Sometime
around when I reached the Mogo Trig for the second time that day, I
got a text from Doug “You are on a real tour de force!” And I
was, but, I was also instantly back in Canada in the middle of winter
backcountry skiing with my good friend Roland (also known as Rolando
with a rolling rrrrr). Roland was bilingual (French and English),
went to a Jesuit school, thoroughly disliked organised religion and
loved big days out. We also loved big days out, and I particularly
liked big days out that explored new terrain.
Rolando in his element breaking trail on a high ridge way the fuck back there as a snowstorm moves in
One January day, when the days are short, we had driven up to
Kootenay Pass, a provincial park where the close ski slopes were
frequently moguled due to popularity. We, however, were off on one
of our classic “tour de force” days which involved skiing as many
different aspects as possible and to as many high points as possible.
The goal was generally to link up a series of ascents and descents
that encompassed all the best skiing, and there was really only one
rule: never ski the same line twice.
Ski descent from The Crags
From the parking lot at Bridal Lake we contoured around into a
little valley and broke trail up to a small pass just west of The
Crags. We called this pass “Signpost Pass” because, if the snow
was not too deep, a small signpost was occasionally visible at the
pass. As winter progressed this sign was buried. From Signpost
Pass, we skied east to the summit of The Crags and our first run
down, a 500 metre run to the south until we bumped into a convenient
logging road. Back up to The Crags but this time via the east ridge,
and a sweet, sweet run down a northeasterly facing slope to the
valley below. Up again and another couple of kilometres and we are
at a tiny col above Heather Lake and short excellent pure north run
down to the lake.
Skiing down to Heather Lake
Up again to a similar spot and a run that I recorded as “real
hero snow and a hero line” into the upper Char Creek valley. After
lunch down in the trees, we skinned back up again onto a northerly
running ridge from The Crags and blasted 600 vertical metres down to
Summit Creek – pretty much from the height of land to the lowest
point possible. At this stage of the trip things went a bit side
ways as instead of skiing gradually uphill to reach a low saddle
overlooking Bridal Lake and the car park, Rolando contoured a ski
track all the way around the head of Summit Creek so that we were
skiing still uphill but 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Cloud
had closed down, it was dusk, we had no GPS, just a map and compass,
which were of some limited utility as there was really nothing to
take a bearing off. What the compass did tell us was that we were
going in the wrong direction.
Hero snow and a hero run
There followed a reasonably lively discussion as we tried to work
out where we were and how we would get back to our vehicles. We were
all hungry and thirsty, our drink bottles and lunch bags long since
emptied. Eventually, we skied back the way we had come until we
reached the spot where we had initially ended our final run. It was
a bit grim having to go that far back. Taking a compass bearing, I
grabbed the lead away from Roland and refused to relinquish it until
we were on the final pass looking down at the parking lot. On the
drive home, we had to find a public telephone (scarce even in those
days) to telephone Roland’s wife and explain why at 7:00 pm we were
still not back in Nelson. Fun times and a tour de force of the
finest kind.
But today’s tour de force is a bicycle outing. I’ve ridden up
to the Mogo Trig on the new mountain bike trails, descended to an
unnamed creek, ridden up to a ridge line further west, inadvertently
ridden back down to where I had been before I toiled upwards – a
combination of my error and the enthusiastic encouragement of a group
of four men from Sydney who I encountered while riding. Toiled
upwards again and this time found the runs down to Mogo town, cruised
these easy well groomed runs to Mogo, ridden back up again, descended
a third time (by a different trail) back to the unnamed creek,
followed the switchbacking trail up to Mogo trig where I arrived and
received the text from Doug.
I was going to end my tour de force by riding down to the Tomaga
River and riding out via Jackhammer, but Doug informed that crews
were working on the connector trails and I wouldn’t get through so
I took a familiar route home, down to Deep Creek Dam and up to Ridge
Road, finally down a flowing green run where I was spat out at the
Curtis Road trailhead.
The first day I rode the new trails and realised how easy it was
to accumulate elevation gain on the friendly grades of the up-tracks
I decided that one day I should ride 1000 metres of elevation gain,
simply because that is a nice round and not too small number. On my
tour de force, I hit the mid 700’s which means that I only need
another two or three descents to tick over 1000 metres. Fun times.