Plus ca change #2

I wasn’t sure what to write his week’s blog about – a lot has happened but not much has actually changed.

I wrote this before our trip out to the Boulder hut – the highlight of our 6 weeks in Fernie.

It’s been a difficult week with a couple of falls resulting in a complete loss of confidence at the top of two very steep off-piste pitches; not great when we’re skiing at this level! These falls tweaked the left knee with the badly torn or ruptured ACL again and pulled the upper calf in my good right leg!

Let’s put this into some perspective – the aim of the last 4 weeks has been to improve and change us, already very experienced skiers, into real “Masters of the mountain”. It all leads to a 4 day stay at the remote, helicopter accessed Boulder Hut in the Purcell Mountains, approx. 150km NW of Fernie.

We will be ski touring every day. That is to say, no ski lifts, no Cats (Piste Bashers) or helicopters to gain the vertical needed to ski downhill – we have to earn our turns, every last one of them! This means strapping synthetic animal skins onto the bases of our skis and walking up the mountains. I estimate a ratio of about 100:3 or 100:4 - that is to say only 3 or 4 turns for every 100m of altitude. Gained. If we are lucky and the snow is soft powder we may win a few more.

What does that actually mean?
Snowden, the tallest mountain in England and Wales is about 3,300ft high – say about 1100m? (I haven’t actually checked). So we climb Snowden by one of the steeper paths to get maybe only 40-50 turns on the way down! No nice groomed resort pistes – all totally natural snow, as it’s fallen and been affected by the gradient, the weight of the snow itself, the wind, the changing temperatures, the humidity, the sun.

It’s hard graft. The snow better be worth it!

However, the snow should be good, despite no real new snow for over a week – where we are going only about 20 skiers have laid down tracks in the last few weeks!

So, why the hell do we do it? A good question!

Being out there in the wilds, in the mountains, in nature.
Resilience.
Self-sufficiency.
The challenge - how high and how far can we go?
Being part of a team- no avalanche control out there – we will have to rescue each other if we trigger an avalanche.

I guess that’s just some of the drivers for most of our group.

Post script.

Once again, I’m sat on the same Canadian hotel bed writing this after our return from Boulder Hut. 

The only difference is I am no longer icing my knee – it’s not got any better and unlikely to until I get home and start some form of medical intervention. If anything, as the swelling and effusion into the joint has reduced it’s actually got more painful and walking is now a very painful chore, something I avoid if I possibly can.

Looking back, The Boulder Hut trip was a very bitter sweet experience for me personally.

The hut and it’s surroundings in a hidden alpine valley in the Purcell Mountains were beautiful. Rugged terrain – rugged, basic hut and amenities (although not as basic as many Scottish Bothies). No wifi, no cell coverage, no hot running water, outside privvies open to the elements (and the spectacular views!) – our 4 days there were really broken down to managing the basics.

Weather, what clothes to wear, avalanche risk and snow conditions, food (fuel), keeping the various wood burning stoves going for warmth when the outside temperatures were approaching minus 20degrees C, keeping equipment such as skis and climbing skins operational.

It wasn’t all bad though - we had some really nice luxuries – a professional chef produced fabulous meals, we had music, we had alcohol and we had each other’s company. Talking about and sharing the day’s adventures over dinner with a few glasses of wine was a major highlight.

The 20 minute helicopter flights in and out were also amazing!

There were also low points for me as well. My knee was extremely painful the whole time – waking me up every hour at night, restricting my mobility and really impacting on the whole back country skiing side of this trip. On average, the team climbed approx. 1100m of vertical each day – I could only manage the first big climb of the day (500m or so) and struggled on the downs. Not being able to do more meant that I also missed the best snow usually found later each day. Not ideal!

On balance, I’m very glad that I went out there and experienced it. I will certainly consider doing something similar again once the knee is repaired. A Haute Route (Chamonix to Zermatt in Europe) next year perhaps?

I’m now back in Fernie. We had our last formal ski lesson on Tuesday morning – a very painful experience for me  and I have decided that my time on skis is now finished this season.

The rest of the team are out skiing – several have gone Cat Skiing for the second time and others are on a week long road trip exploring some of the other ski mountains in this part of British Columbia.
Sadly, that’s not happening for me and my trip is ending on a whimper rather than a big bang.

I now look forward (?) to flying back to the reality of February in the UK. The injury has forced me to cancel an important Advanced Sea Kayak Leadership assessment and 2-3 weeks of work in March which I can no longer physically do. 

I’m going to have to negotiate my way through the NHS system to get the knee fixed – I know that the care I receive from all the individuals in the NHS will be first class but the system itself and it’s likely waiting times will drive me to distraction.

I’m going to have to re-evaluate my life plan for the next 6 months – I will have to find some non-manual work that I can do as I can’t keep going with no income. I know a lot of people would see that as a challenge – I’m currently finding it a major PITA and worrying. I’m sure that will change in time though – I hope so.

That’s me done for now. No interesting quotes or song lyrics this week. It’s been hard playing the tough guy these last few weeks – always smiling and putting a brave face through the pain and frustration while all the time screaming inside. It’s wearing, exhausting and I’ve just about had enough. I’m tired!

I hope that I can find something more inspirational to write about after I get home this weekend and I can see my future more clearly.

Till then, sleep tight and don’t let the bed ………………………………………………...……