Well the results are in and we lost exactly ZERO members of our skiing party to avalanche, helicopter crash, scurvy,cannibalism, or alcohol poisoning during our epic back country skiing adventure. Ok, we did almost lose someone down the outhouse hole but that’s just because he’s old and has nodiscernible rear end. What is back country skiing you ask? It’s insane practice of climbing mountains in order to ski down them instead of using chairlifts like civilized folk. To be able to climb steep snowy mountainsides you need skis with special bindings that allow the heel to move freely for climbing, like cross country skis, and then be locked down for skiing the epic power you find at the top. You also attach climbing skins to the bottom of the skis for better traction that allows you to climb some pretty steep grades. BTW if you’re wondering if climbing thousands of feet is a lot of hard work, it is. So why do we do it? Because we love to climb, OK we love the amazing deep powder we find at the top way more but we still love the climb.
The spot we chose to ski this year is the Bolder Hut located in the Purcell mountains of British Columbia, Canada. This hut is only accessible by helicopter so in addition to some great skiing we all got to take a pretty cool helicopter ride in the mountains. Here’s the approach to the Bolder Hut.
The flight was a lot of fun but I’ll have to admit I didn’t really know where the pilot was going to land us until we made the last turn. Before that it looked like he was flying us into a dead end box canyon, not that I was scared mind you, just that I’m kind of a control freak and I like to know what’s going on at all times. That’s not weird…….is it? I’ll tell you all more about the trip and post tons of pictures later. You’ve been warned.
