March 8-16, 2003, Battle Abbey, Selkirks, B.C.
3/8/03
Canada BC
2828
3
The Canadian government gave permission to William Putnam and Hans Gmoser (http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/excellence/bio/gmoser.htm) to construct the Battle Abbey hut (7300') as a private venture on the provision that it be open to the public for several weeks a year. With persistence it is possible to convince CMH (Canadian Mountain Holidays, http://www.cmhski.com/), the major heli-skiing player, that Battle Abbey(http://stanwagon.com/wagon/canskiing/battleabbey.html) exists and even to book a reservation.
We were a party of eleven clients and two guides (Tom Raudaschl http://www.acmg.ca/public/html/hire/hireguideframeset/qguides.asp and Yvon Sabourin http://www.go2rockies.com/businesses/adventurebusiness5.htm) together with famous mountain hostess, hut-Mom, and cook, Hannelore Achman (retiring this year after 30 years in the business). We flew from and back to Golden in a Bell 212 (Huey).
Sunday through Thursday a major storm was in progress with cold (near-zero) temperatures at the start moderating to just below freezing at 7300'. With avalanche conditions already tricky an additional 5' (yes, feet) of powder, strong SW winds, and poor visibility kept us in the trees (The Woodlot). Last year we never skied The Woodlot. Now I know the lines and climbs by heart. Steep, deep, and technical tree skiing, hucking boulders and all that. One line called Pressure Drop. It just got better every day. As a further indication of the weather, we had lunch-in 6 times breaking the previous hut record of 3, and lunch-ins are not easily permitted at Battle Abbey.
But it's time for a lesson: To access The Woodlot we traversed 500' across the top of an open slope (7500', NE facing). Each time down our assistant guide would ski-cut the top of the slope (no results). Our group of 13 had skied down the upper part of this 25-30 degree slope seven times and skinned up it six times by Wednesday noon. On our seventh skinning we remotely triggered this slope from a distance of 400' (fast-running Class 2 avalanche, 5' crown, 150' wide, 700' long). No one was caught, but it was sobering.
Wednesday night it warmed to just below freezing and we heard many large avalanches during the night. Thursday CMH heli-skiing operations were essentially shut down with clients bailing and guides going out on bombing runs in the helicopters. They reported triggering huge avalanches, creating many new runs and landing zones.
We had our excitement on Thursday morning as well. Our lead guide dug a pit between the hut and the outhouse just behind the top of a 40-50 degree, 400vf slope. He was in the pit with three clients explaining what he was seeing in the snowpack. Another client was photographing the scene a few feet away. The photographer postholed one step, and so triggered a Class 3 avalanche with an explosive whump that produced a 4' crown 15' downhill of the pit. This slide went a quarter mile on both sides of the trigger and ran about as far, destroying trees and sending up a billowing cloud. As you can imagine this was stimulating to the observers. We choose to do no skiing that day.
On Friday we skied down to examine the damage from the Outhouse ('AvaLax') Slide in the afternoon and noodled about on a ridge run (top third of the Blue Danube run).
By Friday the storm finally stopped, temperatures dropped, and light snow continued. There had been a lot of thermal stabilization and natural avalanching.
Saturday morning we climbed up to King's Landing (8600') and got a couple of non-treed runs on consolidated powder. It was good to see something.
Saturday afternoon was the exchange, but it became foggy. The helicopter got so close that I could hear the tail rotor, but the pilot had to retreat to Golden. The exchange worked on Sunday morning, and after a 12 hour drive we were home.
We may have set a new low-vertical record for the hut. We only got in about 17K vf, but it is possible to ski safely (or mostly so) in the middle of a huge storm and avalanche cycle.
We were a party of eleven clients and two guides (Tom Raudaschl http://www.acmg.ca/public/html/hire/hireguideframeset/qguides.asp and Yvon Sabourin http://www.go2rockies.com/businesses/adventurebusiness5.htm) together with famous mountain hostess, hut-Mom, and cook, Hannelore Achman (retiring this year after 30 years in the business). We flew from and back to Golden in a Bell 212 (Huey).
Sunday through Thursday a major storm was in progress with cold (near-zero) temperatures at the start moderating to just below freezing at 7300'. With avalanche conditions already tricky an additional 5' (yes, feet) of powder, strong SW winds, and poor visibility kept us in the trees (The Woodlot). Last year we never skied The Woodlot. Now I know the lines and climbs by heart. Steep, deep, and technical tree skiing, hucking boulders and all that. One line called Pressure Drop. It just got better every day. As a further indication of the weather, we had lunch-in 6 times breaking the previous hut record of 3, and lunch-ins are not easily permitted at Battle Abbey.
But it's time for a lesson: To access The Woodlot we traversed 500' across the top of an open slope (7500', NE facing). Each time down our assistant guide would ski-cut the top of the slope (no results). Our group of 13 had skied down the upper part of this 25-30 degree slope seven times and skinned up it six times by Wednesday noon. On our seventh skinning we remotely triggered this slope from a distance of 400' (fast-running Class 2 avalanche, 5' crown, 150' wide, 700' long). No one was caught, but it was sobering.
Wednesday night it warmed to just below freezing and we heard many large avalanches during the night. Thursday CMH heli-skiing operations were essentially shut down with clients bailing and guides going out on bombing runs in the helicopters. They reported triggering huge avalanches, creating many new runs and landing zones.
We had our excitement on Thursday morning as well. Our lead guide dug a pit between the hut and the outhouse just behind the top of a 40-50 degree, 400vf slope. He was in the pit with three clients explaining what he was seeing in the snowpack. Another client was photographing the scene a few feet away. The photographer postholed one step, and so triggered a Class 3 avalanche with an explosive whump that produced a 4' crown 15' downhill of the pit. This slide went a quarter mile on both sides of the trigger and ran about as far, destroying trees and sending up a billowing cloud. As you can imagine this was stimulating to the observers. We choose to do no skiing that day.
On Friday we skied down to examine the damage from the Outhouse ('AvaLax') Slide in the afternoon and noodled about on a ridge run (top third of the Blue Danube run).
By Friday the storm finally stopped, temperatures dropped, and light snow continued. There had been a lot of thermal stabilization and natural avalanching.
Saturday morning we climbed up to King's Landing (8600') and got a couple of non-treed runs on consolidated powder. It was good to see something.
Saturday afternoon was the exchange, but it became foggy. The helicopter got so close that I could hear the tail rotor, but the pilot had to retreat to Golden. The exchange worked on Sunday morning, and after a 12 hour drive we were home.
We may have set a new low-vertical record for the hut. We only got in about 17K vf, but it is possible to ski safely (or mostly so) in the middle of a huge storm and avalanche cycle.
Great report Brent - glad you all returned safely. How did you "remotely" trigger the first avalanche you mentioned? (always trying to learn..)
It was just our presence or rather our weight that did it. We were 150 vf downhill of the crown, about 400' lineal from the highest point of the crown, and the first person was about 100' from the edge of the slide. We were just preparing to cross the slope one at a time. There was a whump (those in front heard and felt it, those in back did not). There was a 10 second delay before the slope released.
Brent, just the mention of Battle Abbey puts a huge grin on my face, glad you guys had a good trip. From your description it sounds ad if you triggered a slide on the green room run? From what I recall, to the skiers left of this run, the slope decreases quickly into the open bowl-and skiers right wraps around the nose of the ridge. IN what direction could you see the slide propagating a 1/4 mile? did it extend over to the bowl on the skiers left?
that while area is so steep with lots of potential hang fire from the peaks above, it seems prudent that your group surpassed the inddor lunch record-considering the weak snowpack in the selkirks this year. hopefully you'll get to return one day when the snowpack is more stable, if you haven't been already in a previous year.
i just got my package for next years trip and am already psyched.
Cheers
Jon
that while area is so steep with lots of potential hang fire from the peaks above, it seems prudent that your group surpassed the inddor lunch record-considering the weak snowpack in the selkirks this year. hopefully you'll get to return one day when the snowpack is more stable, if you haven't been already in a previous year.
i just got my package for next years trip and am already psyched.
Cheers
Jon
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