Backcountry Skiing Camp - February 2011

The Section just completed its second Backcountry Skiing Camp in Canmore. The camp was led by Bette Boechler with five ACC SK members attending. The camp is intended to introduce members to backcountry skiing and gear with a focus on safety and route finding, The group included two new to BC skiing and two with limited experience.

Day One (Friday) had the group meet at Bow Summit on the Icefields Parkway, about 40 kms from Lake Louise. The idea was to get used to the gear and get used to plowing through powder again. The Bow Summit area is ideal for a first day on new gear. It is easily accessible by car and there are good slopes within 2 kms of the parking area. Though there is some avalanche risk on the upper slopes, the lower slopes are gentle with good tree cover so pose minimal risk. The weather was warm with light snow flurries. The first activity was beacon practice in a small open meadow. The group spent the remainder of the day skinning up and skimming down through the lighted treed slopes. Day One ended with the obligatory stop in Lake Loiuse for pastries.

Day Two (Saturday) saw the group head up the Spray Lakes road to the Burstall Pass area. It had snowed all night continuing through the day. The wind also picked up through the day. As on Day One, the day started with practice in the beacon pit. The trudge up to the pass is about 5.5 kms starting with a narrow fire road up to Burstall Lakes then along the lake to the outlet of Burstall Creek. From here the trail winds up through the trees to the meadow below the pass. Unfortunately, the snow and wind reduced visibility to under 500 m and, given the exposure on the slopes, the group decided not to advance. A quick lunch then off with the skins and back to the Burstall Creek gully. The trail though the gully can be challenging as the ski-out can be polished smooth by all the skiers. This time there was soft powdery snow, thigh deep in places, making for a slow descent. Day Two ended with the obligatory sore toes and blistered feet. Apparently this is the price you pay with rentals.

Day Three (Sunday) again saw the group head up the Spray Lakes road, this time to the Black Prince area in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. The road was an adventure as almost 300 mm of snow had accumulated over night. Despite that, an amazing number of cars were in the parking area showing the popularity of the area. The clouds moved off leaving beautiful blue skies but still lots of wind. The group split up with two members taking snowshoes to explore the surrounding slopes. The other four headed up along with numerous other groups enjoying the fresh snow. Coming down to the cirque was tricky as the snow got deeper as the trees closed in. But careful route finding and a vigilante Bette kept everyone safe. The day ended at 1:30 pm in the parking lot as the group dispersed to return gear rentals or to go off to more adventures in the Rockies.

Thanks to Bette and Bob for sharing their mountain expertise. No plans yet for next year but, blisters notwithstanding, there is strong interest to go again.

Pictures can be viewed here.

Beginners' Ice Climbing - February 2011

The ACC Sask's annual Choppers Ice Climbing trip took place in February 2011. 20 participants headed out to Nordegg, Alberta for ice climbing combined with hot tubbing as a recovery.

Day 1 had the group head out to Balfour Wall to accommodate an unexpected Adventure Race at one of our planned locations. The day started with a 1 hour drive west and a hike in minus 30 temperatures up to the wall. Thanks to our rope leaders 6 or 7 ropes were already set up for us and after a safety briefing we were able to get climbing fairly quickly to stay warm.

Balfour Wall offered a beautiful sunny exposure with excellent views, truly a treat. A number of people also explored 2 small ice caves and a few even attempted "dry tooling" and mixed climbing where climbers use their ice axes and crampons on rock. One climber unfortunately ended up with a cut on their forehead when an axe slipped off a rock and hit them.

Day 2 the group went to 2 o'clock falls, just west of Nordegg. This was another fun day of climbing, though the ice sits in the shade throughout the day making for slightly cooler temperatures so participants generally stayed bundled up. The ice was a bit crumbly on certain routes which resulted in a few people chopping a fair bit to get to the good stuff and also resulted in some significant piles of ice around the belayers.

Once again Choppers proved to be an adrenalin filled activity that left no one with regrets other than it had to end so soon.

More Reflections on the Mountain Film Festival

[comments from Myrene, our Film Festival Coordinator...]

"We had over a thousand people in the theatre (hey, we're halfway to my goal of filling it since a TCU Place staffer tells me it holds 2000). The audience comprised our usual mix of about 1/2 university/college students, with the balance a more or less even mix of young and mature adults along with families (not that many kids, but enough to know it's still popular with family groups).

This year a number of films featured somewhat different subject matter than we've seen previously, aimed more toward adventure. This is a direction the Banff Centre staff tell me they have been heading with the festival film parameters to broaden the film experience for audiences; they're including films that follow the spirit of the festival without necessarily being set or focused on mountains, and this year added an award category (Adventure or Exploration) to reflect that. One of them was Crossing the Ditch, at 55 minutes our longest film, an involving story of two young men who decided to cross between Australia and New Zealand in a custom built sea kayak. They started with no background or knowledge of kayaking, just a drive for adventure, and the film followed their efforts as well as the family dynamics. It was a hit at Banff, and equally so here in Saskatoon.

The subject of caving was covered in the shorter film Into Darkness. This was some serious caving, with dramatic shots of the cave interiors. A number of the audience were doing some real squirming right along with the cavers in some places in the film where their route was tight.

One of the mountain-themed films, The Swiss Machine, followed Swiss climber Ueli Steck who, to quote the film description on the tourhost site, "tells of his record-breaking ascents in the Alps, accompanied by stunning aerial footage that captures him racing up 2500-metre alpine faces." Our audience certainly enjoyed this one, and I can attest to the impact of both the sweeping photography of the mountain peaks and the intensity of the action (they filmed him speed climbing The Eiger, in 2 hours 47 minutes).

Our sponsors were out in full in the display area, with some great equipment there for people to see and touch. Along with the usual gear displayed, Escape Sports featured a paddle board and slow sled, Eb's had a bright red kayak (I think whitewater, but I don't know enough about them to be sure) propped up against a pillar, and Bike Doctor brought in three bikes, one with innovative fat snow tires that had everyone gathered round for a look-see. All the usual sponsors had table displays, and there was one again from Parks Canada who is one of the major film festival sponsors for the second year now. CPAWs was there this year, as well as a local Kayaking Club who will likely become full sponsors next year. In fact, I expect that next year we'll have to reconfigure the display area to make more room for set up, and they certainly are a hit with the audience who made good use of the pre-film and intermission time to circulate--the place was packed.

The venue is a hit, too, and given our numbers we had people up in the balconies this year again. Here are the 10 films they saw (although not necessarily in this order):

• Rush Hour Dream (paragliding)
• Into Darkness (caving)
• Crossing the Ditch (sea kayak adventure)
• Swiss Machine (alpine climbing)
• Kranked (humourous kids mountain biking)
• Life Cycles (an exploration of off-road cycling)
• Chimaera (photographic perspective on skiing)
• Stones Into Schools (mountain culture and humanitarian work in Afghanistan)
• Still Motion (wildlife environment)
• Dream Result (whitewater kayaking)

An excellent evening. Many thanks to our local sponsors and to everyone on the crew who worked to make this evening a success. We'll be back next year.