By Michael Wigley
Castle Gray Skull rising above the sea of clouds. Gray Peak and Cosmic Couloir, with Y Couloir hidden in the left pocket.
The start of 2017 brought frigid temperatures. December and January were the coldest months I’ve experienced in the last 10 years I’ve lived in the West Kootenays of British Columbia. -20 Celsius started to feel normal, wearing multiple layers on the skin track up. When you have cold temperatures, you get blower conditions. The crew decided to head up to Kokanee Glacier for a few days to disconnect from civilization and get back into the simple life of skin track making, slaying pow, and eating good food.
Jesse Bartlett soaking in the alpenglow as the morning sun begins to rise.
Our first few days we spent putting in uptracks and working our legs riding pillows as the clouds were low and delivering the white gold. The Gibson Lake zone is a gem. 1000m descents surround you. Options are endless, from alpine lines, couloirs, bowls, trees, pillows, and cliffs. The zone is stacked!
Jesse and Jordan rising out of the clouds into the bluebird oasis toward Gray Mountain.
Into the week Jesse Bartlett and Jordan Osinchuk were keen to get up high. I was down to show them the way! There’s a beautiful aesthetic couloir off Gray Mountain named the Cosmic Couloir. We woke up early and under the cover of darkness and headlamps weaved our way through the trees. As we were approaching tree line the sun began to rise, bringing a warm alpenglow on the surrounding mountains. When it’s cold, sunshine is a virtue, and today we will be hidden from it as we boot up Cosmic. As the sun rose to start the day, we made our way to the entrance of the couloir. We switched our splitboards back into board mode, and took our splitboard bindings and used them with our Verts to ascend the line easier. As we punched up, we knew how amazing this run was going to be. After topping out, high fiving and strapping in. I dropped in first to ski cut the line and get into position to shoot photos. I rode the line a month previous, and was stoked to capture the action. Being Jesse’s first splitboard trip of the season, we let him rip it first, followed by Jordan.
Myself, Jordan, and Jesse on the summit of Gray Mountain, I don’t think we’re stoked at all.
I dropped in last, slashing my way down between the giant rock walls til I spit out of the exit, pointing towards the other two. Back in the sunshine high fiving, we decided to punch the track up to the col between Gray Mountain and Kokanee Mountain after our lunch and safety break.
Jordan Osinchuk ripping the Cosmic Couloir under the devil horns.
Skinning in the warmth of the sunshine til we ascended the col, we made our way to Y couloir. A short but dramatic line, two exits, with walls caked in rime. I dropped in first and ripped the riders left. Whipped out my camera as Jordan followed my line. Jesse dropped last taking the right hand line, which required a small drop over a tight choke, to an open fan that he crushed. We regrouped and still had about 800m of fall line back to the hut, alpine bowl then into the trees, finishing with pillows. That’s a dream line!
Jordan Osinchuk causing waves in the Y Couloir as Jesse cheers on from the top.
The next morning we woke up early after a chill night of crib and curries. Looked out the window to see the clouds were thick. Most of the crew decided to just lap pillows for the day and not bother pushing into the alpine. Jesse, Jordan, and I were optimistic and interested to see what we will find. We put in the skintrack to the col of Gray the day previous. We reasoned that if it’s socked in, we could always turn around. Once we were 300-400m from the summit, we broke through the clouds into a bluebird oasis.
Jesse Bartlett battling the winds on Gray Glacier with Gray Mountain on the horizon.
Skinning across Gray glacier til we reached the final pitch to the summit. The summit is known as “the beer can” as it used to be featured on Kokanee’s Beer cans and bottles. Putting our boards back on our backs we made the quick 50m 50 degree bootpack to the peak. We celebrated on the summit with a horizon that resembled the ocean, quick selfie, and then prepared to drop into a dreamy 600m alpine bowl run. For how cold it was, this run was a mind melter, some of the best toe side turns were unleashed. I took a few photos, but this run was for the memory banks.
Jordan Osinchuk in pilot mode whipping up dreamy topside turns down Gray Glacier.
Working in rhythm, arrive at the bottom, switch over, eat, punch track. We dropped into the opposite eastern basin, requiring us to skin back up the 600m run. Fired up from the blower powder run, we crushed it back up, and had enough time for one more small cheeky 150m line on the glacier to a small alpine lake. Back in rhythm we made our way to our exit, finishing with the Kokanee traverse to exit out the keyhole. Skinning on the glacier past Kokanee Mountain, Cond Mountain, and finally Esmeralda Mountain. Spotting a couloir earlier on Esmeralda we climbed up the peak to investigate. Realizing we needed a rope, it was about a 20m down climb on rimed rocks… we debated acid dropping into the line. With the sun now setting to the west, covering the sky in color. Soaking it all in, while knowing time is now not on our side. With our first exit not being an option, we pushed to exit out the Keyhole, a summer hiking entrance to the glacier.
Jesse Bartlett descending down the keyhole into the thick sea. An overwhelming feeling to know the more we descend, the closer we get to the vertigo of being in a ping pong ball.
With the sun now below the horizon we strapped in to descend towards the thickest cloud we could imagine. From light to darkness, as we entered the cloud, we were still in the alpine. Dealing with darkness, and vertigo, we picked our way til we eventually started to see trees. As our vision returned, and the trees grew larger, so did our speed. Dodging trees and airing pillows as the light became twilight. Going back into rhythm we pulled out the headlamps, and skinned back to the hut.
What’s in store for tomorrow we pondered?
Jesse and Jordan enjoying their tracks and the warmth of the sun.