Mt garibaldi

This is the view i wake up to everyday when i'm home. from left to right, Mt dalton 2653m, garibaldi 2678m (just barely seen hiding in the middle)and mt atwell at 2655m high. To say i've been antsy to get up those mtns and ride them is an understatement. I'd just never been on a mission to go up there. Finally, a week ago (the day after the plane ride) i got to head up there with my girlfriend kimmie. A late night decision to go up and an early morning saw us on our way. Our plan was to climb garibaldi, which is the highest peak in the region, then hopefully get on dalton while we were close. Atwell is a mission of it's own, and currently a little too far out of kimmie's league.

Another glorious day greeted us as we made the mission to get to splitboard land. Once on our boards, it was pretty easy going as the lower elevation snow was still frozen solid. With the fast conditions, i was able to take some side route exploring looking at future lines. While doing so, i also thought i'd be able to cut some corners and ended up above a pretty big crevasse zone, which forced me to backtrack back down to a mellower section of the glacier.

The general approach up there is pretty easy and straight forward. When we finally got a view of the main glacier and peak I wasn't really surprised to see old tracks up there as it had been mostly sunny for over a week and a few super nice weekends prior.

Getting closer to the final headwall, i knew the ice axes where going to be coming into play. As it was kimmie's first climb using one, i gave her a quick how to and a lesson in self arresting a fall with it.
I skinned up as high as i could and checked out the climb then set a new boot pack up as kimmie watched from down below. I was fairly surprised at the quality of the snow. Not frozen! Firm, but was still winter snow that would not be too bad.

I reached the summit fairly quickly and it was awesome. To see this mtn everyday when i'm home and to finally be on top looking down was epic. As i waited for kimmie to make the climb i scoped out the summit ridge and the possibility of getting over to dalton which is super close. However, upon scoping the whole ridge for a way down towards dalton, the only one i found was 65 degrees for a few hundred feet and dead ice. The climb up for me would have been easy, the ride down... no way. I needed a longer rope than what i had to be able to rappel down it. So summitting dalton ended right there. Another day.

Kimmie was doing great with the ice axe and was all smiles when she made it to the top. I was so stoked on bringing her up there and getting her up on a big peak. Especially since it may have been her last day snowboarding for the season.

We hung out on the summit for a while and enjoyed the views and ate some lunch while waiting for the snow to soften up a little.

Time to shred! I sent kimmie down the face we'd climbed up, then i traversed over and found some rocks to launch off. Then it was high speed turns the whole way down the glacier.

We were able to ride almost the whole way out, which is always awesome. As we made our way over brohm ridge to awesome views, we realized the day was still pretty early and it was full on spring in the valley, which i always forget when i'm in the mtns.

After making our way up almost 2700m from sea level, once home kimmie and i pulled the bikes out and went for a 2 hour pedal around some of our favorite trails to end off one of our funnest days of the season.


morning light


gear for the day. splitboard, full pack, poles, crampons, and ice axes


table mtn and black tusk


hmmmmm


garibaldi glacier


kimmie climbing up


mt atwell, squamish and howe sound


epic looking chutes


kimmie topping out.


me and kimmie


looking west and north off the summit


looking north



looking south


billy goating. this nub had a little bridge over to it and huge drops all around it.


the drop off from that nub


kimmie


spring time is high speed shredding


kimmie's that little dot! she rode the main line down from the summit (lookers left; summit is hidden) and i goated through the rocks to go launching, farther lookers right (just before the highest pinnacle on the ridge line).


a very happy kimmie on her way down

plane ride around squish

this past monday i was talking with Mike carney, who's a life long squamish local, former Olympic downhill skier, and now realtor. We got onto the subject of planes and he mentioned he was getting his hours done in a cessna, and was heading out that afternoon for a flight around squamish then asked if i'd like to come along. Hell yes!
It was amazing, to say the least. i got to scope some potential snowboard lines and get an unreal tour of my home from the air.
Thanks Mike!
jl


part of the tantalus range


rumbling glacier on the tantalus range


howe sound


the stawamus chief


black tusk


mt atwell. everyday i open the curtains in my room and this is the first mountain i see.


mt atwell again

mmm powder

a noboard day in april.

pipe follow stick

blackcomb has been demo-ing a 22 foot cutter for the past few weeks and i've been loving it. everyone has been loving it. so fun having a good pipe at home. it's been years. hopefully we'll have a 22 foot pipe for next season.

here's a little clip of me riding said pipe with a gopro camera on a follow stick. it was definitely harder than i thought to keep my camera hand steady while doing tricks but i got a mellow run with it.
jl

when i say mission...

it's been amazing around whistler lately! rode pow for over 2 weeks straight. it's been awesome, lots of time on the hill and in the backcountry exploring new terrain.

One of my missions, involved 2 days for me. I went up solo one day to check out a new zone and spent a few hours wandering up to treeline before heading down. The area looked awesome and the next day i grabbed a crew consisting of dave basterechea, kyle wolochatiuk and his girlfriend krista for a little mission to summit this zone.

To make a 12+ hour mission story short, we summited after 6-7 hours of climbing, we toured straight up heli tracks, dropped into the unknown and shredded it by headlamp, got some awesome powder turns in, found pillow lines, krista found a hole, and we all had a great time.

Some of my pics aren't loading up properly so i've got a few from kyle and dave.
more to come
jl


kyle in the trees


kyle and me way down there, watching dave head straight up heli tracks


me cruisin up the last pitch

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no more skis!


garibaldi in the background, i have a totally different view of this mtn from my bedroom


hi!


dave making his way over to the spine


dropping into my line


me shreddin


dave's view of me


kyle's view


kyle on the spine line


me riding down. kyle and dave rode the sunny spine in the back, and i rode the face just lookers left


we found some pillows in the trees


krista got eaten by a pillow hole in the dark


shredding by headlamp!


kyle taking a break near the end of a long day.

solo splitboarding

one of my favorite things to do on a snowboard is check out new spots, especially at home. There's a lot of zones around whistler that can only be accessed by foot, so some days i cruise out by myself and get up there to see what's to be had.
yesterday was one of those days. Sounded like a mellow hike up to this zone. It turned into a really good slog. about 5 miles worth of breaking trail in 80cm of snow, losing the trail a few times, making my way around a maze of an unfrozen creek and dodging terrain traps through steep tight trees. I ended up being on the move for 8 hours straight. little bit more than i thought it would be, but scoped some new stuff and rode the most perfect tree line ever. can't wait to get back up there.
jl




taking my board for a walk in the woods


big cedars


mushroom pillow or buried hut?


if you want in, start digging.



future objectives




creek maze


perfection! and a couple thousand feet of it.