TR: GAH Sunrise Lodge - Mar. 18-25, 2017

[meter-man]

A crew of 14 humans from the Lower 48 headed north to Golden to check out Golden Alpine Holidays’ Sunrise hut in the Esplanade Range. We got in a couple days at Kicking Horse on either end -- that place rules.

Sunrise is a heli-in touring operation. We packed our food and skipped the guides - damn cheap. And we lucked out on our cabin custodian -- Brad Harrison -- who was one of the four guys who started GAH in the 1980s. He knew every damn tree, and had the energy of a 19 year old on Monster (and roids?) despite being 60+. He no longer owns GAH, but it was his baby, and you could tell.

We packed the important stuff -- beer.


PC: Bernard Rocca

First day featured exceptionally sketchy avy conditions. Lots of snow, with warming peaking just after we skied. The whole N face of Panorama Dome slid while we skinning below it on Wisted Creek. As we skinned back up the creek, we heard the booming of massive avalanches --dozens of such booms -- echoing around the mountains. We learned the next morning that that 24 hour period saw the biggest large avalanche cycle in that part of BC for 30 years. 100+ Class 4 avalanches reported. Some webbysites covered it too: http://powdercanada.com/2017/03/aval...-march-update/ and http://snowbrains.com/avalanche-phot...inue-to-occur/ The Low Probability/High Consequence (LP/HC) remained for the week on any N faces and especially any aspect with overhanging hazard (cornice, rockfall, etc.). We played it slow and eventually opened up the area.

After we scared the bejeezus out of our selves, carbombs were in order:



The man, the myth, the legend - Brad H.

PC: Bernard Rocca

We woke up to this as our daily view....



...and kicked off the day with brekkie and daily sando-making "missions"...


PC: Bernard Rocca

...and then skied our faces off --- all day long! Here's B on Dessert


Feeling pretty good about the snow conditions. Ridge of Melting Face visible right behind my head, and Sunrise Lodge just below my right elbow. Edge of Panorama Dome visible at frame left.



Did I mention that the snow conditions were excellent!?



Top of Panorama Dome - the pano kept wrapping and wrapping out of frame.



Skintrack from the hut went right next to the Ridge of Melting Faces. Our faces melted in yearning to take out those lines, but with the LP/HC conditions, the perfect avy-prone slopes, and the creek with massive holes in the run-out of the Ridge, we opted to play it safe. Lots of regrets about that, but better to slay another line than your last.



More Melting Faces with Pano Dome just below.





Not sure where this was, but it looked like this all week:


PC: Bernard Rocca

Cairn and crew


PC: Bernard Rocca

Cairn Peak (just above the hut) - Brad and one of our crew kicked off the cornice and set off this nice Class 3.



Headed out to Paradise Ridge and to Cupola Mountain, highest mountain in the Esplanades.


PC: Bernard Rocca

Almost to Cupola




PC: Bernard Rocca


Summit:


PC: Bernard Rocca

Lots of teletubby skittle dorks on this trip. I doubt we'll ever see any vids emerge, but if we do, I'll post em up. Top of Pano Dome.



Pano Dome had awesome N-facing steep trees, with lots of pillows at the bottom of the runs. You can see the old, now ragged and filled-in, crown line from earlier in the week.
Messy:



Water came from Sunrise Lake, a 100m skin with these torture devices to carry the load.


PC: Bernard Rocca

We eventually made it over into Upper Mayvill Creek, skiing some nice alpine....


PC: Bernard Rocca
(Did you find the skier on first glance??)


....into mind-blowing pillow terrain down low that we dubbed "Yu's Universe".



More of the "YuUniverse". You can see of our tracks...



Coming back out of Upper Mayvill Creek



Messy tweaked his shoulder on a 5 stage pillow. The only injury of our trip. In the pillows directly above his head, you can see where we broke a pillow and started a little Class 2.



The Lodge was small, but super efficient. Comfortable for 14 + 1 custodian.


PC Bernard Rocca

Drunk jenga


Pano Dome w/ Sunrise Lodge from Avalanche Peak.



In sum -- We did a lot of this:


PC: Bernard Rocca

Some of this:


PC: Bernard Rocca




PC: Bernard Rocca

And it was rad!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. (Ask me in person about how the heli was too overloaded to take off, and the pilot had to very sketchily set us back down and kick one rider out...which was somehow made us light enough...or so he said.)


PC Bernard Rocca

Leaving us a VERY satisfied crew. We'll be back for more!

Many thanks to AKBruin for teaching me how to use a computer -- and post a TR to the forums -- they do not make it easy. And super big thanks to BGnar Rocca for his unreal photos! Hat tip to sillybunt2 for all his beta going in to the trip.

[AKbruin]

Bad fucking ass! Great photos and documentation. Soooo jealous, although the avy stuff scares the bejesus out of me.

[schwerty]

GAH has some nice terrain! Been to the vista hut a couple times. Plenty of fun! Awesome tr! Thx for sharing.

[grinch]

Damn that looks good. Looks like you played it right and saw some amazing terrain. Thanks for sharing it

[LightRanger]

Excellent TR kemosabe.

[nortonwhis]

nice work

[Boissal]

Sweet action, looks like you guys crushed it, and congrats on not dying!! Another hut to add to the list...

[meter-man]

Sweet action, looks like you guys crushed it, and congrats on not dying!!

Ha, thanks. Great Success!

[LeeLau]

Nice shots. Pillows are GAHs strength!

[TahoeJ]

Awesome. That place is on my to do list for sure.

[streetdogs]

Looks epic. I have to say though, for a bunch of people with families to forgo local guides in unfamiliar terrain and snowpack during high avy conditions to save a few bucks.....is that really worth it?

[Toddball]

Looks like an awesome trip! I was at another heli-access touring hut (Ymir Lodge, near Nelson) March 10-13; sounds like we had similar snowpack but no bluebird days for us.

Looks epic. I have to say though, for a bunch of people with families to forgo local guides in unfamiliar terrain and snowpack during high avy conditions to save a few bucks.....is that really worth it?

They probably decided on guides/no guides and catering/no catering sometime in the fall before their trip, well before they knew the snowpack was going to be dangerous. We had a similar experience on our trip. Fortunately our custodian was very helpful with terrain selection, and it sounds like Brad was pretty damn familiar with the terrain.

Do you normally tour with a guide? Do you normally make snowpack assessments when you're out touring, or do you mostly rely on the bulletin? I don't know the Sunrise terrain, but it looks like there are a number of low-angle zones to get after when the snowpack is unfriendly.

[raypruit]

nice work! i had a similar experience with the avy conditions 3 yrs ago at vista lodge. tons of drool-inducing terrain right out of the hut but tree-snapping slides popping off everywhere had us tip toeing around all week. hut trips are so fun... even without the shredding, there's something so therapeutic about hanging out in the mountains for a week with friends.

[meter-man]

hut trips are so fun... even without the shredding, there's something so therapeutic about hanging out in the mountains for a week with friends.

Definitely. This place even had an awesome wood fired sauna that was a mandatory post-ski stop. Repeated cycles of schvitzing aka sauna/pow-diving/sauna burnt through all the lactic acid and left us fresh all week long.

[tone capone]

This is awesome thanks for the photos and story! That face melting face is, face melting. Brings back memories of a trip I did to Meadow Lodge a couple years ago. Possibly the most epic week of my life. Thanks to Z for inviting me on that trip of a lifetime. It makes me a little sad that I lost all the pics. We had sketchy stability too but sessioning those pillow lines all week was unreal! I had never done anything like that and it just got better and better as the week went on and we got to know the terrain. Nothing like living right up in terrain like that for a week with a bunch of other like minded ski freaks!

[el hefe]

Nice. When did you guys go?.....edit read title....

[sillybunt2]

Looks like you guys played the terrain well and crushed it. What a stroke of luck to have Brad as custodian and a good crew to share it with. It doesn't get much better than that.

[::: :::]

Sweet trip!

[hoarhey]

awesome TR.
Great photos and good avy risk management.

I remember seeing a video of Erik Hjorleifson demonstrating the water retrieval technique

[TahoeJ]

awesome TR.
Great photos and good avy risk management.

I remember seeing a video of Erik Hjorleifson demonstrating the water retrieval technique

The Way I See It or Attack of La Nina. Both have great segments at GAH.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Awesome TR. Looks like a great trip.

[adrenalated]

Bump because I missed this and it's $$$$$