Went back up Observation today with Kyla to have a look around and it turned out to be a good learning day that ended in a remotely triggered avalanche. We parked a little south of Bow Summit and followed a […]
Jimmy Jr Bowl
Today Anna and I decided to check out Jimmy Jr Bowl. I was seeing a fair amount of tracks in the upper bowl and figure might as well see what was up. Access up the creek was thin but it […]
Fairview Mountain
After yesterdays “better than expected” snow at Observation Peak we decided to give Fairview Mountain a shot. I had seen some IG stories from the summer trail and it looked pretty good for ski coverage. Only one way to find […]
Observation, Better than Expected!
Anna and I headed out to Observation Peak after seeing some posts of “better than expected” snow for the area. I was still skeptic about what we would find but sure enough “better than expected” was still what we found. […]
Bow Summit, One and Done
Anna and I got up late, forgetting to message anyone the day before and slowly made our way up the Icefields Parkway on icy roads stuck behind rental cars with no winter tires. We arrived at the closed access for […]
Highwood Pass
A week ago or so now the first big snowfall came into the area and I started seeing plenty of ski shots from the Highwood Pass area. After arranging some time off work I was able to get out that […]
Kicking Horse Pass : Day Tripping
Kicking Horse Pass : Day TrippingReleased October 1 2019Professionally Printed 8.5″ by 5.5″ Softcover Book Covers: Mount Bosworth, Bath Exit Valley, Paget Peak, Ogden South, Ogden North, Great Divide Creek, Narao & Popes Peaks, Cathedral, Collier Peak and Mount Victoria […]
Bow Summit
Ah it’s summer, mostly… in Lake Louise at least it feels that way with all the tourists (and construction). Anna and I had the day off so we decided to get out for a quick, pain free ski at Bow […]
Mount Temple Attempt
Chris messaged me a couple of days ago about trying to ski the south west aspect of Temple. I haven’t been skiing all month and figured I’d give it a shot due to what looked to be good weather for […]
Cathedral South East Glacier
Just got back from spending about 28 hours on Cathedral Mountain that was filled with outstanding weather, amazing skiing and an avalanche to top it off. On Friday Chris, Scott and I decided that there might be a short window […]
Heather Ridge
Anna and I headed up to the ski hill today with our sights on Heather Ridge. The sky was clear and the wind calm, the sort of weather that makes a ridge skin a great choice. After skiing up and […]
Collier North Glacier
Chris, Kieran and I decided to go up Collier North Glacier today due to a forecast that hinted at a clear sky. There was a ton of reports of great north face skiing but on the downside my last recon […]
Popes Peak, North Glacier
Today Mike, Chris and I decided to try to catch a weather window and ski the north glacier of Popes Peak. North aspects have been holding great snow and out of all the glaciers in the area Popes has looked […]
Niblock Solo
Today I woke up fairly early with no plans outside of a lazy ski day, maybe at the resort? As I ate breakfast I realized the weather forecast was probably going to be wrong and suddenly decided to head off […]
Plum Oazo Binding
For the last few seasons, I have been using a K2 Wayback 88 with a Dynafit TLT Speed Radical binding as my deep backcountry, steep skiing, recon setup – this is the ski I use most of the time. The […]
Mount Aberdeen
A few days ago Anna, Joel and I went for a long walk up Paradise Valley. I’ve been looking to ski a few of the lines further up the valley and they looked in shape so I talked to Chris, […]
Cathedral Mountain
Last week Luke sent me a message, he was in the Rockies and wanted to get after something. Of course the snow has been a little sub-par lately but I suggested Cathedral Mountain as it was suppose to be sunny […]
Pope’s Col
A few days ago Laura messaged me about getting out with her and Adam, we were looking to get after something more than another tree run but yesterday the forecast was calling for clouds. Yesterday’s forecast had been way off, […]
Sherbrooke Lake Avalanche Paths
The last two days I’ve been out skiing the Sherbrooke Lake Avalanche Paths on Paget Peak’s west aspect and found some great snow. On Saturday went up with Chris, Brandon and Dan to ski the 3rd path. There was an […]
Paget Runout
Headed to the Kicking Horse Pass area today with Sonia and Anna without a set plan and ended up at Great Divide Lodge heading for the south facing runout off Paget Peak. We got up to about 2150m, did a […]
Ogden Wall
It was back to the Kicking Horse Pass area for me today. This time Kieran, Chris and I were looking to skin up the south shoulder of Ogden and at the very least have a look down some of the […]
Dolomite Circuit Highline
Headed out early this morning with Anna and Josee to do the Dolomite Circuit. We ended up doing a highline through the Dolomite Glacier area instead of taking the regular lowline route. After parking the second car we bumped up […]
Phantom Couloir
I woke up wanting to stay in bed today but had already made plans to ski Phantom Couloir with Chris Moneypenny. Had no real excuses to bail so it was another cold day for the books. Got to the parking […]
Chain Up Trees
Skied a single lap in the Chain Up Trees and into Trucker’s Drainage with Anna, Sonia and Vince behind the Great Divide Lodge today. We followed my previous skin track to the start of Weather Station Ridge and skied down […]
Weather Station Peak
Today was one of the more mentally challenging days of the season for me. I decided to attempt to top out on Weather Station Peak (unofficial name) after bailing midway yesterday. Today I packed boot crampons and an ice axe, […]
Weather Station Ridge
Did a little solo walkabout today up behind the Great Divide Lodge. Originally I had planned to do some tree skiing but after arriving at the ridge leading to the Upper Bosworth Weather Station I decided to keep going up […]
Fischer Travers Carbon Ski Boot
Going into the 18/19 season I really wanted to switch up my boots. The last 3 boots I’ve owned were Scarpa Maestrale RS and although the model served me well for many years, I was very disapointed by the 17/18 […]
Use Pressurized Fuel In The Cold
I much prefer using pressurized fuel stoves and I have been mostly using Jetboil brand stoves since the first model came out. The benefit of being able to turn it on quickly, without priming, is huge when I want to […]
Paget Peak
Woke up to -35C this morning in Lake Louise, packed the van and drove over to ski resort to pick up @Chris. Shortly after @Anna decided that it was just a tad too cold for her and we drove her […]
Bosworth Border Bowl & Drainage
Chris Moneypenny messaged me last night and wanted to go skiing but to be honest the temps weren’t getting me too excited to head out. Regardless he showed up just after 10am and we headed to Great Divide Lodge. We […]
Lake Louise to Johnston Canyon
On Jan 31st Chris Moneypenny and I planned to start a take on the Ski Big 3 Loop I did back in 2013, we had planned to do the second half (SSV to LL) with Kaitlin Paris and Kieran Crimeen. […]
Dolomite Shoulder
Spent the day on Dolomite Shoulder with Mark Amos and Maria Eriksson where we found some great snow in the alpine. The recent short storm has refreshed the shoulder area and loaded up the lee zones. We stuck to the […]
Massive Mountain
Went to the summit of Massive Mountain with Laura Kos and Adam Campbell today. The day started out with a whiteout storm on the way to the trailhead but as we started skinning up the forest we saw hints of […]
Hector South Peak, South Shoulder Looker’s Left Path
Skied the looker’s left avalanche path of Hector South Peak’s South Shoulder with Anna Elkins and Sonia Foucault today from 2400m. Skinned up the left side of the drainage until reaching where all the runouts meet. We climbed up the […]
Hector South Ridge
Skied in the Hector South Ridge zone today with Vince Goyette, Michelle Brazier and Denny Neufeld. We skinned up to the high alpine ridge and skied back down to the road. Alpine was all sorts of messed up wind blasted, […]
Sunshine Sidecountry Loop
Did a big lap of Sunshine Sidecountry today where I met up with Chris Moneypenny along the route! Went up Goats Eye first thing for a couple of laps before heading to Divide for another two laps and skied down […]
Egypt Lake
Spent the last 3 days at Egypt Lake with Anna Elkins, Ally Watson, Josiane Simard, Beth Turcotte, Tristan Kimmerle, Fredrik Bengtsson and Dookie Dukes. On Friday we skied into the shelter via Healy Pass. We started our run down to […]
Hidden Lake Camping
Spent Jan 9 & 10 teaching Kaitlin Paris some winter camping skills at Hidden Lake Campground in Lake Louise backcountry. Going from Talus Lodge to winter camping in less than 24 hours was interesting… We took the gondola up and […]
Talus Lodge
Just got back from a 4 day trip at Talus Lodge on a MTN Guiding trip. Anna Elkins came with me and we were joined by Evan & Emily Oleson, Nina, Kevin, Kevin, Alex, Nick, Ryan, Jeff, Kitt and Sean, […]
93N New Years Eve/Day
Spent the last two days up the 93N. Yesterday was at Helen Shoulder lapping the roadside glades with Joel Fletcher-Hagen, Josee Richard, Kat McCallum, Nicky Winn and Anna Elkins. Today did a quick lap on Crystal Ridge to just below […]
Lynx And Hare
Tree skiing around Kicking Horse Pass. Lynx and Hare from Confessions Of A Ski Bum on Vimeo.
Ski Mountaineer Caroline Gleich Is Open About, Well, Everything
Ski Mountaineer Caroline Gleich Is Open About, Well, Everything (adventure-journal.com) BY SHAWNTE SALABERT The first day of December 2018 was a bluebird day in the Banff backcountry. Ski mountaineer Caroline Gleich and her fiancé Rob Lea hovered on the shoulder […]
Paget Glades
Spent another day at Paget Glades with Anna Elkins where we found the snow had become more supportive for skiing than previous days. There were plenty of people in the parking lot but somehow we only came across two of […]
Paget Glades
I spent the last two days (Dec 14 & 15) in the Paget Glades area skiing laps between 1800m and 2000m with Anna Elkins (14th) and Heather Burbidge (15th). During that short time I have noticed the recent storm snow […]
Hector South Ridge Avalanches
Went up to Hector South Ridge, Southern Unnamed Peak today with Rob Mazc, James MacNeil-Mah and Taylor Sullivan. We remote triggered several avalanches while walking along the ridge and at the flat highpoint. Skinning up to treeline is now pretty […]
Dolomite Shoulder Skills Day
Did a skills day with Laura Kos and Sierra Y today on Dolomite Shoulder. The shoulder and lower bowl ski like resort chop, there’s still a few pockets of nice snow but not enough to make a return visit. Treeline […]
Fatigue Mountain
After 10 years of looking at and getting turned around over a dozen times Melissa Tremblay and I skied Fatigue Mountain’s southwest face in near prefect loose dry snow conditions today. Yesterday I mentioned to Vince Goyette that I was […]
Observation Sub Peak
Did another lap up to the summit of Observation Sub Peak today with Hannah Rebecca Smith and Vince Goyette, this time we also went to the slightly lower east peak before skiing the southwest aspect. Great, fast travel all the […]
Dolomite Flu Recovery Forest Lap
Anna Elkins and I did a little walk up to mid-treeline below Dolomite Shoulder today. She has just gotten over a month long flu so it’s a great little forest lap to grab some quick exercise. Some of the skin […]
Observation Sub Peak
Today Fred Heikoop, Brandon Gulstene and I did a lap down the south aspect of Observation Sub Peak from the summit. The access via the south ridge to the summit is in great shape, we only took our skis off […]
Lake Louise Sidecountry
Anna Elkins and I did a quick sidecountry lap in the low angle trees behind Paradise Chair at Lake Louise today. The snow is shallow and facetted but if you stay light on your feet it actually skis pretty good. […]