January has been an epic month with some awesome adventures.
Firstly, the snow has remained epic. Revelstoke Mountain Resort reported 3 meters of snow for January.......3 f$#ken meters!! Holy shit!! I could end this post right here, this is so epic! 471cm for the year! Shit me.
The snow I mentioned in my last post truly was epic but then we got another 2 storms just like that in the following weeks then another wee dump (a casual 18cm) a few days back to tie off the month. As my housemate Rob would say 'Mass Production'.
Have done a few sweet missions. Did my AST1 course (level 1 avalanche awareness course) which was mint. Was over three days and included classroom and in the field training. Learnt a bunch and got the confidence to start exploring some backcountry which if you live in Revelstoke you can't help but not be inspired to do. Its just so epic all around here!!
Missioned with a crew to St Leon hotsprings a few weeks back. Some natural hotsprings an hours drive, a half hour ferry ride and another hours walk/snowshoe from Revelstoke. Was unreal to hike through snowfields and forest and then arrive at these amazing springs settled in amongst the forest. We soaked for about 4 hours, then came the painful 10mins of getting out, drying and dressing in the cold before the heading home. Such a rad day. Hoping to camp for a night at some other springs later this month.
Did another day mission to a resort called Big White, just out of Kelowna. Was a very rad day. About 20 of us made it out from Revelstoke so we had quite the crew. Pretty much spent the day in the park getting my fix as we don't have one here in Revelstoke (really doesn't need it either!) and I was surprised how much I had missed it and how much I enjoyed it. So much we are heading to another resort just out of Vernon called Silver Star tomorrow. I am imagining I'll spend most my day in the park there too. haha The drive back from Big White was probably one of the most intense of my life. Snowing its ass off, ice on the road, deep slush on the road edges, big ass semi's still hauling ass going both ways!! Its was intense. We had a couple of good slides but big credit to Amanda for getting our carload home safe. Moosive effort!!
Today did my first real backcountry mission. We hit the chutes on Mt MacPherson called 'The Fingers'. The weather has snapped super cold again but we have clear skies making for some beautiful views. So we slapped our boards on our backs, slipped on snowshoes and got into it! Hiked for somewhere between 2 and a half - 3 hours. We got beautiful views out over Revelstoke, Mt Revelstoke and Mt Mackenzie which has the ski resort on it. Photos however were limited as it was so SO cold!! Hiking up my hair that was exposed had froze, like each strand had turned white. Looked funny! My face felt rigid as facial hair had froze as well as eyebrows. The toughest was having a dripping nose that wanted to also freeze! I have never done an activity where you have to moderate your temperature quite so much. If you wrap up too much you will sweat which once you stop will either make you really cold or will freeze making you super cold! I can see balancing your layers and hats, gloves etc will become a bit of an art. Anyway, we rode one of the chutes, it was EPIC!! Up top the snow was light and dry and although there were other lines up there it was not hard to get your own fresh line. Loved it!! Back foot surfing on that! Boom!! Got down to where we had parked, at town level roughly I guess. I was stoked to be down as it wasn't so cold. What made this ridiculous was the temperature was -11 where the car was. I'm only guessing but up the chutes it must have been getting somewhere around -20! Thank goodness there was no wind!! My fingertips right now are still super sensitive as they went through the whole get real real cold then warm back up. Next backcountry day will be on a warmer one for sure!!
As for every day up on the ski hill here, I am still yet to leave a day dissapointed! And still discovering new lines and hits every time too. The amount of times I have come down claiming 'day of my life on a board' is rediculous, probably way to frequent but hey, I'm fizzin on this so whatever!!!
Revelstoke life is continuing to inspire and be very good to me. I am loving all the friends I have made and the new ones you continually make in a town like this. The outdoors aspect of life here is amazing and is one that I would happily keep in my life for good. Who needs a city huh!!
Until next time....Peace!!
Photos above;
+ Amanda, Delia and Sean chillin in the secret hammocks up on the hill
+ Stoked on a mean day up the ski hill with good buddies
+ The crew that made it to St Leon hotsprings
+ Jere hiking up to the fingers on Mt MacPherson
+ Me starting the hike up to the fingers - the chutes you can see behind me
