The Kirks

So I bought Split Second by David Baldacci at Heathrow and given all the downtime here, I had a lot of time to read this book. It is the worst book I’ve ever read. By quite a long way. Laughably complex plot with paper thin stereotype characters. The English feels like it was written by machine. Avoid at all costs.

Although we’d been told that the weather today was going to be a bad day but the gods smiled on us and there was a small break in the weather around the lodge so we got in the helicopter and flew up to the mountains.

The weather in the mountains wasn’t good and the pilot had real difficulty putting the helicopter down at the top of mountains in a 25 to 30 knot wind.  We had been a bit spoiled by the nice easy windless days before.

However scary it was in the helicopter, the payoff was amazing. There had been 40 to 50cm of snow overnight and that meant that in places in the trees it was more than 100cm deep.  This was what everybody tells you about powder skiing in Canada.  Light fluffy powder blowing up over your chest as you ski through the trees.  There’s a phrase here which is “b*lls deep in powder” and that was literally what it was like.  At times in the wide open bits it feels like flying.  You jump off rollers or tree stumps and the landing is like jumping into feathers.  It’s hard work too especially if you end up on your arse (which happened to me a couple of times…). 

On the top of the mountain it was often a blizzard with strong winds and cold blowing snow which added to the feeling of really being as far from civilisation as you can imagine.  We got a little bit of a wake up call when we avoided an avalanche by a few metres.  It looked pretty small but Urs pointed out that there was probably 20 or 30 tonnes of snow in it and if anybody had got caught then we would have been digging…

I took some film from the helmet camera but unfortunately it was pointing too far down so all you can see mostly is my ski tips but here’s a very short video clip which gives you a good idea of what it is like.  Karsten also took some video from the end of his pole (don’t ask…) which gives you another perspective on what it’s like.  It’s actually pretty good.

And so, finally at 3pm, it was all over.  The weather was just too dangerous, the winds picking up and so we flew home. 

Strangely, now that there’s no more skiing to do, I am utterly spent.  Totally knackered.  In a good way but still completely done in.  I feel like I need 48 hours of solid sleep. 

So a couple of down days out of the 6 days here but this has been a truly amazing experience.  As I said in the first entry, literally indescribable in places.  In many ways skiing will always be a different sport for me now.

The Bearclaw Lodge is beautiful and the staff in the lodge are incredibly helpful and friendly.  The three guides that we skied with (Jake, Urs and Shane) were great skiers and safety oriented guides who were fun to be with.  I would come back any time I could.  Maybe March 2012… We shall see.

I thought the two days in Whistler were great (and they were great) but heli skiing here with Skeena at Bearclaw Lodge has been….words fail me.

Finally, of course, I have to thank Karsten Schroeder who said to me 9 months ago “hey, fancy going heli skiing with me?” and I said “yeah, sure”.  Karsten researched everything, booked everything and I just turned up for the skiing holiday of a lifetime.  I can’t thank you enough mate.  Let’s do it again next year.