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Spring Ski Touring
It is April, and many of you out there are gleefully celebrating the passing of winter in anticipation for the long, warm sunny days of summer. T-shirts are coming out, sunglasses are being dawned and heads are bobbing to the hottest summer beats pumping through the open roofs and windows of cars heading to Cultus. Ski resorts are shutting down the lifts for the season, HOWEVER, lest we forget the feeling of rocketing down snow draped hills pushing snow to the left…and then to the right. So easily we forget how a month ago we were having the best days of our lives shredding down the slopes…but I have news for you all, skiing is not yet over! With our now warm days and cold nights, the melt-freeze cycles are consolidating the snowpack and increasing the margin of safety in the backcountry. Days are longer, avalanche risk is better (albeit still present… transceiver, probe, and shovels present please!), and bigger objectives are becoming a reality. The Coquihalla, and Manning Park are loaded with many great single and multiday ski tours, and now with the added bonus of not risking your bacon driving on the ever so sketchy roads
But, MWO…I’m so over being cold, can we not just accept shorts and t-shirt weather and put the ski’s away!?
Might I suggest a compromise? Let us swap out the ski goggles for sunglasses, the down jackets for t-shirts but keep the skins on the skis and with thick layer of sunscreen on our faces head to the snowy alpine to work on our bib tans together!
PS: If you aren’t convinced yet, maybe this video will do the trick:
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Click on the image above to view the video
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How to check yourself for Ticks
Coming into Spring we will have to start being aware of the presence of ticks in our backcountry, apart from being pesky little blood suckers they also may be harbouring the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease…which is something you definitely do not want to contract (shout out to our strong friends who have battled and won again this terrible disease). So follow this simple procedure to ensure you will remain tick free during the hiking season!
- As soon as you get home from your hike head to your bathroom and strip down. Toss your clothes in the bathtub, this will keep any ticks from running around your bathroom floor and escaping into your home.
- Check your hair first. If your hair is put up let it down and run your hands over your scalp (fingers together) to feel for any little bumps. If you have someone around, have them check your hair as well.
- Comb your hair thoroughly. Hopefully your head was tick free, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hiding in your hair! Use a fine toothed comb and really get in there!
- Search the rest of your body. Ticks can be pretty small, so make sure you have your eagle vision turned on, you are looking for small black or brown bumps. Use a mirror to check you backside, or have someone check for you.
- Check under your armpits, breast, and between your legs. Ticks are looking for the warmest and darkest parts of your body and will only stop their journey there if they are blocked by clothing.
- Yay, you are now tick free! Take your hiking clothes outside and give them a good shake…now flip your clothes inside out and shake again. If you found a tick leave your clothes outside for a while, the tick will leave them to search for food.
Sources: http://murakamicentreforlyme.org
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Find your cardinal directions without a compass
When you are in the backcountry it’s imperative to know your direction of travel just in case you get turned around and need to find your way home! Having a compass is definitely the best method to getting yourself unlost, however you are without one you can still find your directions with only a watch and the sun. To find South line up the hour hand to point at the sun, then find the point half way between the hour hand and 12 o’clock – HAZZAH, that’s South! Now that you know south you can find North, East, and West… just remember Never Eat Soggy Wieners.
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Photo Contest Winner!!
Congratulations to @ben_jaminkyle for winning our photo contest! Loving the golden hour rays! Come on into the shop to claim your prize!
Pay a visit to the shop and we’ll pass on your prize.
Keep posting with #mtwaddingtons and #MWOutTHERE, there are more prizes to come!
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Wilderness First Aid / April 22-23
This course is designed to help you deal with an injured or ill person for up to 24 hrs. Because of the nature of the problems you may be dealing with in the outdoors, at least 50% of the course is taught outside. This course has the Standard First Aid and CPR C with AED built into the course. This means that upon successful completion of the course, you will have your Standard First Aid and CPR C certificates built into your Wilderness First Aid certificate.
In addition to the course content we include basic shelter construction that is not part of the certificate. We include this because of the nature of the environment that you will be working and the relevance to the course content.
When: April 22-23
Please visit our store or call Mt. Waddington’s Outdoors at 604-846-1984
http://mtwaddingtons.com/course/wilderness-first-aid-april-22-23/
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Chiliwack Vedder River Cleanup:
April 22; 8:30am-12:00pm
Hosted by Chilliwack/Vedder River Cleanup Society
Join us (Chilliwack/Vedder River Cleanup Society) for our first cleanup of 2017! This is a family-friendly event and we encourage you to bring a friend or two.
Registration opens at 8:30am and is at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve (5200 Sumas Prairie Rd, Chilliwack). We will provide gloves, garbage and recycling bags.
Refreshments will be provided by Tim Hortons (Industrial Way, Chilliwack) and the Chilliwack Water Store (Yale Rd, Chilliwack).
FILM NIGHT: April 27 7-9pm at G.W. Graham Theatre
"Toad People" is a 75 minute inspiring new documentary produced by the Wilderness Committee about people in communities across British Columbia who are taking action to save the wildlife in their backyards.
This film is about more than just toads. British Columbians know that we have remarkable wildlife – including killer whales, grizzly bears, barn owls and badgers – but many don't realize that BC has no stand alone endangered species legislation.
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Summer Guided Hike Schedule:
![]() Summer guided hike schedule is now up! Check our website and fill your summer schedule with guided adventures!
New this year: Paddle Boarding adventures with Mt. Waddingtons and Pure Life Paddle Boards. Check it out on our website!
Some courses still in the works and will be updated on our website soon!
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The magnificent terrain around Vancouver, provides fantastic trail running opportunities and this is the definitive guide, detailing 44 of the best circuits. Vancouver has it all, including bluffed seaside paths, sinuous rainforest trails and rugged alpine adventure runs. Between the glistening Pacific Ocean waters and the jagged Coast Mountain peaks lie some of Canada’s best trail runs. Lace up your shoes!
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You have likely seen some intricate reclaimed wood art around the shop, that’s the work of local artist Shaun from Westcoast on Wood. Gaining inspiration from his adventures both local and around the world, Westcoast on Wood creates unique art pieces on a natural medium…wood! Specializing in both hardwood slabs, and reclaimed “upcycled” you will be amazed at what can be created from what was once considered only good for a bonfire.
Shaun now is also putting some hours in at the shop here, feel free to come by and meet the artist himself!
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The Adventurists.com
Are you looking to have an overdose of adventure inspiration? Yes? Ok, well The Adventurists are the people for you. They are truly an inspiring group and are always up to something incredible: From racing horses across Mongolio, or 3 wheeled motorcycle touring across Peru and everything in between. It’s not all just for fun though, they go on these outlandish adventures in the name of raising money for charities. “We figure since we are rather fond of adventuring in the world we should do our bit to look after it”. Our sentiments exactly guys! Check them out, and who knows maybe you will be inspired to go on a big trip of your own…*disclaimer: You will*
http://www.theadventurists.com/
Link: The Adventurists.com
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With some nice warm days starting to show up in the forecast its time for me to put away the skis and start riding my bike. This past ski season was one of the best I can remember, for many reasons. If you are a super keener there is still some great skiing to be had well into April, but I have pulled the plug and moved on to riding bikes. It is time to say good bye to the skis for this year, but I just wanted to remember some of the good times this past year, and what a year it was!
I tried to made a point to do a bit more exploring this winter and ski some lesser known local terrain. These blisters were from a day my friend Gary and I skinned up Mt Cheam all the way from Chilliwack Bench road. It took us 2.5hrs of “going good” and my feet payed the price. We pulled the plug on the summit due to conditions in the alpine, but my feet won a wicked prize.
A very fun day for me was when a small group of us drove 12 min from my house and put on skis at the bottom of Bridal Falls FSR and we skinned right to the top of Mt Archibald. The views were amazing and the multiple hour skin up was well worth it. Conditions were not great on the North aspect we wanted to ski, but the views on the way up were just awesome and we didn’t see one other group.
The Coquihalla is normally an amazing place to ski. Getting fresh tracks on the easy stuff is much harder then it used to be. However around the Christmas holidays it was just going off! I had a good friend come up from California and we skied a ton with amazing conditions every time. It was full hero snow.
My final memories of the winter was when we got a massive dump right in Chilliwack. We had 80cm on the ground right in my yard. I did a bunch of days up at Elk Mountain. It was a rather large approach but totally worth it. You could do 500m runs in the trees on some of the most amazing terrain ever. I had so many great days up there this year. It was so easy to rack up some serious vertical. Gary and I did a day just shy of 10,000 feet in very short order. Every ski season is not like this and I was very lucky to take advantage of it.
Most of the days we skied were amazing, but you don’t always win. On a very cold day in the middle of winter we did Mt Frosty in Manning Park. I was just getting over the flu and was suffering like a dog all day. It was -20 and windy at the top, I lost a ski on the way down and watched it get like 50 feet of air time before it landed in some rocks. Then on the ski out we got crazy lost and were very late getting home. Gary got stuck in traffic as well. That day I ate my feelings in the form of a Jim’s large specialty pizza.
For more pictures of this adventure, check out our webite!
http://mtwaddingtons.com/ski-season-wrap/
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