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.