An eventful introduction to backcountry skiing
Last year, in 2019, I moved to Vancouver, BC, to study at university. I knew that I would get to experience ways of adventuring that were new to me. One of them that I kept seeing photos and videos of was backcountry skiing. There isn’t really a backcountry in the Italian Alps, since the population density is much higher than in BC and most places aren’t too far from an accessible road.
Before my first time backcountry skiing in BC, in 2018, I went with my mountain guide “backcountry skiing” in the Dolomites. I have been used to using lifts to go uphill and skiing downhill since I was three years old, but this time the uphill was also on skis. This is possible by attaching skins under your skis that stop you from sliding backwards as you walk uphill. On the trail, I was finally away from the crowded resorts and I felt submersed in the peaceful craft of blazing your own snowy trail. Regardless of the elevation gain, I enjoyed the way up.
When we reached the top, the sky turned dark and it started snowing heavily on us. As I made my first turns I realized that these skis behaved with a mind of their own. They weighed probably close to half of what my skis usually weigh and were a lot shorter. The unusual skis and the snowflakes landing on my goggles made skiing down not as enjoyable. After this first experience, two years passed until I went again, and this time the BC way.
At the University of British Columbia, where I’m studying, there is a club called the Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC). It’s an amazing community of outdoor minded people who organize weekend trips. There are a lot of experienced people in this club and only some trips are beginner-friendly. In January 2020 I decided to sign up for the Introduction to Backcountry Skiing trip. After waiting for a couple of weekends for the avalanche conditions to improve, we set off to Manning Provincial Park where the terrain was not too challenging.
This was not a day trip like the first one in the Dolomites, we planned to camp overnight. I had done many overnight trips before in the Dolomites, but I always spent the night in a mountain hut. Most of the Dolomites are a national park, so camping is usually not permitted. The tradition is to go from hut to hut. So, this would be my first time sleeping in a tent. It’s sad, but camping in Europe and in my family was never really a thing. I borrowed a tent from a friend who got it from her attic. She said it was probably twenty years old and when we opened it, it smelled like an old forgotten backpack. It didn’t pack small and I wouldn’t call it lightweight, but it was a tent after all. I was planning to share the load with a friend.
The other piece of equipment that was new to me were the skis. The club provides gear rentals included in the membership. Most of the “touring” skis they had were old-school telemark skis that were donated by MEC quite a while ago. The main difference from normal touring skis is the binding. In both the uphill and downhill mode the heel piece is not attached to the ski. So for skiing downhill your heel goes up as you turn and you have to bend your knee to stay in balance. I was doubtful of how I would handle skiing downhill with them, but the person renting them reassured me that I would pick it up quickly, because I already knew how to ski. It turns out I wouldn’t have to worry about this in the end.
The next Saturday, very early in the morning, we drove off. Luckily, when we re-grouped at a Tim Hortons near a town called Hope, we discussed tent spots and realized that there were spaces left in other tents for us to leave the bulky tent in the car. That was a big relief, because my backpack was at its limits. Also, at the Tim Hortons, we decided to leave our car behind because it had mud tires and not snow tires. The three of us were distributed in other cars. The road conditions from there on did worsen, so it was a good call to change cars.
At the parking lot, we slowly got ready, while a car who missed the exit to the trailhead had to turn around and find us. There were around thirty of us on the trip. A lot of those thirty, including me, were pretty much beginners. So, you can imagine that some time passed until all of us were on our skis with skins attached, and our backpacks on our shoulders, all packed and ready for an overnight winter touring trip. The start of the trail was relatively flat and I felt good regardless of the heavy backpack. The climb soon started and my legs were starting to feel the weight. I did not have much expectations of what this area will be like, but I did hope to camp somewhere with a view to get some photos at sunset and the next morning.
On the way up I mostly stayed with the slower group. The forest was abundant with snow and the silence was dense. At once, we stopped as one of the leaders in my group said that this is where we would camp. We were still in the middle of the forest, under the treeline. One group was ahead so one person had to go and get them. This was not exactly the campsite I was expecting, but it’ll do.
The first step to setting up a tent in the winter is to use your skis to start flattening the snow. Also, you need to make sure you are not too close to a tree full of snow to avoid getting partially buried overnight if the wind picks up. Then you can transition to using a shovel or your boots to have a flat “solid” base. After the tents were all set up it was already time to make dinner, because of all the faff at the parking lot. Some of the leaders dug out a circular trench for us to sit in while we ate and in the middle remained the circular table. Some of us laid out garbage bags to sit on to keep our bums dry. It got dark and cold really fast.
I decided to ask one of the leaders if the next morning we could go up higher to be above the treeline for sunrise. When I get an idea of what I want to do, I’m pretty stubborn about it. He was down for some sunrise laps, and asked around and the interest was high. This was the first time that I asked to do something for sunrise and almost everyone is up for it. This is why I love going on trips with this club. After some stories were told, some warm cinnamon hot chocolate shared, at 7 p.m. we were ready for bed. This is usual for winter camping. The sun sets at around 4 p.m. and then it’s not long until you are tired of sticking around the campsite in the cold darkness of the forest.
Before heading to bed it’s important to move around and warm up. From what I heard you will inevitably get cold throughout the night, so it’s crucial to start warm. I think I took this too seriously because I got into my sleeping bag with most of my layers on, on the verge of sweating, which is a big no. I was also in a three-person tent so maybe that also contributed to the heat I was feeling. I took some layers off and after some time fighting against my temperature I fell asleep.
The next morning we slowly woke up in the dark with a thin layer of frozen dew covering our sleeping bags and tent. One, then, has to dig deep to find the motivation to get out of the comfortable sleeping bag. For me, it was the excitement to discover the views that laid beyond this forest. After a quick breakfast, we packed light and got ready to skin up on our skis. The night before I borrowed a beacon (part of the avalanche safety kit) from someone who was staying back because his blisters were too painful. I feel bad for not remembering his name, it’s just hard to get to know almost thirty names in a few days. I unexpectedly also realized that blisters are a major problem in backcountry skiing.
We began skinning up with one of the leaders doing a beacon check as we walked by with our headlamps on. As the journey uphill progressed, the early morning winter blues began to reveal in the clear sky and the soft snow. The tranquil atmosphere then got interrupted by a gear failure. I took regular strides, but soon noticed that the toe piece of my right binding became loose. I looked closer and noticed that a couple of the small screws holding it onto the ski were gone, lost somewhere in the snow behind me. I tried to keep going forwards, but the wiggling toe piece made it really unsteady, and I felt that it was putting more strain on the remaining screws. So, I waited for one of the leaders who had voile straps to temporarily try to stabilize the toe piece. It helped a bit, but now I had a rubber strap under my right ski rubbing against the snow, acting as a break. I started pushing more with my right leg and kept going.
The ambient light was getting brighter and the headlamps dimmer. People passed me and the top was still far and the sunrise was approaching. I was still in the trees. The slog upwards got steeper, but looking up I saw that it wasn’t too far. There were a couple of people who were going up at my pace, and it made the struggle less lonely. Eventually I reached the top, where the rest of the group had already dug some avalanche pits to check out the snow layers. The sun had already risen, but the golden pink light was still at its peak. It was beautiful. There was the right amount of space between the clouds for the light to pass through and paint the surrounding snowy mountains.
I was now forgetting the broken binding and that I wasn’t going to enjoy the ski downhill because of it. These moments are why I love photography so much, because if it wasn’t for the camera in my bag, I don’t think I would have asked to get up in the dark and skin up to catch the sunrise from a higher viewpoint. A camera makes you do things that otherwise I probably would have never have done.
Now most of the group was going to keep skinning up along the ridge before skiing back down. I talked to one of the leaders, and she offered to come back down to the campsite with me. She was also on telemark skis, but at least her bindings weren’t loose. Luckily the terrain to camp wasn’t too complex. I wasn’t really able to turn because my right ski fell behind because of the strap and it threw me off balance. So, when I had to turn I had to lift the right ski off the snow. Otherwise, I slowly went straight along the uphill tracks, and when I had to slow down I learned to go in the fresh snow where the strap acted as a break.
At camp, we had some late breakfast and waited for the rest of the group to come back from their skiing. When the camp filled up with skiers again, we packed up and began our ski down to the parking lot. This part is usually quite fun, but because of the broken binding I had to keep my skins on to cover the rubber strap. This made skiing down painfully slow. I was trying to lift up my right broken ski to decrease the pressure on the strap that was acting as a break. It worked for a bit but then my left leg would get tired carrying all the weight of my heavy backpack. At one point I must have put too much strain on the strap holding my binding, and it became loose. I stopped on the side, letting others pass by, I tried to tighten it but soon realized I had to take the skin under my ski off. A leader of the trip stopped and suggested I added another strap. So now with two voile straps under my ski I continued sliding down.
As basically everyone passed me, one of the trip organizers, Cassandra, stayed back with me. Closer to the parking lot there were some uphill sections, in which I overtook her, since I had skins on. Then as it turned into downhill again she overtook me. We switched back like this for a while and eventually we made it to the cars. It was a real struggle. With the heavy backpack and my left leg unevenly sore, my back was also in pain. I was the last one to reach the parking lot. Most of the others were all ready to go. I don’t like making people wait. Talking to some of the others, I found out that two others also had faulty telemark bindings, but not as serious as mine. By the end all of the screws came off and the toe piece was completely loose. After this trip, the VOC decided it was time to do a maintenance check up for all of their telemark skis.
In the car ride back, part of me was upset for the bad luck that took away most of the fun of my first overnight backcountry skiing trip, but the other was glad to have had this experience. At least now I will definitely enjoy my next backcountry skiing trip as my expectations have been set not too high.