Start of the Alaska Highway and then Disaster strikes the Powderhunds!

Shortly after the last post we officially entered the Alaska Highway.

Dawson Creek, BC, milepost 0.

Official Milepost 0! Only after I jumped out took this picture did we realize we should have put Kenai in the passenger seat.

Despite the arbitrariness of mile 0, it’s fun to officially be on the last leg of the drive, also the longest leg of the drive as we have 1642 miles to Anchorage. We have The Milepost, the mile-by-mile guide to the Alaska Highway so we get all kinds of fun facts. For example, we know that at mile 34.4 we cross the Peace River Bridge, the longer water span on the AK Highway.

Okay, this was before the official start, but our guidebook included this big beaver in Beaver Lodge, AB. The beaver is 15′ tall on a 19′ log and the information kiosk presents 100 years of settlement history. With info like that the book pays for itself.

We stopped in Fort St. John (milepost 47) to figure out if we want to go on further for the night and decided to just call it a day. We originally said we would sleep at ski areas and Walmarts and Fort St. John just happened to have a Walmart. Time to bite the bullet and camp in the parking lot.

DISASTER STRIKES

It was 7 deg. and getting colder when we stopped, but when we turned on the heater we got nothing. It blew cold air so the fan was working, we could hear the fuel pump clicking, we could feel air intake on the combustion air, but we had no heat. No heat is no bueno when it is going to be 0 deg. overnight. I suppose we could have just fired up the van every once in a while and used the engine heat, but there were nice warms hotels that allowed dogs just across the street. Oh well, that was always the backup plan if things went awry, better to be comfortable and safe.

Someone didn’t mind sleeping in a warm, comfortable hotel room.

There are only a few known problems with Espar heaters and I was most worried that the combustion chamber was fouled with soot. I don’t have the tools or parts on the road to begin dealing with that kind of problem so I checked the company web site for anyone who services Espar heaters in the area. In what is likely the second most impressive Easter miracle there was a service tech 10 miles back along the road listed on the company web site. Of course he was not likely to be working on Easter so we rented the room a second night and hung out in Fort St. John.

Monday morning I called the shop – Hans on Mechanical Services – and the miracles continued as the phone was promptly answered and I was invited to come right by. The shop was warm and clean and Hans went right to work to see what might be wrong. In the end we could not figure out anything specific that was wrong, but Hans resurrected the heater. Hans checked that the pump was drawing fuel from a jerry can, he separately ch died the fuel flow was good from the tank, he checked the exhaust was not obstructed and the air intake was good. The only thing he changed from my install was to use a slightly different fitting from the fuel line to the pump to clean up the connection. The only particular thing he noticed was some moisture in the exhaust pipe between the heater and the muffler. It’s possible some of this could have frozen and partially obstructed the exhaust, but it’s not clear that would have prevented the heater from firing. We also decided to very slightly change where the exhaust ends so tire spray does not hit it.

Testing the draw of the pump with the jerry can of gas.
Inspecting the air intake. You can also see a second pump Hans used to make sure the gas was pulling properly from the gas tank.
Here is Hans’ info just in case anyone searches google for Hans on Mechanical Services or Espar or Eberspaecher heater service on the Alaska Highway and finds our blog!

Whether it was the checkup or the warm shop, the heater was working well when we left. Hopefully it will keep working in the cold as it is unlikely we will be camping in any warm shops on this trip!

Now we are again headed north, guidebook in hand and book-on-tape rolling.

(I was going to post this shortly after Fort St. John, but we have had zero coverage for the last few hours. We are now using the free WiFi at A&W in Fort Nelson. We also learned there is only one restrictive cell company and we aren’t likely to have roaming for a quite a while so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us for a while.)

Banff & Jasper National Parks (+Marmot Basin)

After leaving Golden on … [checks calendar because days no longer have any meaning] … Wednesday afternoon, we just made the short drive to Lake Louise. Some new friends from the Revelstoke parking lot told us that no overnight parking is allowed outside campgrounds in national parks so we stayed at the campground right in Lake Louise. Our campsite did not have a bad view.

I’m not kidding. This was the view from our camp site.

There was even a walking trail with ski tracks for Sara. Nothing makes Sara happier than being able to XC ski so that was a good score.

On Thursday morning we headed north to Jasper through Banff NP along the Icefields Parkway. The forecast called for 8″+ of snow Thursday night into Friday morning at Marmot Basin so that was our goal. We did not have a particularly early start with the additional XC skiing Thursday morning and we were incredibly lucky because as we started north there was a road sign indicating the Icefields Parkway would be closed at Saskatchewan Crossing at 2:00 p.m. It was 12:45 and we were 80km away on a slow, incredibly scenic road. We made it in an hour and just got on the road before it closed!

The drive from Banff to Jasper is insanely gorgeous. I might occasionally be prone to hyperbole, but the Canadian Rockies are so impressive that I have no qualms declaring they should be on everyone’s bucket list to see at least once. Around every turn is a mountain more impressive than the last. I did not take the time to get out the real camera as I don’t know where I would have even started, but we took plenty of pictures from the van. The only stop we made briefly was at the Columbia Icefield to get a better view of some glaciers. Because the road was essentially closed we felt like the only ones out there. We probably only saw a total of 10 other cars on the road in the last couple hours of the four hour drive, which was a good thing because I could drive down the middle of the road looking out both windows at the mountains!

One of the many head-turning mountains.
Sharp peaks.
Ho hum, another cool mountain.
The view looking back down the pass approaching the Columbia Icefield.
Part of the Columbia Icefield.

As Jasper and Marmot Basin are in the national park we stayed again in a campground. Not quite as nice a view this time, but it was a cool, forested campground along the Athabasca River. We went to bed early so we could be up early and get up to the mountain.

Kenny desperately wants to swim in the freezing glacial runoff.
Family photo on the Athabasca River.

We were up on time and got up to the mountain unscathed, though the car spun out on the icy hill and the dumbasses that didn’t keep moving slowly by in the other lane almost ruined us. Fortunately we were able to keep just enough momentum with only a little skidding and made it. Despite the freezing cold we were down in the front of the line waiting for the lift to open. One guy finally made a break to line up in the corral and we all scooted as fast as we could. We made 4th chair.

Marmot Basin is the northernmost ski area in the Rockies.

The estimated 8″ was at least 10″ and probably 12″. On one run my board went under a small wind loaded patch and the snow hit my thigh. It was awesome. It was also damn cold and still snowing so after 3 or 4 runs we decided to take a quick break and warm up. We went back out for three more before heading to the warm van for lunch. After lunch we noticed the higher lift – the Knob Chair – had just opened and we raced over to see where it led. There were fields of nearly untracked powder and we just started lapping it on different lines.

Not exactly first tracks on Knob Chair, but close enough.

Video! First run off Knob Chair.

Eventually we noticed some skiers hiking out a traverse to another bowl above what we were riding and we followed them out. The traverse was not particularly kind on snowboards but we made it most of the way the first time and found some epic first tracks on the edge of the next bowl. It was so good we decided to try it again before it was all gone. We worked a little harder this time to get all the way out and we made it to a ridge with great lines down the spine of the ridge.

It might have been my run of the year. I had three or so deep turns before I hit a rock or ice underneath the powder and spilled forward, but I kept tucked and felt the board come right back under me. I punched out of the explosion of snow only to find myself aimed straight down the pitch. No problem, though, as it was back to deep powder. I was going pretty fast at this point and needed to slip between some tight trees so I lined it up and shot between them, only to find that the hill fell away just a few feet below. It wasn’t really a cliff and it was only a few feet high, but with the speed I was carrying I just shot off the edge into the snow below. It was probably good that I had no time to think about it because I didn’t have time to tense up or worry about what happened next. The landing area was rather sketchy and thin, but the powder started again quickly below so I just rode it out at full speed until I hit the soft snow again. A couple more deep turns and I was at the bottom. Yeah, that was a good ride!

Riding the powder, hiking some, and working hard on the traverse warmed us up well and we just kept lapping Knob Chair for quite a few runs. We wanted to explore the “new” area at Marmot Basin called Tres Hombres (we allegedly rode the first chair of the day with one of the original hombres) so before we left we made the short hike to the ridge. We found a super fun, moderately steep bowl with plenty of good snow left so it was great way to end the day.

Sara dropping in to Tres Hombres.

Before heading out from Jasper NP we decided to drive back up the road (still closed from the storm) to Athabasca Falls. It was cool in the winter, but it must be stunning when the river is melted out. The entire Athabasca River flows into a gorge that can’t be more than about 40′ wide. Now the falls have frozen and the water just surges up in a few places underneath. It is quite a geological marvel.

Athabasca Falls

After our final sight-seeing we headed north. No more planned stops until Alaska!

Roche Miette. Stunning peaks still coming!

Last night we randomly turned in to the Hinton Nordic Center in William A Switzer Provincial Park. We were a little concerned about the road as it had not been plowed and there was 8″ of snow. There were some tire tracks and the van did fine, great actually. We had no trouble even though I know there were few places we dragged on the piled snow. The Hinton Nordic Center appears to be an impressive, community-run nordic area with many kilometers of groomed trails, a biathlon course, and a luge run. They even have a small dog-friendly loop that we could explore.

Not plowed? No problem!

It was a crazy cold night. When we went to bed the temperature was 0 deg. and I’m sure it got colder during the night. Despite our best efforts the water was frozen again in the morning. I got to try out my heat-tape solution to this problem and discovered it was not actually a solution. It finally thawed during the day, but when we are eventually back in the garage I will have to figure out a better solution.

Our camp in the K9-loop parking lot.

Naturally Sara dragged me XC skiing in the morning. After sleeping in for a while the temperature was up to a whopping 4 deg. Though the road was not plowed the groomer had come through so we had first tracks on the new snow.

XC skiing in 4 deg. is not my bag, but at least the sun was shining. By the end of the 2 mile loop with some hills to climb I think I could again feel my fingers.

Now we are headed north for real. We have our mile-by-mile guidebook for the Alaskan Highway. Only about … 1600 miles to go. 1600. Miles.

KH->Revelstoke->KH

After the avy class we stayed at KH for one more night. Our plan was to ride Monday and then head to Revelstoke because they were forecast for a pretty decent dump.

We had a pretty specific goal Monday. Hike and ski the two peaks at Kicking Horse – T1 and T2. T1 is the peak that separates Bowl Over and Super Bowl. It has a fairly open drop off the south side and some aggressive chutes to the north. Our goal was the north!

Steep hike; narrow ridge.
Two choices: “Closed: Avalanche Danger” or “Caution: Avalanche Danger.” Avalanche Danger it is!
Is this a suggestion or an instruction?
T1 summit selfie. Still smiling after the hike.

We decided on the first chute off the North – Truth. We were concerned the entry might be icy as most people (including us) typically slide that first turn to get set up, but it was fine.

Michael dropping in to Truth.
Sara coming around the corner about a quarter way down.
And continuing on below me toward Bowl Over.
Sara stopped to take another picture of me.
Somewhere up there is the chute through the rocks! The nearly untracked powder below was sweeeet!

Well, that was fun. Time to ride the nearly 3000 vertical feet of groomer/bumps to the bottom so we can do it all again!

T2 is a slightly more challenging hike. I’m very glad it was not windy.

The view of T2 from the patrol shack at the bottom.
Steep.
Narrow. (Sara was NOT happy I made her stand on this spine while I went ahead to get the picture.)
When the resort installs a rope to help you climb a section, you know you are committed.
I suspect a ski area in the U.S. would not permit such a hike inbounds. Damn lawyers ruin everything.
We made it!

Unfortunately we don’t have any good pictures from the summit as it was quite foggy and snowy. It was fairly skied out but we found some nice soft turns. The east face off the top starts was quite a gentle snow field but we had so little visibility we had to take it slow. After that field you choose what route to drop off the ridge. It is steep, but nothing scary and we found some more good snow on the runout to the bowl. Mission accomplished.

We said our goodbyes to the mountain and headed off the Trans-Canada Highway to Revelstoke. The road goes over Rogers Pass through Glacier Nat. Park, which is stunning. Steep, massive peaks and avalanche chutes that run over the road.

In Revelstoke we were again able to just camp in the parking lot. Revelstoke has over 5000′ of vertical, the most in North America, so we were not too concerned that it was raining at the base. From what we have heard, rain at Revy is not uncommon and it is late March. All we cared about was that it was supposed to be snowing up above!

It snowed up above! That’s a short video of me coming through some of the glades off the Stoke chair near the top.

We were near the front of the line in the morning as we knew the locals would be out to get first tracks. We raced off the gondola to the Stoke chair. Our first run was right back under the lift as there was plenty of untracked lines for everyone. The video is our second or third run out to some glades on the side of the mountain. There are a ton of glades at Revelstoke. I am not normally a huge fan of riding in fairly tight trees, but when you have close to 10″ of snow it makes it a lot more fun.

After a few laps we went to investigate the Ripper chair on the other side of the mountain. We again explored some amazing glades and ended up coming down a creek bed with cliffs on either side.

As we reached the top of Ripper we saw that ski patrol had opened North Bowl. Getting to North Bowl requires a short hike up Lemming Line above Stoke chair and there were already a ton of lemmings pouring into the bowl. Still, we needed to go check it out so we headed back around to join the lemming hoards.

Our first trip out North Bowl was not photographically preserved because to do so would have ruined the fact that we were chasing a pack of locals down a huge untracked snow field. We think one of the skiers in the pack was a patroller and as we followed them on a sharp traverse to the right into the bowl there was a freshly opened rope exposing an entire untracked field. We raced down whopping and hollering the whole way. Looking at the map I think we ended up on Powder Assault.

Down at the bottom of the bowl I found a little ridge to jump off in the fresh snow.

We ended up back in the creek canyon and eventually back at the Ripper chair. That was fun. Let’s do it again.

This time we decided to find another way into North Bowl. There are some serious cliffs ringing parts of the bowl but some small chutes every once in a while. We are pretty sure we chose Unlimited Assets, but they don’t exactly post a sign right at the entrance! The snow on the first run was so good we got to the bottom and decided we had to do it all over again. The pictures below are a combination of both runs.

Sara dropping in to Unlimited Assets.
Michael just past the crux.
Looking back at Sara riding out the bowl. Despite the traffic in North Bowl the snow under the chute was still nearly untouched. This is also as much as we saw the sun all day. It wasn’t much, the camera just makes it look brighter.
Like I said, IT SNOWED!

Such a good day. Revelstoke was not on our pass but it has been on our bucket list and with the forecast for snow we had to hit it.

Tuesday late afternoon we visited the Revelstoke Aquatic Center. This place is amazing. For $5.75 you have access to multiple pools, hot tub, steam room, sauna, lazy river, and water slide. The main pool has lap lanes, a diving board, and a rock climbing wall. Even on a Tuesday evening there were a ton of folks using the facility and Sara and I just sat for a while talking about why more towns don’t have that kind of facility. Connected to the aquatic center is a fitness center, the town library, and a bunch of town meeting rooms. It is an amazing community asset. When we come back next year we are going to be here every evening!

After dinner at The Taco Shack, which was recommended to us by at least three separate people, we drove back to Golden. Our plan was to spend the night and then head toward Jasper, but when we woke up we heard them blasting up at Kicking Horse. That must mean more new snow! We still had one ticked left on our pass so we went up for a couple runs. We took one lap out Whitewall into Fuez Bowl.

On our previous trips I forgot the obligatory “Stairway to Heaven” picture.

Then we hiked up T1 again for a run off the south side. It was fantastic, well worth the hike. I’m not sure if they did not open the peak yesterday but we had fresh tracks in 12″+ deep powder. At the bottom we also ran into Tiana, a woman with whom we took the avy class. She, too, was summoned to the mountain by the avalanche blasting. We only got to share the ride down as our legs were already fried, but we are going to come back and mountain bike with her this summer!

Two of those fresh lines off the top are ours.

Now we are finishing up our domestic activities (laundry, shopping, water) and then we will head off toward Banff/Jasper National Park. We planned to be heading up to AK today or tomorrow, but Marmot Basin in Jasper is supposed to be getting a bunch of snow Thursday night so now we are going to hit that before heading on.

More from Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and our avy class.

The fog and snow Thursday turned into some nice snow Friday morning at the top of the mountain. The bottom of the mountain received what eastern ski areas regularly describe in their snow reports as “unfrozen precipitation.” The only problem with this at Kicking Horse is that getting to the good stuff with their lift layout requires lapping the whole 4133 vertical feet so the first 1200′ or so was awesome, the next 1000′ was challenging, and the final 2000′ was like ice skating down a hill a snowboard.  Still, the great turns at the top were worth it.

The typical lap is off the gondola down CPR ridge to the Stairway chair. Up Stairway to the top. Take one lap back south into Crystal Bowl and ride Stairway again, then drop north off into Fuez Bowl and ride all the way to the bottom.

KHMR Trail Map

Sara charging out of the early morning shadows in Fuez Bowl on what I believe would be called High Horse on the map. We were told by a local instructor that the locals had names for all these chutes long before the company built these lifts and then some corporate folks just made up a bunch of new trail names. Of course, I don’t know the local name either!

On the second of these laps ski patrol was nice enough to let us know the short hike to the top of the ridge would open shortly so we lapped Stairway again to be near the head of the line to the top. The wind was howling at the top of Stairway – the weather station at the top of the ridge was recording gusts as high as 54 kph. It felt to me like 54 mph. I thought the wind was going to rip the snowboard out of my hands and launch it into the bowl without me. The ridge out this side of Fuez Bowl is called Whitewall and that’s exactly what it is. There are some rock features and small wind ridges, but it is one long wall of nearly endless choices of lines. As I get ready to put on my board the first time Sara walked up to me and asked if the binding toe piece she found just up the ridge was mine. Wha?! Sure enough the toe piece of my rear binding fell off. The wind fortunately did not blow it over the edge and Sara found both the toe piece and the screw to put it back on. A little frostbite trying to get it back on was nothing compared with what would have happened if I tried to put on my board and found it missing.

In 50 kph winds hold the snowboard with two hands and don’t stand too close to the edge of the cornice until you are ready to drop in.
Not quite first tracks, but pretty close. We might have had first tracks if someone had a larger bladder. On the map this is somewhere in the neighborhood of Two Trick Pony.

The first run was so good that despite the icy descent down the bottom of the mountain we went back for a second helping.

Look at all those tracks already!

After our second lap off Whitewall we decided we had had enough. The snow was still soft, but too many other people were riding *our* lines. It is too easy to be a powder snob when you are living in the parking lot!

Friday night we headed to the local Ramada Inn. The Ramada lets you use the pool/gym/hot tub for only $5 (Canadian!) so it is a crazy deal for a soak and shower. Apparently the truck stop next door charges $8 for only a shower. We spent a long time in the hot tub chatting it up with other skiers and just looking up at the mountains. We eventually got all cleaned up and then headed to the laundromat for a load of laundry and to fill our water tank. The 25-gallon tank lasted us a week, but we essentially ran out Thursday night so we need to be more careful about checking when we are getting low.

After our domestic activities we drove over to the parking lot at Golden Search and Rescue. The avalanche course we signed up for was a day of classroom work and a day in the field and the classroom work would be held in the meeting room of Golden SAR at the airport. It was taught by a woman on the Kicking Horse Ski Patrol who was also a member of Golden SAR, which was great because she really knew her stuff and had a lot of great war stories.

After class on Saturday we took the dogs for a walk along the Columbia River. It looks a lot different up here than it does in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Kenai did not care that the water was probably 40 deg. with the occasional iceberg, he was going swimming. Even after the third or fourth swim when he was shivering rather violently he wanted to dive back in. The cold water must have seriously invigorated him because after his swim he was charging around the trail as we went for a walk. He kept running down to the water and looking at us until I let him go for one more quick swim.

I was surprised Tanzi was willing to even get her toes wet.
He was NOT ready to quit!

Saturday night we headed back up to the KHMR parking lot. Sunday morning was beautiful as the sun came up and hit the mountain. The valley was still fogged in and the fog flowed through the valley like a river. It would have been a great Warren Miller ski movie time lapse.

Tough to wake up to these views. Kicking Horse on one side.
More amazing Canadian Rockies on the other side.

After a discussion at the base of the current weather and avalanche bulletin we all headed up the gondola. At the top we spent quite a bit of time looking at various terrain and discussing the avalanche considerations.

Looking at Bowl Over.

We then hiked out to Super Bowl where we spent the rest of the day working on various skills.

More discussion during lunch.
Instructor Lenka demonstrating some snowpack analysis in a pit.
Identifying layers in the snowpack.
Lenka demonstrating a compression test.
Practice, practice, practice. Sara digging out a body (transceiver wrapped in carpet) after her transceiver search and probe strike. I tried to make the locations challenging because I figure she’s the one who’s most likely to be digging me out!

Our final training was a more complicated scenario where three of us worked as a team as if we came upon another group caught in an avalanche. Our team of three had to locate three buried skiers, only two of whom had transceivers. There was also a “body” attached to a ski pole that we had to find and dig out. After having a bunch of practice the slightly more realistic scenario was a lot of fun. It definitely highlighted how much work an actual avalanche rescue would be. Overall the class was great. Sara and I both had some avalanche training 25 years ago in college, but having a formal class with a lot of the terrain assessment scenarios was definitely valuable and will give us more confidence that we can make reasonable decisions as we head out into the backcountry.

Tonight we are again camped out in the KHMR parking lot. We are going to ride at least a few more runs tomorrow morning and then head to Revelstoke tomorrow as they are expecting up to 8″ of new snow by Tuesday morning.

Inching North via Kimberley and Lussier Hot Springs

Tuesday was not looking too promising for fresh turns at Fernie so we decided to head to Kimberley to … rent skis?!?!?!

What? Are? These? I feel like a doofus.

Yes, we decided that as long as we were not going to have fresh snow to snowboard we might as well mix it up. It has been about 23 years since I alpine skied and probably 6 since I tele skied, but 36 years of muscle memory is an amazing thing. Sara only alpine skied a few times in her life as she was a telemark skier from the start, but her last time on skis was only two seasons ago. She even still owns skis. We had a lot of fun on modern gear, even if it was just the cheap stuff from the rental shop. Skiing definitely uses some different muscles than snowboarding so we got a good workout. With the short carving skis from the rental shop we just cruised the groomers. I was probably carving on these skis in the first hour better than I ever carved on alpine skis or on my more recent tele skis. It was a cold and blustery day, but all said it was a great day to get out and try something new.

Sara finding her edges. She felt a lot better by the end of the day.
Starting to remember how to carve. Not bad for the second run on alpine skis in 23 years.
We tested out our skills on one icy mogul run. Good thing I look like I know what I’m doing between the moguls because quick feet were slow to return. The next shot in this series is me get compressed by the next mogul. You don’t need to see that.

We left Kimberley looking for a place to relax so we headed to Lussier Hot Springs. Lussier Hot Springs is a natural springs in Whiteswan Provincial Park along the Lussier River. Presumably the province maintains the trail down to the springs, which was an easy walk, and the pools. There are a few pools of different temperatures built up out of rocks next to the river to control the mix of hot water and cold river water. The access is along a decent forest service road about 18km into the mountains. As it approaches the springs the road clings to a hill with a substantial drop into the river canyon. Fortunately the road is well maintained and it was not icy while we were there. By a crazy coincidence we met a nice family from New Hampshire and chatted them up about quite a few connections we had in common.

Into the mountains. Their mountains are better than our mountains.
Sara was not very happy about being on the outside of the road on the way down. At least this section was south facing so it was not icy at all.
Yep. It was worth it.

After a nice soak we decided to head deeper into the mountains to see what there was to see. The road is heavily used by logging trucks so it is well maintained and plowed for many kilometers back into the mountains. We found a small road that was plowed just far enough to pull off the main road for the night.

There was no traffic until about 9:30 p.m. and then there was a steady stream of empty logging trucks flying up this road all night. By mid-morning they started coming out with logs.

Wednesday we decided would be a dedicated doggy day so we went for a snowshoe along the unplowed forest service road. Just down from the van there was a ton of fresh moose sign, but apparently our chatting and the two dogs bouncing around was enough to scare off the local moose.

Very fresh tracks. I’m sure we would have seen this moose if we looked out the back of the van at the right time that morning.

We hiked a few miles up the road until we got to an area that had been clear cut so we had a nice view of the surrounding mountains.

Tanzi’s preferred resting spot. Whenever I stopped hiking she wants to stand between my legs, on my snowshoes, of course.
Nice view of the Canadian Rockies.
Surrounded by amazing mountains.

Our plan that afternoon was to drive back to Fernie, but when we got back to cell service we found that the snow storm promised for Thursday night was both less snow than hoped and probably coming a day later. We ultimately decided to head up to Golden to ride at Kicking Horse for a couple days and chase the snowstorm up here.

Last night we stayed in the Kicking Horse parking lot because, like Fernie, Kicking Horse is awesome and lets you just stay for free in the parking lot. All they ask is that you check in with guest services so that ski patrol doesn’t see the vehicle and think someone is out lost on the mountain.

Vancakes for dinner.

Today we got reacquainted with the mountain. We came out here last year and it immediately became my favorite resort in North America. There was some fresh snow blowing around today and, although it was foggy at the top making it difficult to see the terrain, nothing changed my opinion about the mountain. It is just an awesome mountain with crazy chutes and bowls every which way. There is not much they don’t let you access if you are skilled and/or dumb enough to ride it. As at Fernie they had too much warm weather in the past couple weeks so the south facing slopes are pretty hard underneath, but the north facing slopes where the snow has blown in were quite fun.

The view at the top for much of the day.
Sara coming out of the trees on Redemption Ridge below the fog.
Sara coming down off CPR Ridge into Crystal Bowl.
Riding along a small wind lip in Fuez Bowl.
Down Fuez Bowl.

When we got to town last night we saw a flyer for an avalanche class this weekend through the Kicking Horse Ski Patrol. We have been wanting to brush up on our skills – neither of us has had an avy class in 25 years or so – and there was space available so we are now here through at least this weekend.

Fernie, BC

We spent Saturday night at Murphy Lake outside Eureka, MT on a forest service road before heading on to Fernie, BC Sunday morning.

It might surprise you to learn that some people are not born with the knowledge that maple syrup should not be stored in ziplock bags. It leaks.

They have had a great winter up here, but it ended a couple of weeks ago. The last week has been really warm and warm makes icy. We did manage to find some good turns Sunday but we mostly just took it easy. North facing slopes had not melted out too much and were decent. They also opened a hike above the area that provided some really great turns.

At least they groomed the path.
Okay, it wasn’t that tiring. It was warm, though.

Fernie is super awesome and let’s you stay overnight for free in the parking lot. It was nice to not drive anywhere so we could just relax right after riding.

Sara on the “couch” with Tanzi. For some exceptionally strange reason, neither dog dove into dinner.

The forecast Sunday night called for a couple cm. of new snow so we were not expecting much. We woke up (late, of course) to about 10 cm. 10 cm. is not enough to cover all of the icy spots, but it sure helped. The steeps that had not iced up as much held the snow well and it blew in plenty of places to make it even deeper. We found a lot of really good turns in Timber Bowl (Big Bang and Black Cloud) and Currie Bowl (Currie Glades and the north-facing steeps off the ridge). The lower pitches that were not groomed were also a ton of fun. It was fairly heavy snow and it warmed up more during the day so it was tiring riding as you really had to power through even the soft snow.

Hiking up to the top of the ridge above Big Bang for the extra turns.

Top of the ridge above Big Bang.
Feeling sendy at the top of the trees next to Big Bang.
Best trail name ever?
Pow turn on the edge of Currie Bowl.
Oh I wish I had been filming. The events leading up to this shot were spectacular, both for the awesome turns and the awesome somersaults.

Sara making steep turns on Big Bang.

Now we are camped again in the parking lot. We got Sara an avalanche transceiver in Bozeman so we practiced finding beacons in the parking lot. Sara has now taken the dogs for a ski and Kenai is trying his new booties. The experiment does not seem very successful as he threw two of the booties before they even started out.

Trying to get the booties back on.

It is currently lightly raining/sleeting/snowing here at the base so hopefully they are getting snow up at the top. There is not supposed to be any meaningful accumulation until Thursday night so we will probably just mess around the next few days and make sure we are here Friday. With any luck the 18 cm. forecast (which may have just dropped to 10 cm. anyway) will be more. Regardless, we have no set plans other than gradually heading north so if the snow doesn’t cooperate we will just head for AK.

Big Sky update

Sorry for not updating the blog sooner during our Big Sky trip, but we had poor coverage Thursday night and we were visiting a friend last night.

Anyway, we spent Wednesday night in a parking lot next to the Henry’s Fork River just off Highway 191 near Island Park, ID, just south of West Yellowstone. The drive after our post Wednesday seriously deteriorated and from Rexburg, ID to just shy of our camp was a pretty solid snowstorm. I continue to be impressed by the handling of the van with our upgraded tires, even if Sara is not impressed with my [over-]confident driving of said van with upgraded tires.  At least this time the police officer I passed in the snow did not pull me over and give me a ticket for “unreasonable speed.” (Some of you in NH know that story all too well!)

On Thursday morning we eventually made our way to Big Sky. On our way we put the dogs up on the bed, but we heard some odd noise and looked back. This is what we saw.

Yep, that is Tanzi lying on the counter and the sink. She crawled off the bed and just kept walking on the counter until she got comfortable. I love the “what, should I not lie here?” look.

It was still spitting snow all day and visibility was quite low. We had not been there since 1997 so we did not have a good memory of the mountain. Although Big Sky has had a reasonable snowfall this year, they have also suffered some warm spells and the week before we arrived was super warm, including some rain. The snow Wednesday night into Thursday was enough to cover most of the ice, but on the steeps we still sometimes scraped through the soft snow to icy moguls. No fun on a snowboard, but fortunately we found a lot of spots that were not bad. There were great trees off Challenger and Lone Tree Quad. We also traversed out off Headwaters Double to Alder Gulch, which was a steep north facing slope so the sun crust under the powder wasn’t as bad. Overall it was a really fun day. No pics because the visibility was pretty bad the whole time.

Thursday night we drove to the trailhead to Beehive Basin. We quickly learned our chains are easy to install and work great! The best part of the story is that they were not needed on the van. A kid who works at Big Sky and lives in his Volvo was parked out there and his nearly bald tires had him seriously stuck on the hill trying to get out of the trailhead. Lucky for him we had nearly the same size tires and so he used our chains to get up the hill back to the resort. We tried to find him and the woman he was with at the lifts the next day, but we missed them. They get a shoutout, though, because they promised to follow the blog!

There was another young couple sleeping in their truck in the parking lot with a dog who quickly became Kenai’s best friend. The couple was doing an insane ski mountaineering race today. Seriously, check out that map and look at the requirements. (I know they have to make it sound ominous, but knowing the area they are serious about the potential for a 1200 foot fall that could result in serious injury and/or death.) They have to climb Lone Peak twice, ski down Big Couloir once, hike some knife-edge ridges, and otherwise complete 16-18 miles and 9000-10,000 feet of climbing. It was great fun hanging and talking with them so I hope they rocked.  We are going to check in with them to see how it went and follow some of their other crazy ski-mountaineering events.

For the first time we really put our induction stove and electrical system to the test. Sara made a delicious one-pot sweet potato-chorizo skillet. It required simmering for 30 minutes so I was curious how much it would draw down our batteries, but it was not a problem at all. The solar charged it back up super quick the next afternoon.

Plenty of room. Granted, I am lying in bed taking this picture.

Friday was a much nicer day. This was the view as we climbed out of the trailhead back toward the resort.

I did use the auto-enhance setting on this picture, but it is not otherwise filtered or altered. It is just a straight-up stunning view!

Lone Peak has to be one of the most gorgeous ski mountains. Not many ski areas are on a single peak like this and I think it is unique for North America. When we finally got to the mountain (because we have been sleeping in seriously late) we headed straight for the tram. The tram line was quit long – probably 45 minutes – but we wanted to get to the top. The clouds were blowing in intermittently so this was the view as we were headed up the first time.

Tram to the clouds.

These clouds blew through it was largely clear off the top. Our goal Friday was to the southern exposure of the mountain so we dropped off the other side into Liberty Bowl. There was actually a fair amount of powder still to be found, but the sun crunch underneath was pretty significant. It was a mix of powder, heavy crud, and a bit of ice, but overall still really fun riding as long as you didn’t relax too much. There was also a lot of exposed rock just under the powder so our bases and edges took a beating. It was worth it for the sweet turns, though.

Sara in Liberty Bowl

After a couple more tree runs on that side we decided to go back for another tram ride. The snow off the top was too much fun to pass up and we saw another steep bowl we wanted to hit. The view this time was much better than before.

Big Couloir, down which the ski mountaineering race goes, is the angled couloir on the right edge of this picture.
The mountains in the background there surround Beehive Basin, which was the trailhead at which we camped Thursday night.

We came down Marx chute/bowl and it. was. awesome. After a single, super steep icy turn off the traverse at the top we were able to hug the right ridge where all the snow blows in from the west. It was as steep as anything we have ridden (our gps says 46 deg. and, although I would say using the gps app to calculate the slope is questionable at best, in this case it happens to match my estimate so I’m going to call it dead on accurate) and even though it did have a hard crust underneath there was enough firm, windblown powder on top to give a consistent, soft ride. (I realize that sentence may not make sense for non-skiers/snowboarders, but I promise it makes sense.) It was fantastic and a great surface for something that steep. Worth every minute we waited in line for the tram.

Michael in Marx

Friday night we met up in Bozeman with one of my high school buddies who I haven’t seen in about 17 years. It was great catching up and talking about high school stories and the sometimes stupid things we did. We went out to a true Montana hole-in-the-wall steakhouse and I one of the best ribeyes I’ve eaten. (No one will ever top the pan-fried moose ribeye w/maple butter prepared by Colin in Hellgate Gorge. I am 100% confident I will never have a better steak in my life.) We spent the evening bs’ing about high school and catching up on the last 17 years. I’m sure Sara was completely entertained.

This morning we caught up with a Wight family friend who we last visited in Bozeman in 1997 – the last time we were at Big Sky and on the same trip during which I proposed to Sara while skiing at Bridger Bowl. Having no schedule and getting to catch up with old friends has been a great part of the van adventure. If we haven’t seen you in ten or twenty years, expect us to show up in your driveway (and shower) with minimal warning!

Now we are off to Fernie, BC and the start of the Powder Highway. Let it snow!

Chasing Winter

Powderhunds are back on the road. We just passed the turn to Sun Valley, ID, just south of the Sawtooths, headed to Big Sky, MT, then Fernie, BC, then Kicking Horse, BC, then on to Alaska!

In the last couple days we finished up the last of the important projects and got packed up for a far more extended road trip. “Extended” as in we aren’t sure when we are coming back, if ever. Kenai might like Kenai so much he decides to stay, and, well, we couldn’t leave him there alone.

Here are some of the things we finished up before we left:

Door stop. I made this door stop a few months ago, but the 3M VHB tape (very high bond double-sided tape) I used was too thick and the roller would not smoothly run over it. I finally had some thinner VHB tape and it was time to put it on since we installed the galley and we now have a reason to have the door stop halfway along it’s path.

Just a small piece of aluminum tapering at both edges with a groove in the middle secured with VHB tape.
The roller rests in the middle groove, but can still roll easily either direction.
Now we can leave the door stopped about halfway open.

Cabinet door above the microwave. This cabinet was useful on our trip, but it will be nice to have a door to keep things from falling out.

Two Southco tension hinges can be adjusted to hold the door at any position.

Daytime running lights. It annoys me to no end that the Transit does not have daytime running lights standard. I thought that was essentially a mandatory safety feature on new cars. Apparently on the Transit it is integrated with the automatic windshield wipers, which I hate and would not have wanted, so we did not even know it was an option. Anyway, on one of the Ford blogs someone mentioned the part number for the upgraded switch to make the headlights auto. Our van lacks the integrated light sensor, which also turns on the wipers, so it doesn’t actually function as automatic lights, but that is okay. The effect on hate auto setting is that the lights just come on with the ignition switch and go off when the car is off. That is all I want. The only weird side effect is that the nav screen now dims when you turn on the car because it thinks it must be night, but that is the same effect as if I just turned on my headlights manually during the day. Takeaway point: Ford is dumb. (This subject actually deserves its own blog post as there are so many examples of terribly poor engineering decisions. The Transit is not even a new model!)

Existing switch.
Just pops out with very minimal finagling.
New switch just pops right in.

Galley wall and more hooks. It took a fair bit of measuring and trimming holes for various protrusions, but we installed the bottom wall of the galley.

Cutouts for the van rib, the fan, and the wires on the right (not visible). Trying to get it in around the wire, over the fridge vent in the lower left, and the fan took some careful twisting of the wall, but it went and it looks great.

Sara wanted a shelf above the galley and the slider door so I whipped this up quickly. We will see how it works on this trip and if we like it we can build something more permanent. The wall behind is just temporary anyway.

I hope I measured it well so we don’t bang our heads on it getting in and out. That’s why it is just a test shelf!

Finally, Sara wanted a snowboard rack for the bike drawer. I either did not listen to her carefully or she did not clearly explain what she was thinking (we all know which of those two is more likely, but I’m the one writing the blog) so I started on this Christmas tree design. What a crappy mess. (It looks like something a Ford engineer would design.) I got as far as the mess below and told her that there would be no rack for this trip. Trying to figure out the measurements and make all the cuts was going to be a massive waste of time.

Are you kidding me with this garbage?!

Yesterday while running some final errands I had an epiphany, or what she suggested finally sunk in, one or the other. I could take a couple 2x4s and just use the forstner bit to drill holes and stick dowels in the holes. That won’t take much time at all. In looking at the dimensions of the drawer it quickly became apparent that I could get all or boards, with bindings still mounted, in the width of the drawer.

Boom. Easy. Why didn’t you just suggest this originally, dear?

Now we are done and on the road. This stop back in Oregon was super productive and felt good because we went from 90% to 99% finished on a bunch of projects. We still have plenty of work to do when/if we come back, but the van is much more livable now than it was even a week ago.

So, the first stop is Big Sky, then North about … 2700 miles. Holy crap Alaska is a long ways away! That’s the same as driving back to NH and I have no interest in making that drive again. Too. Much. Corn.

But I’m pretty sure this drivewill all be worth it.

Even we don’t get to snowboard peaks like this on this trip, I am so excited just to see them and dream.
I hope the bears are all awake!

A few more fixes and improvements.

We took a ride yesterday to visit Don and Marti (and Liesl and Ollie) to test out our drawer catches. Despite the bumpy and twisty road, nothing opened. I’m sure there will still be specific situations that cause drawers to open, but at least we appear to have fixed the issue under normal circumstances.

Liesl, Tanzi, Kenai. Ollie did not get to come on the walk because he is a stud in every sense of the word and he bothers Tanzi to no end. #hertoo
Sara getting Liesl and Tanzi to snuggle.

We continue working on other projects to fix issues or just to generally improve the van. It is certainly not complete and we have plenty more work to do, but it is nice to be at the stage where it is functional for camping/adventure.

Ongoing improvements include securing the heater exhaust. When we left a couple weeks ago it was just hanging down under the rear of the van. That was obviously not ideal. I was comfortable that it would not damage anything if it bounced around, but it needed to be vented off the side. I just repurposed a couple brackets that came with the heater to secure the exhaust pipe.

I just bent one bracket, bolted it to the other bracket, and screwed it through the bottom of the side panel. I then wrapped the exhaust pipe in some metal strapping to bolt to the bracket contraption.
Now the exhaust will blow out the driver’s side of the van instead of under/back.

I also fixed up our ceiling fan. The fan was functional, but the opening was not cut to size and it was not cleaned up. I cut the roof planks wider to fit the trim piece and added some additional planks at the rear of the fan.

Historic pic of how the ceiling fan has looked ever since we installed the ceiling. The two boards on either side intrude slightly into the fan space. We had not installed any planks at the very back as they would not really have anything to hold them up.
Planks trimmed back to expose fan all the way around.
Fan trim installed and looking sharp.

In addition the drawers opening, the fridge opened on our trip and had to be secured with tape. I didn’t understand why it didn’t have a secure closing mechanism. Well, I went to install the handle – I had reversed the door hinge and never bother to reinstall the handle because we were going to put a new front on the fridge – and lo and behold the handle has the latch mechanism! Of course, in the process of reversing the way the door swings something had gone askew and the latch did not line up with the top of the fridge to create a secure closure. We needed to lift the door on the pin on which it swings by about 1/4″. I went to Ace and picked up a split collar that I hoped would work, because then I would not have to remove the door, but no dice as it was too big. I also bought some nylon washers so we started to pull the fridge to remove the door.

Nope. When we installed the nice wood trim around the fridge we very slightly closed the gaps and now the bottom of the fridge won’t slide easily free. It’s always something! Fortunately, before I got out the sander and started sanding down the trim Sara suggested I try to cut the nylon washer and slide it around the hinge pin. It worked and we did not have to remove the fridge at all. Now we have an actual handle to open the fridge and the door latches!

Another project we hoped to tackle this week was to get the garage/basement drawer installed. In the summer this will be the bike drawer, but in the winter it can hold gear and snowboards. The drawer is held in with 48″ slides that are rated to 450 lbs. so it should be easily good for our gear. The slides themselves probably weigh 20 lbs. so they are tough to finesse into place for installation. With the drawer already built and the side supports previously finished it was just a matter of mathing it all up so it fit correctly. We managed to get it right the first time and the drawer will be super handy to have installed.

Slides already attached to the side supports. Here I am fitting the extension onto the drawer itself. These slides do not detach so you can completely remove the drawer once it is all secured together.
All put together. The slides are locking so they can lock closed or open. This is both handy and important for something like a van. First, you don’t want the drawer sliding around while you drive. Second, if you park on a hill you don’t want the drawer crashing out when you open the door!
Testing the bike fit. Even though I am just writing about this now, this was one of the first things we planned. The height of the bed was previously determined by the height needed to clear my bike seat with the dropper post. It worked perfectly.

We have made a lot of progress in a week so I think we are on track to get on the road Tuesday if we can get just a few more things finished up tomorrow.

Hund modifications.

We are back in La Grande for no more than a week to get some modifications done. Some things we learned on our trip, others we just wanted to get done before we head out for a longer road trip. Sara also has actual paying work to do so she is focusing on that while I work on the van.

First, we definitely learned that our drawers will not stay shut just with the minor catch of the drawer slide. I am using a number of different products to help lock the drawers depending on the size of the drawer. The difficulty is that I built our galley cabinet with all the drawers flush against each other so there are limited options to install catches. On some drawers I’ve used magnets, on others I’ve used the clips pictured below. Where I can I used some heavy duty RV latches that are very popular for this problem.

On some of the drawers I am using these clips. I have room to add a second one if we need more holding power. They just barely fit in the 1/2″ space of the drawer slide.

Another project was to finish the last electrical component. Our solar in CO was amazing and it was great to see the batteries easily recharging, but there will obviously be times the sun is not shining so I needed to get the battery-to-battery charger installed. This Sterling unit connects to the van batteries and when the engine is running and the alternator is feeding the van batteries it siphons off some of the power. It can deliver up to 60A so it is huge potential energy source. Any day driving between ski areas would easily charge the batteries full.

Van batteries are under the seat. This is convenient for the location of the electrical cabinet, but it is a pain in the ass to access! Hopefully this will be the only time I have to get in there. There are three connections: 1) positive from van battery to circuit breaker to Sterling; 2) negative from Sterling to van battery; 3) negative from common negative bus bar to van battery.
70A Blue Sea Systems circuit breaker stuck to seat pedestal with 3M VHB tape.
It’s alive!

Another project was to finish the rear door of the galley cabinet. We had not taken the time to install the door at all so it went in. The door is held with a piano hinge on the bottom and the paracord to keep it level. Now we have an outside counter when we want to cook outside, though I suspect we will have to reinforce it somehow to hold any meaningful weight. It is held securely shut by an RV latch.

On our trip I also realized that having a 20A outlet for the stove is silly. The circuit is built for 20A and that’s great because the induction stove pushes the limit of a 15A circuit, but I’m never going to plug an actual 20A appliance in the outlet. Sara said it also sparked once when she plugged in the stove (I suspect it was just static electricity) so I decided to change it out for a GFCI outlet.

The outlet was a single 20A. Now it is a regular 15A GFCI.

The other major thing we learned on our trip was that the water line running on the floor will freeze when it is super cold outside. Even though the heater did fine to keep us warm up on the bed, the floor was much colder. The floor buried in the cabinets against the wall was even colder – obviously below freezing. Other than getting some warm air in there, which is how we solved the problem on our trip, I don’t have any really good solutions. I bought a short length of heat tape and some pipe insulation. I’m hoping this setup will work if we encounter such extra cold temps again.

The toilet cabinet removed – this is the pipe running underneath. I’ve secured the 3′ length of heat tape between the tubes (only one is carrying water right now) with electrical tape.
Then I wrapped it all in pipe insulation.
I am not sure if the section in the galley cabinet also froze, but now it is at least insulated.

We have more projects to work on, but these were the major things I wanted to get done. Tomorrow we need to take the van for a test ride to see if the drawers stay shut!