Finally Canadian ski touring

I decided to buy new skis in Canada and got a good deal on a pair of Dynastars. That was back in October. Since then I was figuring out which binding to chose and as the patent of Dynafit on Tech bindings is due, many companies start to jump on the bandwagon and offer bindings of this kind. Few years ago, my choice would be very easy (due to a monopol) but now is heck difficult to decide which one to chose. I ended up with the ones from Plum (from the same valley as the Dynastar skis 🙂 ) called Yak and being designed especially for wide skis.

In December I got the bindings but who thought that it would be an extraoridary effort to get them mounted? Me not, so I was very surprised that after a dozen of shops that I asked I still didnt manage to screw them together. The brand is too unknown in North America…

Finally I ended up at MEC where they felt comfotable to mount the bindings based on a so called paper jig. Because it took them longer than promised, I got a pair of Skiy for the weekend and so I was ready to head out of Edmonton into the wilderness of the Rocky mountains. Together with a friend from Innsbruck we rent a car and left Friday night.

On the way ran out of fuel because 2 fuel stations on the way were closed (one because of the time of the day, the other because of winter). We decided to head South to Lake Louise instead of North towards Jasper as initially planned. Our tank showed 75km – exactly the same as the sign for Lake Louise.We decided to have a sleep on the way as the station would be closed anyway. It was very narrow in a economy class car, but ok.

In the morning we woke up and the car stood in 4ocm of fresh powder. No way to get from the parking lot with the rental car’s summer tires.

The limited fuel in mind, we tried carefully not to waste any drop of carbon hydrates as a truck from ABB came buy. A friendly Swiss guy didnt hesitate and pulled us out in 2 seconds. We drove on and finally made it to the station and fueled up completely.

Then Skiing, It was super windy and cold and due to a high avalanche hazard, we had no steep terrain. It was fun anyway and we met some other Canadians on the slope.

We actually wanted to visit a Friend in Field, B.C. but because we couldnt reach him, we stayed another nicht in car, parked in Field.

Before that, we had a delicous pizza in the local store. Highly recommended, especially the option with Pesto sauce instead of Tomato sauce.

 

The next day was less windy and more sunny and we had perfect conditions at a secret spot. The pictures say it all :).

Beautiful B.C:

Detaching the skins

Deep in the snow

perfect conditions 🙂

 

 

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For now I am desperately waiting for a new storm to stock up the powder. Then I will hit it again – this time with my very own skis. Can’t wait for it!