All the way to heaven

The empty toboggan

This was it! After two years I was finally going to get back in to Shangri La and this time I got to show Col what all the fuss was about. Not only that but I was pretty sure the trip in was going to be a lot easier without having to drag quite such an enormous amount of food in our packs thanks to the cache trip of the previous weekend. Sadly we had equipment troubles within about a half hour of setting off from the car. Col's rental skis had developed a nasty problem with one of her bindings coming loose from the ski surface which was causing all sorts of control issues and raised the nasty spectre of the binding tearing out of the ski altogether. We tried to jury rig a solution on the trail but in the end Ken decided to scoot back to the car and bring in the extra pair of skis with us (he must have been a Scout in a previous life - Be Prepared!).


Now a little more apprehensive about the whole thing

We kept a good eye on Col's binding and ploughed on to Teapot Corner, the putative halfway point which I confidently told Col was just around the corner for about an hour before we got close. I have a feeling she was starting to think I was doing it on purpose but honestly it all looked so familiar from the previous weekend that I really did think that the lunch spot was just around the corner. I soon fell silent on how far it was left to go and just started pointing out how gorgeous the scenery was with the snow lightly falling down around us and speculating on just how good the skiing was going to be when we got in. It looked like it hadn't stopped snowing for about 2 weeks straight so I was feeling pretty good about our chances of some champagne quality powder.


Ken the ski machine - looking eerily like those creatures at the start of the Phantom Menace trailer

Ken caught up with us just as we rounded that final corner that turned out to be Teapot Corner (and I almost went straight past it!). He'd been a man on a mission to catch us up with an extra hour in his journey.


What happens to sweaty gloves when they're left to "dry" in -20C temperatures

After a quick break for some lunch we dragged the blessedly light empty toboggan up to the cache and then loaded it up with the goods and only had another 2 hours or so to go until we got there. Finally we rounded that last bend in the trail and walked down the hill to the cabin which had just had a new roof put on it during the summer. A good thing too as there was plenty of snow sitting on it when we got there.


We made it!


The new roof

All that effort doesn't come cheap and if you look really closely here you can see the steam pouring out of my helmet after I'd got inside and taken it off.


Steam helmet

We did some more in depth repairs on Col's binding once we could get at all of our various repair kits and spare parts and manager to fix it pretty well, the ski tech who'd mounted the bindings had used the longer screws to mount it, then realised they were too long and ground off the ends so they wouldn't poke through the bottom of the ski. Well, let's just say that wasn't the best solution as they were now both too short and not gripping the ski properly. Once we replaced them and made sure that the binding had no more movement in it we were pretty happy that it would hold up for the weekend and we had the spares just in case.

We had some absolutely amazing skiing there over the next two days with all the fresh snow


Some of the amazing scenery on the uptrack. It really is a hidden gem in the Park during the winter


The uptrack from a ski's point of view


Deep deep powder tracks - the whole reason for coming


Snow on a branch


A very contented group of skiers

Once more Shangri La lived up to and surpassed expectations and we're so lucky to have been able to spend the weekend there with the place all to ourselves in such amazing fresh powder snow. It was especially great to be able to share it with Col who had been putting up with my raving about it for the last two years. Now she has her own big powder stories from the cabin in heaven.

Halfway to Heaven

Just hanging out

The trip to Shangri La was coming up and this time we were going to be ready for it. Last year I'd torn the medial collateral ligament in my knee just before New Year's and so I missed out on the annual trip. This year was going to be different. I'd been training with the 5K running clinic since October and after my New Year's Day run had enrolled in a 10K clinic that ended in March. Let's just say that I was in a lot better shape than I was two years ago and was really looking forward to getting back in to the log hut for a bit of prime skiing. This year Col was coming in too so that was going to make it all the more enjoyable (or at least a little less smelly!).

Last year the guys had gone in halfway the weekend before and dropped a cache of non-perishable food along the trail so that they didn't have to drag so much weight all the way in to Shangri La. It worked out so well last time that we decided to do the same this year. Col was working at the hospital so she couldn't make it and the other guys (Andy and Mac) couldn't make it either so it was just Ken and I left to do the heavy lifting.


Trail in

We made it out to the Maligne Lake road and the parking spot in pretty good time and set out with half of the dry goods packed into my backpack and half in Ken's plus our usual stuff that we take along anyway (water, food, repair kits, puffy jackets, rain jackets, knives, tools, extras, shovel, beacon etc etc...). It wasn't nearly as bad a trip in through the forest as I remember from two years earlier but I suppose that could have been due to the fact that I've had a bit more skiing under my belt since then and this time round I'd been able to eat food for the previous three days (last time round I'd just recovered from a bad stomach bug before trekking in).


Croissants of snow

Snow iris

River of snow

There had been a lot of fresh snow in the previous days and on top of the very solid base the going was pretty good and the creek was well covered up. This meant that there were some really pretty sights on the way up where the creek had opened up a hole in the snow cover and exposed the layers that had been laid down, as shown in the croissants above.

Once we got about half an hour past Teapot Corner we crossed over the river and found the trees that the guys had used last time to set up the cache.


Getting things sorted out

Where did I leave that end?

Now a cache needs to be both waterproof (for the snow) and out of reach (of the animals) so we had to string it up on a rope system in the air between two trees. We ended up combining both of our bundles into one kayak bag and hooking it up with some heavy duty carabiners to the nylon cord that we'd brought along.


The final product

Of course this meant that we had to climb at least two trees in order to get the food up there and off the ground. Needless to say, this is easier said than done in thick pine trees whilst wearing ski boots and gloves.


Ken of the jungle


My turn

What doesn't come through in these photos is that this tree is frozen solid. I mean the air temperature is somewhere around -20C and holding on to the branches is like holding on to solid poles of ice. Which means of course that after about 5 minutes of holding yourself up in the tree by hanging on to branches your hands feel like they've just been dipped in liquid nitrogen. You can't use heavy duty mitts though because you need to be able to use your hands to grip and mitts just aren't good for that. The things we do for fun...


Not a bad cache for a half a days work

Once it was all set up we made our way back down the drainage where the river is and into the forest trail again. It didn't take us too long to get back either as there was so much fresh snow which slowed us down enough that we could scoot down the uptrack without skins on and not get too out of control. The trip down the drainage last time was done completely with skins on the skis and took as much effort as getting up it. This time was much more fun and much less effort. Hooray for fresh snow!

Back at the carpark I think we were pretty pleased with ourselves and looking forward to the next weekend when we'd be able to reap the fruits of our labour.


A job well done