More Pre Season Action - Callaghan Valley
G3 Engineer Rob Moore was aching for some pre season turns last weekend, and just had to decide what local zone would hold the most snow. They chose the Callaghan Valley, about 1.5 hours from G3's office, and were rewarded with a full day of skiing up and down Journeyman Peak, even if there was some rough going spots along the way.
The images say it all, so we'll let his photos and captions tell the story of another fun day of skiing in October! As soon as the calendar hit November, the temperatures have dropped and the snow is stacking up on Rob's tracks and every other peak in the area. Ski season might be closer than we think...
The lodge was a perfect place for a break after a pretty long skin in, even though we were able to drive into Callaghan Lake. With thin snowpack, it made for some bumpy skinning, and warm temps made for heavy snow for trail breaking.
Definitely a tricky part of an early season ski is finding a way across creeks. Here Tristen works his way across with dry feet, and mostly dry skins.
Our goal was to ski back down this gully. We poked out on this ridge looking for a skiable chute, but it was a little too rocky, so up we went.
The higher we climbed, the better the weather and snow conditions.
Once we hit about 2000m, the snow improved greatly. At this point, I was not sure how we would be able to ski back down through the boulders, so up we went.
Tristen and Stephen breaking trail up Journeyman.
Stephen and Tristen check out the view. We caught a nice break of weather on the summit, but unfortunately we couldn't find an easy way to get into the gully we wanted to ski.
Tristen and some of the best turns of the day, which were had above 2000m! After that the snow was thick, windblown or wet.
Yes we came down that... in thick fog and bad light. It was slow going picking our way through the rocks, and pretty hard on the skis. Another meter of snow would really help. Overall it took us 2 hours to descend what should have been less than 30min.
It was a long skin back to the car, along valley bottoms, the Callaghan lodge road, and then through the bush. We arrived at the truck just as it was getting dark, tired, and with sore feet!
Athletes & Staff
 Rob Moore |
