Saving A Lost Ski Partner in the Norns-Soapbox Comp
Losing a good ski touring partner to snowmobiling is worse than losing a good friend to a controlling girlfriend. Typically, on occasion, a controlling girlfriend will release the old ball and chain and let your buddy free for a night of shenanigans but a ski partner in a committed relationship with a snowmobile rarely slaps the skins back on. I have lost many over the years, both good friends and good ski touring partners. Because of this I was ecstatic to receive a phone call (yes a phone call, not a text) in early February from an old ski touring partner turned snowmobiler. He was in the Valley visiting family and wanted to get together, sled into the backcountry and skin up something fun. Knowing that this might be my only chance to convert him back to touring, I dropped everything, packed my bags and wrenched on my old 96 ZRT 600 for 6 hours to get her running for the morning.
I actually know this “snowmobiler” friend of mine better than most of my ski partners. We have travelled and surfed together around the world. Peru, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Morocco…. the list goes on. He is quite a haywire adrenaline-seeking individual. One time in Barritz (France) the waves were so big that dozens of local surfers stood on the beech and watched perfect unridden lefts break into the reef. This crazy Canuck just paddled out, took one of the bigger sets, got barreled and rode it all the way to shore. When he got back on solid ground I gave him a cold Kronenbourg for his effort but he was shaking so bad he couldn’t even open it. Ski touring just wasn’t giving him the “rush” anymore so he turned over to piston power. I knew if I was going to save him and convert him back to touring, we had to ski something gnarly.
Surfing in Barritz France
Surfing in Morocco
We met in the “Norns” parking lot first thing in the morning (well, 10am) and after a few high fives and some catching up I found myself in the back of a sled pack sucking 2-stroke smoke all the way into the mountains. After snowmobiling for an hour or two and watching a few hill climb roops I spotted a couloir with the potential to provide a good adrenaline rush while still minimizing our exposure to avalanche or other risks. When he finally got his sled stuck in a tree, I pointed out the couloir that I wanted to ski. He was stoked and once the sled was dug out he made a quick attempt up the couloir on his machine but barely even scratched the bottom of it. I laughed and started to put my skins on.
There was about 20cm of dry snow sitting on top of a hard crust from the heavy inversion that plagued our mountains in late January. Without ski-crampons skinning was challenging so we soon found ourselves bootpacking with our planks on our back. Just as we got to the upper and thinnest section of the coulior the crust disappeared and the snow turned thigh deep. The top section was going to be great if it didn’t all sluff out. A quick couple “foot and ski-pole” pits indicated the snow had bonded well and we were in for a great time. We poked out the coulior and onto a sunny ridge top that offered views of Old Glory Mountain and America to the south and the Valhalla’s to the north. Here we were soaking up the sun at the southern end of an amazing mountain range (the Selkirks) and for the first time all day the whining noise of snowmachines was absent. I let my friend have the first track, and watching him disappear into the darkness of the shadowed coulior and a wall of white dust I knew he was having a blast. This was confirmed by a frequent yelps and yips of satisfaction.
Bootpacking
Getting closer to the top
After the snowmobiles were sketchily loaded into the trucks, we had cold slushy Pilsner and chatted about our next surf trip. Realizing that this was more of a dream conversation these days we quickly returned the discussion to the great day we just had the winter season that still lay ahead. Just as we were about to get into our trucks and go our separate ways, he says to me “Let me know if your planning a cabin trip this winter, I would be stoked to come.” I smiled back, “Of course I’m planning a cabin trip, and I will definitely let you know.” The day was a success!!
Let it Snow