried down by the sliding rocks. Every step you take is incredibly soft.

Once we returned to our cars, it was time to go. Allan and Darrell were driving home that night. We left all looking forward to our next climbing adventure.

A Long Day on Mt Brock

Nothing like a good (long) day in the mountains. An excellent story about Andrew & Shelley's 19-hour day climbing - read about it here.

Section Spring AGM Meeting - May 13, 2009

According to reports received, 17 members were present for the Section Spring AGM Meeting, held in Saskatoon at Amigo's. A few items to report from that meeting:

At the time of the meeting, there was discussion about the upcoming move for the Section's website. By now, of course, the move has happened and we're considering changes and updates to the appearance and functionality of the website. We hope to have a few of those changes ready in the not-too-distant future. One item being discussed is how to post information from Section meetings. For the time being, we will probably just write up a summary as a blog post, like this one.

A reminder: The Section's website is found here.

Our developing photo archive is found on Picasa. Contact us if you have Section-related photos that would be of interest.

Activities, both past and upcoming, were discussed. Given the popularity of the Ice-Climbing weekend, there was talk about offering a second event. This idea will be explored as there are a number of practical considerations that need to be worked out. The XC Ski evenings were impacted by the unfavourable weather this past winter, but there are plans to tempt fate once again and organize similar events this coming winter. Social nights were poorly attended and, given the cost of room rental, etc., there seems little point in trying to continue with them. Climbing night hasn't been well attended either, but it has no cost implications for the Club so they will probably be continued. A backcountry ski trip at Roger's Pass had to be canceled because of avalanche hazards. The Summer Mountaineering Camp is going ahead and appears to be fully booked. Since the meeting, the per-person costs have been determined and the final participant list is being organized.

There was a report about the two Banff Mountain Film Festival screenings held a few months ago. The previous blog entry noted the success of both events.

The Urban Adventure Race is going ahead - information has been posted on the Section website for some time now.

The Prairie Pitch Adventure Race will be organized by J2 Adventures for this coming fall. There will be a discussion later in the year to consider what should happen after that.

Watch for information about an upcoming photo competition.

Section membership is holding pretty steady at somewhat just over 100. Executive members were asked to consider ways to attract more members and how to get new members involved.

Finally, some executive members are investigating leadership development options and looking into resources and information from the National Club.

As always, the Section exec is happy to receive comments and/or suggestions from other members. We hope to have our new e-mail lists and contact e-mail addresses available soon, once we get them set up at our new webhost's locations. Watch for information about this.

Film Festival Results

The Sask Section hosted two screenings of the Best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival this year. Both were successful.

In January, the location was Saskatoon's TCU Place. According to the report discussed at the last Section meeting, attendance was nearly 800. Plans for the next Film Festival, probably next January, will be starting up soon.

At the end of April, the Regina people hosted another show. The venue there is much smaller, although it IS free! The theatre at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum was filled to capacity at just over 300. The same location will be used for next year's showing, although there is a search for a larger venue to meet the apparent growth in demand.

Good to hear that both events were successful and looking forward to next year's shows. Thanks to all the many volunteers and sponsors who, once again, made this event possible.

The Times They Are A-changin'

It's been a few years, but the Saskatchewan Section is about to undergo some changes to it's "web presence".

As of June 1st, our website is being hosted on a different server, one powered by 100% green power. We have decided that it's probably a good time to do a website makeover. We're trying out ways to include our blog posts as well as other blogs of possible interest, also links to the beginnings of more photo albums and a possible host of other improvements.

So, for the next little while, bear with us as we start the design process and put those changes into effect. In the meantime, we hope you find our "welcome page" more informative. If you have suggestions that we might be able to include, contact the web guyz at webmaster@accsask.ca

A Century of CAJs on DVD

The ACC's recently completed DVD entitled Ever Upward: A Century of Canadian Alpine Journals has been produced and sent to members who subscribed to the 2007 Canadian Alpine Journal.

The DVD is available through our online store and you will find a link to purchase it on this webpage too.

More information about the DVD is on the ACC's website at:
http://www.alpineclubofcanada.ca/news/EverUpward.html

Back in the Rockies

by Dave McCormick

I managed to arrange a trip to Calgary to coincide with the ACC's Board Meeting on May 1 & 2. Since I moved to the Koots and handed over the Board Rep position, I hadn't managed to attend an ACC meeting in Canmore in over 2 years.

The main purpose of the trip was to have a planning discussion with the ACC's maintenance people about the upcoming Hut maintenance projects and what they would need for volunteer help. Members and others should know that the ACC has quite a number of volunteers who help out on various alpine hut maintenance projects each season. If you haven't ever been involved in this way, you might want to consider it. Past projects have involved complete hut rebuilds to log replacements to painting, roof repairs, interior makeovers, exterior painting, and so on. The Club provides the food and refreshments and often a helicopter ride in to the worksite. All of this and the opportunity to spend a few days working with other interested, talented volunteers and staff makes the personal effort very worthwhile.

I also have to point out the snow that was still plastering most of the mountains around Canmore. In the photo above you will see snow on Yamnuska almost down to the parking lot. It was still a ways away from spring here. Some of my old favourites like Heart Mtn, Baldy, Yam, the 3 Sisters and Rundle had more snow than there was at times during the winter.

I also sat in on part of the Board meeting just to catch up on what's been happening recently. We expect a report on the meeting highlights shortly. All in all, it was a good trip back out to the Rockies and I actually felt a bit of nostalgia seeing all the old, familiar "hills". It was good to visit with friends and catch up on the news and I hope it won't be as long until the next time.