Last season, Dr.Goldfinger and Wolfgang set an unofficial goal of skiing to the top of, and skiing down all of the summits in the Trophy range near Clearwater. Success was had on Trophy itself, at 8455 feet, and its neighbor, Prospector Peak, at 7800 feet. Both trips were realized in good weather and with good powder snow. In marked contrast, a third trip, with the summit of 7600 foot Wolverine Peak as the goal, was met with crap snow and even worse weather. Massive and complete failure, along with shame and scorn, was the ultimate consequence. As a result, when the avy danger in the North Columbia bottomed out at low, redemption was on the Powder Wardens collective mind.

While fueling the sleds in Barrier, we scan the sky for weather and despite high clouds, we put the ceiling well above the 8000 foot level that is desired for our climb. 45 minutes later we fire up the sleds and roar off up the road. It is a quick trip on smooth roads, and we are soon skinning up through the thick under growth of the southern flank of Wolverine. The combination of an unseasonably shallow snow-pack, and the heavy forest makes the first 1500 vertical feet of this climb a bit of an ordeal. Switching back and forth up the 35 degree lower slope, we slowly emerge onto flatter ground in the sub-alpine at around 6800 feet. The 800 feet above us is shrouded in cloud. The route is fairly straight forward and Rex carries his fantastic GPS unit, so we head up into the cloud zigging and zagging until the GPS tells us that we are at 7600 feet, or, the top. Not wanting to step off a cliff or venture out on to a cornice in the white out, we sit down to lunch on the summit.

After a quick bite to eat, we set off into the misty blue. Three turns lead to complete vertigo in the pea soup visibility, and Wolfgang is stumbling around on his skis like he's been huffing the high octane sled fuel. Rex shows us how its done, as he rips down into the fog. Visibility soon improves near tree line and we find some sweet turns down through the glades. We pull up 1700 feet below our lunch spot, and throw on the skins as Little Cheecho steams uphill at 39 Km/H leaving us all behind. He doesn't stop until we shout at him when it appears that he wants to summit a second time!

Ripping off our skins, we do another run down through the glades until the trees get too thick, then we contour around onto the southern face where there are a couple of avy chutes that run down to the road. These things are huge steep and scary! Despite the danger rating of low, we dig a pit anyway and get confirmation on the stability. Then we sally forth and make turns down the crusty surface of these chutes whose pitch never drops below 35 degrees and is much steeper in places. Finally, after 1500 feet it relents and we cruise to the road. A quick skate brings us back to the sleds, another peak checked off the list. Totals for the day are 4300 vertical feet climbed, and 10 km toured. After some complaints from the Doctor that it is not yet a full day, we load up the sleds and head home.



On another note, the weather in Kamloops has been most unwinter-like this year, and it has got to the point now that mountain biking is good to go and in the spirit of The Powder Wardens, I feel the responsibility, as a good journalist, to give our readers a little something cycling related. Unfortunately, fellow wardens don't share my desire for this, citing work, school and hill skiing as lame excuses for their sloth, so Wolfgang has to bear this cross himself.

Being a fan of simplicity as well as a man always at the cutting edge, Wolfgang loves a good rigid bike just as much as he adores his 6 inch travel Santa Cruz. So when parts became available, (Thanks Derek!!) he installed a 29'r front wheel and Avid BB7 disc brakes to his trusty, yet somewhat rusty, 15 year old Kona Hot. This old girl runs a 1x9 drive train, and various and sundry XTR, Race face and Synchros parts from a previous decade. She sports a rigid P2 fork and rocks the single track hard!

A 20 km loop in the Bachelor grasslands left Wolfgang with a smile on his face as the new parts transformed the old Kona into a whole new beast! Better fit, precise steering and a slightly smoother ride all contribute to a fine single track performance. No action pics due to the aforementioned idleness of the wardens, but Jak the dog came along and posed for some static shots..... Enjoy!

Due to a long and depressing warm spell and little to no snow, the Powder Wardens were scratching their collective heads for ideas of somewhere new to ski tour. All of our regular haunts were likely to be tracked out and the Wardens are a powder spoiled bunch. If our skis are making noise, we are most assuredly, not happy. So, maps were scanned, GPS was consulted and our sad and pathetic memories were searched for any hints of a new hill or valley that might possibly hold some deep snow. The dim flash of a firing neuron in Wolfgang's massive, but barely functioning brain, signaled a 15 year old memory of a hike in a valley that can not be named, and from here in shall be referred to as Valley X. A trip was planned.

Sleds were loaded on Friday night despite a forecast of warm, wet weather and Wolfgang, Dr. Goldfinger, Rex and Juice Terry departed at six AM heading South. Rain in the parking lot elicited thoughts of bailing, but as the Doctor always says, "If you don't go skiing, you won't go skiing". As a result, in a haze of filthy, stinking blue smoke belching from the leaky exhaust of Kermit, the three cylinder threat to the ozone layer, we roared off down the road. After a few wrong turns, three deeply stuck sleds and significant amount of doubt about the sanity of our mission, we stepped into our skis and started skinning up-hill. An hour and a half of wandering brought us into the alpine and our first misty views of our Valley-X. Things looked very promising indeed. However, cloud and drizzle dampened our enthusiasm, as we toured a high ridge line looking for decent descents. Eventually deciding on north facing bowls and faces we ski a couple of good runs in so-so snow that turns to shite after 500 vertical feet. With 2500 vert and 8 km of touring we reverse course back to the snow machines and head home impressed with our find but not at all sated.

Two weeks later we are back, little Cheecho replacing Juice Terry who was otherwise occupied. Slightly cooler temps and the promise of a little new snow motivated us as we sled up the bumpy logging road under clear blue skies. Our objective is to summit the obvious peak at the head of the valley. but we revise our plans after 5 km of touring when fog envelopes the peak. We decide to ski.

A 1200 foot line is picked out, and after a quick pit and an extended column test, we ski the top 500 feet in six inches of nice snow, then traverse over to a nice fall-line shot of 700 feet to the valley floor. Two turns in and the six inches turns to a foot of sweet pow, the best we've seen in weeks, and Wolfgang rips 50 turns to the bottom. After some shenanigans with a lost ski each of us finds his own line down, and we skin up and head out across the valley. Our path back to the top of the ridge involves some skinning, some boot packing and a few steps of mixed climbing to gain a thousand feet.

The next run starts further east on the ridge and nets us 500 feet of mellow bowl skiing, a small traverse under a cliff band and 400 feet more of steeps under the cliffs. Wolfgang is exhausted on the skin out of this one, but his physician assures him that one more is within his capabilities. So we choose our final line of the day, a bowl narrowing into a tree chute that rewards us with another thousand feet of the best snow of the day. Skins on, Dr. Goldfinger breaks trail up towards our original up-track. Wolfgang lags behind but eventually tops out and we head for the sleds. Nine hours after we left the trucks we roll in and load 'em up for the drive back to the 'Loops. 16 km of touring and 4600 vertical feet of climbing are on the GPS, and a hard days work is done.







As requested by a faithful reader, I must also add a couple of pics of the Warden's pack of wild dogs Enjoy....

For the first installment of the powderwardens blog, I thought I would reach back into the recesses of ancient history and report on a mountain bike ride from the past summer. After this I will try to post every week with an up to date, seasonal back country adventure. I can't promise that they will all be cutting edge, exciting epics, as we are average, sometimes lazy and lame, working people with normal lives to lead. Our skills, fitness and levels of motivation vary greatly, but never reach lofty heights. The purpose of this blog is to get the stories and pics of said adventures into a forum where they can entertain, inspire, bore or irritate people. So without further fanfare, let's get started on this blog with a story of a mountain bike ride from the summer of 09.

By late July the Powderwardens were starting to tire of the usual one or two hour rides around our home base of Kamloops, and were looking for something new. Time and money, both in short supply, ruled out a trip to Pemberton or Revy, so Wolfgang and Rex got together to scheme up a Saturday epic around town. We had already done the classic Four Towers ride that involves a downtown start and a linking together of the Batchelor, Dufferin, Aberdeen and Peterson tower trail systems. A great ride consisting of roughly 50 km distance and 5000 vertical feet of climbing, some great single track and a good measure of paved roads and streets. So now we wanted to step it up a bit. A plan was hatched to do a similar ride on the North side of town.

Rex, Wolfgang and Little Cheecho met at Rex's palatial and oh so stylish North Shore headquarters, and started out through town, past the airport and out to Tranquille. Here the pavement ended and the climbing began. Up the main gravel road for 4 or 5 km, hang a left onto a jeep trail and climb, climb, climb! This is a loooong grind, but eventually the road levels off and a sign promises the Dew Drop Trail. Just another km of steep climbing brings us to the trail head. This is an excellent single track descent with fine views that drops you off on the road just above Tranquille. A 70km/h downhill and phase 1 is in the books.

Phase two begins when we turn left just past the train crossing and start sweating our way up the Prudence Pass jeep trail. Now past noon it is 35 degrees out. As we climb to the dry lake water rationing becomes a reality. The road gets steeper here and Wolfgang is forced to do some pushing. Despite the heat and steepness, we arrive at the top of Mt. Mara. Superb views of the valley are our just rewards and we drink them in along with what little water we have left. The down hill off Mara is an old, rock-strewn motorcycle trail. It is fast and fun and dumps us out in the Bachelor Grasslands where we traverse two-track roads over towards the Communication tower.

Now out of water we climb slowly up until there is no more up, then rip the Batch' Trail at high speed down to Ord road. Two or three km through town brings us back to Rex's place and a well deserved Pepsi.

The numbers on the GPS read: Six hours total time, 63 km distance, and 6200 vertical feet of climbing. A full day at the office for the PowderWardens

Next time, an exciting account of our weekly Saturday ski tour!!!!!!

Here I go, blogging like the rest of them...

The Powder Wardens are a loose knit group of like-minded, outdoors, enthusiasts. We back country ski, and mountain bike. The back country is our church, and our philosophy is to move through it efficiently and respectfully... but still have fun.

Stay tuned for weekly updates of trips & adventures.