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well, the demise of my trusty Subaru Legacy has really made my splitboarding life more difficult, since i can not currently tow my snow machine anywhere. Consequently im trying out the Okanagans limited 'drive to' access spots.

First on the list on the 28th , was a little spot behind falkland, which doesnt merit its own TR, since it was really just a gear check-out practice skin type thing. Getting checked out was my new to me, stock F1's (thanks Spencer), and a pair of verts. oh and a MEC down sweater. i also got some BD mohair kick skins to try out this year, but i have to lengthen the straps to fit around my fatty split-skis. ( hooray christmas bonus!!!)

the F1s feel great, much lighter than the old Spirit 3's at 1400gms, the bellows and extra rearward range of motion in walk mode is awesome - so comfy. unfortunately, the sole of this boot is a bit longer than my last, and my funky heel lifter placement turned out to not quite work , so no heel lift on this trip. No biggy i thought, i'll just roll as is and fix up the boot sole with the dremel at home. Off to skin up the 6km of logging road, gaining 2000 feet. 3/4 of the way up , i was regretting my choice of sock. The coarse grey lumberjack sock was making my heels feel pretty damn hot. off came the boot and "WHAH, whah", the damage was done - a quarter size blister on each heel . So i duct taped them up and kept on going until i was greeted with this :



theres a 1000ft peak on either side of that valley, i swear! the skin up had been clear, but the 'goods' were socked right in. But, wtf , i was there , so i figured ill plow in there and see what i can see. The gully immediately got narrow and choked with tree fall. so, out came the verts. i was a bit disappointed with their weight when i got them , but they got me up the right hand side of that valley , and really saved my ass actually. Very nice to have that option. i hoofed it up maybe 200 feet, and decided that there just wasnt enough snow to ride, and my heels really effing hurt. so i side scrambled to the right, until i found this spot, transitioned , and rode back to the top of the Forestry road.



it was a meagre 500 feet of dicey low snow turns on top of what looked like volcanic rock to me. i touched bottom once, but fortunately didnt core shot my board. From there it was time to nurse my heels back down to the car.

Two days later, on the 30th, i hit up Apex, west of penticton. It was a beautiful sunny day, and blisters be damned, i was going to get some turns in. So, i put my faith in duct tape, ladies nylons, and elpaca wool socks, and headed for the top of the ski hill.

Looking South to apex proper from the top of the chair -


a pic from the first ridge -


the wind blasted ridge made for fast and easy skinning, i got to the weather station in less than an hour.


looking back to the ski hill -


checking out my first line -


and looking back up it. Sorry about the low pic quality, im a phone cam loser. This north aspect was good turns on wind affected snow, very fast. unfortunately i had to do a downclimb of shame through the rocky fingers at the bottom. only 50 feet or so, but dammit, if i had had the verts with me, i could have gone up and over to a better spot instead.


i wanted to drop a line to the right of this chute , but once i got on top of it i lost my landmark, and just ended up going around for another lap down the north face, since i couldnt remember if there was a possibility of getting cliffed out. the weather station is behind the ridge to the lookers left of the chute.


my second run, the wind had really picked up on the ridge top. So bad that i could hardly turn my face downhill to check my drop in spot. But once into the run, things were all good. i went a bit further down the ridge and didnt get stuck in the rocks this time - a good run.

at this point i was tired of being in the shade, so i headed north across the bottom of the bowl towards the ski hill. on this side (south aspect) , for my third lap, i had a nice low angle, silky pow run in the sun, before skinning back up and entering back into the ski area. you can see the slope in question in pic 6 , looking back toward the ski hill.

a parting shot, looking south. my second run was right behind that dark tree in the foreground.


after navigating back through the ski hill to the car, i was starting to be in some agony. it was funny, i only had mild discomfort during my three laps, but once i pulled the boots off, i realised that i had definitely done some more damage to my heels . So now i have to wait for a full heal of the heels before i go out again. I think im going to order some eliminator tongues from MEC and see if that stops the movement.

sorry for the wordiness, im writing this to kill time while i'm sick... currently rocking a fever of 102.5

Wordiness is good
I'm moving to Vernon next month so it's nice to see your report, keep em coming!

Great TR, thanks for sharing! Nice to see some spots in the Okanogan.

i hope it isnt for the splitting alone , cuz you will be disappointed. Hopefully i will be putting a few trs up from here and there around the area. I certainly have a bunch of spots in mind for the season - but most cant be driven to, unfortunately.

which makes me ask , you got a truck?

Going to school a okanagan college. Driving an AWD wagon, shouldn't have trouble pulling a sled trailer

When I lived in summerland I would go to apes all the time. I would tour up from the gun barrel. LOTS of good lines in the area. If you want somthing that can tow, Look into getting a Jeep Grand Cherokee (ZJ). great in the snow, the 4.0l motor and the AW4 trans are solid as a rock, also, they arnt to bad on fuel. The best part is you can get them for cheap! they can tow up to 5000lbs I've dont up to 4800lbs) so they can tow a sled like nothing.

hi ray

do you mean from the original gunbarrel building? next time im there id like to see if i can ski out the drainage below apex mtn. , back to the bottom of the ski hill. you ever do that?

cherokees are sweet, but i've got another subaru sitting in the driveway right now - just needs a bunch of sheet metal work that i didnt get done before the snow fell .

Yeah, the orignal building, depending on snow conditons and how I felt I would go up one of 3 ways. 1) stright up though the trees and joins onto grand fathers trai up to the restsort summit then over to apex 2) up grandfathers trail, 3) along the snowmobile trail to the scout hut then over to apex. and would exit up over the resort so I can get a coffee or hot choclate on the way back, also, it was easy that way cuz my car was at the gun barrel.

Do you guys live up in Aspen? I lived there for many years but had to move to Denver unfortunately. I split board around the front range and the Butte a good amount. I have a sled as well, would love to come up to aspen and hook up with some people that know the spots and do some riding.

sorry dude , we're talking about the southern interior of B.C. ( canaduh) .