It's not to often that the splitboarders in my group outnumber the skiiers but after a few seasons of bragging about how much fun I have been having riding basically anywhere I feel the urge to hike I am slowly convincing my core snowboard buddies one by one to switch to the promised land of splitboarding.
This was a first tour for two of the riders but all of us have been riding solid boards for years and our first day we headed to the old Coquihalla toll booth area where I had had a great time at last year but it only being early december we found that the MASSIVE alders have not been buried yet and the snow was still so deep and light we had a hard time maintaining our speed though any flat spot (the only downside to being a snowboarder). However, we still managed to muster a few great faceshots and turns and called it a day and a great warm up for the season so come.
The following weekend landed us at the beloved Rogers pass where we decided for day 1 to head up NRC Gully for an easy skin up for the green splitters who made it look like they had been doing it for years. The sun was shineing for the majority of the day untiill about the time we decided we had climbed high enough and some whispy clouds rolled in through the valley. Higher up where we were we still managed to get about 2/3rds of our run in under blue skies. Everybody rode very strong for our first real tour of the season and it was amazing to be back in the pass.
The following day our aim was to avoid any crowds and that had showed up for the weekend and went in search of some fresh tracks up Mgill Shoulder but the skin up really bogged us down having to climb over numberous logs and thin areas with tired legs. We ended up getting a much shorter than anticipated run through some thicker trees (the sped up montage in the video) but none the less had another awesome day in the mountains with great friends laughing (often at each other having to climb over and through difficult sections) and having good times the whole day.
Here is my video compilation of our first trip of the season, enjoy!
