September 2007
09/13/2007
Better late than never… By Christoph Dietzfelbinger
Everything is late this year. The snow stayed all summer in the high alpine, the huckleberries bloomed in September, and the weather is now balmy as in summer while the leaves are turning. Conforming for once, this newsletter is also late.
Fortunately it’s not too late to book your skiing adventure for next winter. March 2008 has only one week left that’s open (9 to 16), but there is plenty of room in all the other wonderful skiing months from December to May. Last winter, conditions were still excellent at the end of May, with over 2 m (6 feet) at the lodge. The upper glaciers never became bare, so we can expect good travel on them early in the season (it’s never been a problem by February). You find up to date information on the booking status on the new Schedules page of our website.
New Trips
Among the new trips you will notice two Introduction to Ski Mountaineering course in January. While those of you who have skied at Burnie don’t need that, it might be just the thing for your friends who ski well on the hill, but haven’t yet cut that umbilical lift line cord. With the gear provided, this course will show a novice how great ski mountaineering is and leave them with an appreciation of what’s involved. A CAA sanctioned Avalanche Skills Training Course is thrown in for good measure, but the course teaches far more than that.
CAA Level 1 Professional Avalanche Course
After a resounding success last winter (it was so overbooked students had to sleep in the sauna), we are running the CAA Level I professional avalanche course again from 6 to 13 January 08. This is your ticket to start a life in the snow. Register at the Caa website Three spots are already gone!
Big Changes at the Lodge
Quite a few things happened in the Howsons this year! The lodge now has satellite internet access. So even if I recommend you ditch your laptop for a week, you can bring it and phone the folks at home if you have skype or make them salivate with the day’s powder shots. The service is wireless throughout the lodge and free. I only put it in after much soul-searching, but it’s required to take part in the Infoex, Canada’s justly famous avalanche information exchange system. We subscribe to that now, adding another layer to our avalanche risk management.
We rebuilt the sauna chimney and made it stronger and higher. This has taken care of the annoying smoke in the sauna when the wind came down the glacier, as it often does.
We’re in the process of installing a small freezer which means that Monika will be able to serve up fish and chicken later in the week as well.
The summer has been busy enough. A great week in late August saw us up a few summits as well as crimping on the crag routes on the Anderwasser Trail and punishing the ice on the Burnie Glacier. The woodshed is full, and two of the four bridges that broke under last winter’s heavy snows have been rebuilt. I hope we’ll be able to rebuild the Loft Creek bridge before the snow flies, but that won’t affect the winter’s skiing.
Morice LRMP Complete
In the big world of politics, the Morice LRMP has now been signed by the British Columbia government and accepted by the Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en. That means that the Howsons will soon be a Class A Provincial Park, making your wilderness haven safe from logging, mining and snowmobiling forever. Having put two years of volunteer time into that plan, this outcome is a great relief for me.
The Big Picture
Outside the Howsons, we try to do our bit. We’re proud members of 1% for the Planet, an association of businesses inspired by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard that donate 1% of sales to worthy causes. One Sky, a Canadian development and social justice NGO, and Rainforest Ethics, who worked hard on establishing the Great Bear Rainforest, each received $500. Our activities generated 30 metric tonnes of C02 last season and a cheque for $87 will go to carbonfund.org to buy carbon offsets.
So, we are ready and our bills are paid. Let us know when you want to come. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends again and to meeting new ones.
Christoph Dietzfelbinger
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