I'm currently trying to recover from yesterday's backcountry ski trip to Burstall Pass. Our guide joked that it was uphill both ways, only that turned out not be a joke. I should have known as I did the same route as a hike back in September. It all made for a fun, if exhausting, day out.


There's been quite a fuss in the media here about the number of avalanche deaths in the Rockies this year, so far 24 in Western North America. I felt pretty safe though as we had two of the best guides around. Alf Skranstins is the founder and director of the UofC Outdoor Centre and with him was Albi Sole who runs the avalanche safety training programme there. Albi explained at the start of the trip that he thinks the media have the wrong angle. In his opinion the snowpack in the Rockies is typical this year. The problem is that in recent years there have been untypically stable snowpacks and people are used to taking more aggressive lines. With the right knowledge and an understanding that the conditions call for more conservative route selections he felt (quite passionately!) that the risk was minimal. Which was nice.

We certainly lived to tell the tell. They took us up towards the pass and found a nice safe slope with some beautiful deep powder snow for some turns. Only trouble was I couldn't ski it! I was on telemark skis as that's something I've been trying out this year but it was very different from on the groomed runs at Nakiska. I never wiped out too badly but I can't say I made the most of the turns I hard earned by all that climbing (700m vertical on skis!). Alf's theory was that to learn to telemark you need to fall 1000 times. I'm not sure I want to fall 1000 times as I think I've done that already learning to alpine ski. Teles have the advantage of being good on the flat and having pretty comfortable boots but I think for my next backcountry trip I'll go for an alpine touring setup.

The most fascinating aspect of the trip however was the delicious nugget of trivia that Alf rolled out at lunchtime. I was amazed to learn that many of the mountains and passes in Kananaskis Country are named after British ships and Admirals from the Battle of Jutland! Black Prince, Warspite, Indefatigable, Hood, Galatea, Chester, Opal, Sparrowhawk, Invincible - these names appear all over the place. There are Mounts Beatty and Jellicoe and even Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas has a day use car park named after him. France gets in on the act too with Mounts Foch, Petain and Joffre. Wasootch ridge however seems to be a local name. Anyway for a history nerd who likes the outdoors it doesn't get any better than this. Unless there's a range somewhere named Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt*.


*a stop on the Toronto subway does not count.