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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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