Treepilot.ca

Treepilot.ca http://www.treepilot.ca/ backcountry splitboarding snowboard snowboarding blog splitboard splitboarder treepilot en-us Nucleus CMS v3.64 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.treepilot.ca//nucleus/nucleus2.gif Treepilot.ca http://www.treepilot.ca/ Skin Track Contest http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=539 G3 hooked me up with a pair of their new splitboard skins for this season. I'm pretty stoked on them so far - if you'd like a chance to win a pair, they're giving away two pairs over on splitboard.com - one by random draw and the other for the best skin track photo.

What makes a good skin track photo? People or no people? Epic conditions or epic scenery? Funny or serious? Staged or candid?

Here are some of my own favourites (not entered in the contest) in no particular order.

Punching track in the Bonney Morraines - enroute to triggering a 2.5 and bagging my biggest day at the time.

Deepest day ever. Moose is balls deep. Meter 20 in a day. 4 laps of blower.

A new summit and first tracks are almost mine!

Blues skis and the first group up Little Sifton

Dave's first real skin ever. Hard to find a prettier place. Conditions weren't bad either.

First turns ever in July. Close to home, but hard to get to.

Erich cutting a track up the 7 steps of Paradise.

Blair ascends through the Kootenay ghosts.

Priorities: 1) Point and laugh 2) Take photo 3) Help friend clinging to log

]]> General http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=539 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:23:02 -0700 Training http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=537

It's usually not this bald up here and I usually don't haul extra weight for no particular reason.

We proclaimed our superiority, banged our poles and racked up all the gnar points we could. Still couldn't find an entrance to stage right that we liked though.

Lots of buried treasure beneath the surface and strapped to my back

I've had better turns, but these were the best turns of my life with a 5lb chunk of wood strapped to my pack.

]]> Waterton http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=537 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:34:47 -0700 The 2nd annual Canuck Splitfest presented by Prior http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=533
Some of the lower elevations did exhibit a nasty ice crust in the forest, but one didn't need to climb too high before encountering hazard snow - hazardous because it was the type that offered up second hand white rooms as the cold Selkirk blower lingered in the air. Ullr had delivered the goods and nary a splitboarder could be found without a smile on their faces.

The date was shifted from last year's inaugural event to avoid industry trade shows and permit better participation from sponsors. The success of the previous event coupled with the improved date led to an immediate influx in sponsors. Virtually every sponsor from last year announced they'd be back on board again, with most of them upping the ante significantly with more donations. In the end, there was over $10,000 in prizes up for grabs in a fundraising raffle for the Canadian Avalanche Foundation.

Many participants chose to arrive early enough on Friday to take in the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival screening. About 70 people enjoyed the screening which was highlighted by "Solitaire", a film by Sweetgrass Productions which was introduced in person by splitboarder Kyle Miller, one of the athletes featured in it.

Saturday evening's raffle was once again preceded by presentations. Kyle Miller was a presenter last year, but this time he brought his new film, titled FreeRider, with him for the North American premiere. Whistler based photographer and splitboarder Andrew Strain showed off his Deep Winter entry from the past year. Revelstoke splitboarder Mark Hartley was back by popular demand and did not disappoint with an updated presentation. Mark's frequent partner, Greg Hill, was up next and he inspired the crowd with the tale of his 2 million foot season, big lines and quite a bit of splitboard footage. Greg even got caught up in the spirit of the weekend and opted to slide sideways down the mountain. According to the rumours, he was actually pretty good at splitboarding!

Participants responded to the huge pool of prizes from the sponsors and by the time the dust settled, over $4,500 in raffle tickets were sold. It was standing room only with well in excess of 100 people crammed into the dining room. Seven people, drawn from the raffle, competed for the grand prizes by way of a timed board to ski to board changeover contest. Coupled with admission charged for Friday night's film festival and money that Prior Snowboards donated from commemorative Canuck Splitfest soft goods, gross revenue for the weekend was over $5,200

After covering event expenses such as insurance, the film festival fee, and some shipping charges, I'm very proud to announce that we more than doubled last year's net benefit to the Canadian Avalanche Foundation - the precise numbers are still being tallied, but about $4,500 was raised.

I would like to thank all those who attended. This event wouldn't be the success that it is without you. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors who donated product for the raffle, Prior Snowboards for being the presenting sponsor and bringing demo splitboards, and the members of the Parks Canada team who worked behind the scenes to help coordinate this event.

I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone at the Canadian Avalanche Centre and Canadian Avalanche Foundation, including Ken Little, Gordon Ritchie, Ian Tomm and Jennifer George for their assistance with the event, to Mark Hartley, Kyle Miller, Greg Hill and Andrew Strain for their presentations, to Adam Warkentin for the stainless steel keychains, to John Cocci for the projector and A/V assistance, to the staff at the Glacier Park Lodge and to everyone else who helped out.

Should the Mayan calendar be incorrect, we'll see you all again in 2013.... but just in case, I recommend getting out as often as you can! Keep your skins warm and may all your turns be powder.

Man down. Shane, a snow saw, a Voile strap and chunk of wood to the rescue when Matt attempts to mix Voile risers with Karakoram bindings

What will have to pass as the only action photo. We got beat to the waterfall exit by a few minutes. Too much hand holding and whatnot? Maybe we should just climb faster.

John strategically camped out at the bridge coming out of Connaught. An aggressive two poling fiend was rumoured to have fallen into this creek last winter attempting to board up and over. No word on whether John got a splash photo today because the Moose was getting his 10K ticket punched over on Avalanche this day.

]]> Canuck Splitfest http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=533 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:14:38 -0700 Surfs up - time to head inland http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=532 photo by Jaime Vedres

The winds whipping up those waves pushed temperatures to plus 5C at elevation today - must mean it's time to find a new zone.

20120104-watertonlnp_waves_jaimevedres.jpg]]> Waterton http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=532 Wed, 4 Jan 2012 19:14:28 -0700 New Year, New Gear! http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=530 Alpinist Splitboard Climbing Skins. They are lighter than the Voile skins and come with integrated tail clips. They offered up better glide on the 5 km round trip cross country snowboard that precedes the fun here locally and despite their shallower pile, did not seem to impede up hill performance. I've seen many times where it's been a two man job pulling apart new Voile skins, but the G3 skins did not require this Herculean effort. The glue was well behaved - came apart easily and stuck to the board without any issues. The tail clips are a breeze to use and sped up changeovers a bit.

Continuing with the New Year's Day tradition, I headed to the park to get some turns. Sadly, the party was smaller than normal given the continued dog ban. The Moose, Vitamin C and the Jackelope all headed to places where dogs aren't discriminated against. Seems the folks in charge even found money to buy a new sign for the road, though it shows a dog on leash with a red line through it, which can only mean that dogs are now permitted off leash?!?! Coming out at the end of the day, the road was pounded - no one had obeyed the sign with regards to keeping skiers, snowshoers and boot packers separate. I wonder if the wardens will be threatening these people or if that honour is reserved only for splitboarders with dogs?

I was joined by new splitter Jesse, out for only his 5th day ever. With blue skies and the weather station showing over a foot of fresh in the past couple of days, I briefly considered the Rowe bowl, but opted for Moose Peak. Jesse was looking for a bit of an orientation and there's no better spot to take it all in than Moose Peak. We had scare crossing little Akamina Lake as the ice settled with a great amount of noise and sloshing - we scampered to the shore as quickly as we could, then toured up to the base of the Moose Chute, dropped some cache and headed up the more direct route. I was without gps today and was pleased to be able to navigate the route up through the cliff bands. Jesse was kind enough to cut about a quarter of the track today and we soon topped out, took in the views and switched over.

The protected zone up high offered up soft turns that got better was went lower. I'd never ridden with him before and was stoked to find he could shred the trees at speed. Things are still thin and consequently tighter than usual with alder and Christmas trees. We stopped for lunch at the cache, loaded up and ascended again to the ridge. A short descending traverse, then down through some rocks to the Piggot Chute. The upper section was a bit tight, but the middle part was full speed powder turns. Felt great to be back shredding. No action photos as we opted to just shred it and thanks to a dead battery, no Suunto either. Those two runs are around 4,400 feet though, which more than doubled Jesse's biggest day.

The good folks at G3 sent me a pair of their new Alpinist Splitboard Climbing Skins

Lighter, better glide, integrated tail clips and cheaper than Voile plus Spark tail clips. If you're buying a new board, or replacing an old pair, I recommend them!

Prior Khyber 165 with carbon fibre and G3 skins.

New sign on the road clearly shows dogs are only permitted off leash. They are not permitted on leash.

Jesse gains the drop zone on Moose Peak under mostly blue skies and relatively calm winds

]]> Waterton http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=530 Sun, 1 Jan 2012 12:12:00 -0700 Published 2.0! http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=528 Jackson Hole Snowboarder Magazine. The photo was taken by Duane Nardi during my trip to Scrubfest last winter.

Check out the whole issue.

Issue 7 of Jackson Hole Snowboarder Magazine

Photo of myself and fellow Canadian MacKenzie Wilson - photo by Duane Nardi

]]> Published http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=528 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:37:57 -0700 Second annual Canuck Splitfest http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=526

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]]> Canuck Splitfest http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=526 Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:25:42 -0700 Winter is BEARly over http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=524
We were surprised to the find the road unplowed and the barricade still in place - 2 weeks later than usual - this winter has seen heavy accumulation, but think of the tourists! Those poor folks have to walk 2.5 kms (on snow nonetheless!!!) to see the lake. We opted to head up into Rowe bowl and as I followed the usual up I couldn't help but notice there were no alders. With spring well under way the abundant pack still hadn't melted enough to reveal them.

Only a few hundred feet up from the parking lot, I heard some rustling from a tree and soon saw a large black bear climb out. Adam was a few switchbacks behind me and he had the bear spray. I'd left my guns and dogs at home, since national parks have silly regulations on both, leaving me with no option but to scream like a girl. It worked and the bear scampered off into the bush before I could snap a photo. Adam wondered what the commotion was and didn't believe me until he saw the prints....

We stopped well short of the usual drop zone, stopped to take in the views, then grabbed some slushy turns back down to the road.

It's been a fat winter, but a lot of it has gone to waste.

This is the northern aspect of Blakiston - a site you don't get to see in the winter unless you walk about 8-10km.

This couloir didn't quite go all the way to the col, but we did talk about kicking steps up it.

Black shirt, gloves and pack along with cargo shorts. Must be May.

No shorts? He's actually wearing long underwear under those goretex bibs too!

]]> Waterton http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=524 Sat, 14 May 2011 17:30:28 -0600 April blower http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=522
Light fluffy over the handle bars type of stuff was the cure I needed for spring depression. Ullr had problems negotiating the deep stuff and caught a ride on the second lap. He was surprisingly calm but carrying a dog, even one that's not squirming, isn't the best way down a mountain.

Zero action photos because who wants to stop when you're shredding powder in April?

]]> Misc. http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=522 Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:27:22 -0600 When a door closes, a window opens? http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=520
I crested the big chute just as the other two were topping out on the ridge. Looking around, I quickly spotted my line. A nice northerly 500 foot shot that originated from the window in the mountain. I hung a left, put in some switchbacks and was getting ready to boot it when the Moose pulled up below me. Somehow he talked me into abandoning the line with the promise of better snow around the corner. Reluctantly I dropped, enjoyed some good turns before hitting the breakable crust on the big chute and went around the corner.

The slope in question was supposedly 1,000 feet. It sure didn't look like it and damn, what was with the flat up? Maybe I was just bitter over the losing the chance to ride through the window? Good turns were found and it did wind up being a 1,000 foot shot, but the sun had sank. Time for another 6-7 mile ride back to the vehicle.

Only the second time the sled has been out this winter.

The window is just visible above this line.

Close up. A few sharks in the water, but definitely worth donating some ptex for a line like this.

]]> Snowmobile http://www.treepilot.ca/index.php?itemid=520 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:43:08 -0600