After the Splitfest we headed south to the hotsprings again, and then on to the-pass-that-must-not-be-named. Eva and Gary, our new Split friends told us about this beautiful place, but also requested that we don't blog the name. It is a secret stash that we were lucky to learn about. We arrived at said pass on Tuesday and didn't leave until Saturday.
The first night was so cold that when we tried to cook our dinner the regulator on our propane stove stopped working and we ended up eating par boiled rice with dinner.
On Wednesday we did 3.5 miles, which included... 3 laps on a thinly forested mountain side gaining only about 500 ft for each lap. The parking area had a little warming hut where we were able to start a fire in the woodstove to dry out our gear that evening and it was also a nice warm place to cook and eat dinner. While we were in there another couple (Ryan and Cass, from Montana) joined us with wine and beer and we got to know each other over a game of Settlers of Catan.
Thursday, we toured with our new friends, going to the other side of the road we headed up to the ridgeline and continued up to our first peak this winter. As we got closer to the top the wind started to howl and it got cold quick, but thankfully we all had the right gear and as soon as we dropped off the south side of the mountain we were back feeling the sunshine. The ride down was oh so fabulous! We then headed back up to the ridgeline where we had lunch at a little cabin that you can stay in, it had a woodstove in the main area, a loft, a mud room and a porch, very cozy indeed. Then back up the ridge, we hiked to the false summit where we dropped off the north side back to our cars... although we only did 4 miles that day, it took us 7 hours. A long day, a great day.
That evening we drove to the closest town and did some laundry, as there are only so many days one can wear polypro! Unfortunately, the laundromat and the gas station were the only places open, so the food we stocked up on was far from quality, but thankfully, they did have bananas! At the end on the night, we finally fell asleep, back up on the pass...
Friday morning we headed out again on the trail that we had taken on the first day. But this time we headed towards the peak... when we got to above tree line we decided to dig a pit. Although the failing layers were deep and hard to trigger we chose to stick to the safe side and drop from that point instead of going up to the top where there were huge cornices hanging over the aspect we wanted to drop into. We dropped into the bowl one at a time and then headed down into the trees. We could have continued down to the road, but decided to stay in the forest for a little longer and hiked back up to what we started calling our little knoll (cause we were the only ones laying tracks on it) for our last run. Only a 3 mile day, but gaining 900 feet left us tired and in dire need of rest.
The next day Eva and Gary had us over for lunch before we headed back to the states and it was great to see their home, which was decorated in photos they had taken while splitboarding. Very inspiring! Thank you Canada for having us! We truly had a wonderful time!
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