Watermelon Peak 2020

Thu/Fri July 30th/31st, 2020 Watermelon Peak, 3094 metres

Synopsis: 4 out of 5 stars. The climb itself was interesting enough to be enjoyable, capped with a few airy moves on the traverse to the summit block. Alice Lake makes for a beautiful biv site and you are unlikely to run into too many people once out of the Dolomite drainage. Early season made for easy work on the snow vs rubble.

An odd year and with the heat and lots of snow up high, this was plan B but it worked out to be a great couple of days.

We chose to approach Alice Lake from Helen Creek and left the car 9:30 am, a great alternative to the nearby Helen Lake trail - more direct for our purposes and definitely no crowds. We didn't see anyone until Katherine Lake.

We stopped at one of the lake just past Katherine lake for a snack and a quick swim. One other party of day trippers were enjoying the lake and we watched two park warden's (I assume) on horseback trailing a pack horse each. My guess is that they were on their way to Lake Isabella, a pretty iconic thing to see in the back country.

After dropping down into the Dolomite drainage we crossed the creek 3 times, which was 2 times more than necessary and did take a little extra time switching to flip flops and back to boots. After heading north on the main trail we broke to the east to climb the humps up and over to Lake Alice.

In the end it was 6 hours to Alice Lake at a very easy pace and given the weather we chose to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and climb in the morning. It was warm enough to hang around in shirt sleeves and go for a swim or two.  There was just enough wind to keep the bugs at bay for most of the evening.

Next morning up and on the road at 9:30, a leisurely start. You can't really see the route from camp but once through the boulder field it becomes pretty evident. We took the ridge on the climbers left of the small glacier and avoided it altogether. Afterwards enjoyed snow slopes all the way to shortly before the false summit.

False summit to real involved a bit of an airy ridge walk (1 pepper by SM's measurement) and straightforward ascent using snow patches where possible, up in 2 1/2 hours. Enjoyed 1/2 hour on summit in shirt sleeves. Not a lot of activity in the summit register, we were first party of 2020 and only 3 parties in 2019. Great views in all directions, lucky enough to have a blue bird.

2 hours down largely following our footsteps. 

Sara Mae and I hung out in camp for an hour having some itchy ban and a swim. Decided on an alternative out and gained a large bench to the east of Cirque Peak and followed it North, made the col overlooking the highway at 2700 metres in 3 hours, another 2 1/2 hours down finding our way down cliff bands and eventually finding an old trail in the bush. Hit the highway and walked down to Bow Lake to hitch a ride back, not tough even in these COVID times.

Good times!

Ski Touring in Georgia, the land of 1000 kick turns 2020

Skiing the Georgian Caucasus, March 1st to 9th 2020

We were an diverse group that piled into a minivan in Tiblisi, Georgia headed for the hills. 3 Americans, an Americanized Canadian living in Europe, a German living in the US and 2 Canadians with all pretty much living up to our respective national stereotypes.

The 7 hour drive to Ghebi proved very entertaining, with Achi providing an entertaining drive combining somewhat aggressive driving with a very eclectic music selection - who knew Boney M still had a following in Georgia? The road went from 4 lane freeway, to 2 lane highway, to dirt road to... stuck in the snow with a flat tire and humping our gear the last 150 metres by hand through snow mud and cow shit. We then got to help push the van and replace the tire with a spare helped with a couple of the towns older ladies who seemed to have a lot to say. Kinda glad I didn't understand Georgian.

I think we were all a little underwhelmed by the digs in Ghebi, although that was tempered by a warm welcome from the lady of the house - Gorcha and the other participants in old MacDonald's farm. Definitely a lively place and to be fair it had a flush toilet and hot wood feed showers! 

We grabbed bunks and sorted gear, Pacha the assistant guide gave us a bit of a rough briefing of the next days adventure (think not a lot of english) as we pigged out on some great food, red wine and chacha (locally brewed vodka). We all jumped in bed curious what the morning would bring.

Day one, we hiked a half a kilometer through town before jumping in our skis and skinning up. It was a bit mind boggling skinning through town, past some grizzled old men with a few greetings of gamarjoba passed around. It was definitely warm and we climbed up through forest up onto a lateral moraine. We ended up climbing 1400 metres up Muchamesh valley and the snow up high was actually very good. 

Once we skied down lower the snow definitely showed the impact of warmer temperatures but never got nasty. The highlight for me was standing by as an old man got his 3 cows back into the yard and watching Stephen ski through some cow shit on the way back to the digs.

Supper was great, I noticed that the portions of meat were decreasing but hey there was lot's to eat and it was good. At breakfast the flat bread was something to usually look forward to, sometimes straight up, sometimes with potatoes inside (yeah!) and sometimes with beets inside (less yeah, especially later in the trip). 

Day 2 it was time to get up higher given the heat. We were headed up to a high camp in Khvargula valley. There was a tent there (along with a party of 3 American young bucks at the end of their stay and the guide Sergi), we humped up overnight packs with some bringing tents and we shared the food load. You know your not in Kansas when Pacha, the assistant guide, bragged in halting English about having a smaller pack so he didn't have to take as much and kept asking what time it was as he didn't have a watch. To be fair Pacha did have a great laugh which lit up whichever camp we were at and was no slouch at trail breaking.

We headed out of town mid morning for a real pleasant ski up even with the heavier packs, the first 2 1/2 hours were along a road that hadn't seen traffic all winter (including the piston bully advertised as helping us up) past small farm plots with what looked like small shelters in each one and a 10'x12' church. 

The last hour was through light high elevation willows, I really wished I had brought a saw as they were thick at times and you knew there would be lot's of whips on the way out. It ended up being a gain of 800 metres and roughly 10 km in with the camp right next to a creek at roughly 2200 metres, a couple of hundred metres below tree line.

Sara Mae and I slept in the large tent with the three young Americans, Sergi and Pacha. It was a bit of a rough camp but right beside a creek for water and well situated. There was a wood burning stove inside which was great for drying out gear however I learned to curse it that night as it was bloody hot, too hot to get much sleep. The next day's meal plan set the bar pretty low; porridge for breakfast, cookies for lunch, buckwheat for supper. I heard some rumblings of folks waking up at 3 am with hunger pains however I fortunately have some fat to live off of. 

Day three started out with Pacha (Sergi was skiing with the three American lads up to a high glacier) climbing up to a ridge to our North East. It was great to get up high and see the range, culminating with 4700 metre peaks on the Russian border. Blue sky (as it would be most of the week), a couple of pits were dug and my sense is the avy conditions in the alpine were moderate on the north facing slopes and considerable on the south facing slopes largely due to multiple sun crusts. For those reasons and just plain old ski quality we spent the entire week focused primarily on the north facing slopes.

Three runs were had, pretty sweet boot top snow. It was getting warm so we were down to camp mid afternoon where Sara Mae worked on filling out the snow bench and a number of alternative toilets were dug out of the snow.

The afternoon dragged a bit and communication from Sergi was definitely on the laconic side. Never the less the lowering the heat in the large tent made for a great nights sleep and anticipation of more exploration.

Day four was hands down my favourite ski day of the trip. It started with a "discussion" with Sergi regarding food in pretty simple English. He got pretty defensive however I realized later that was likely a cultural reaction as much as anything. He took it in without verbalizing much however did take it to heart. Not to much to be done that day but he did go to substantial efforts to improve the food when not in town within what could really be expected given what was available.

Having said that it didn't take long to shuck the negativity. Today we were skiing the spines that Pacha had pointed out the day before. We started out skiing along the base of the feature to scope out lines. Very, very cool. We climbed up climbers right and it was pick your adventure along the ridge. Sara Mae and I started off on what looked like less committing lines early along the ridge, although you still jumped in not able to see the line to the bottom.

Run two I had to check out some of the lines higher up with Josh and it didn't disappoint! A bit crusty on the left hand side of the spines (south facing obviously) but sweet on top and the right.

I was definitely making diamonds before launching in however sluff management wasn't really an issue and as long as you stayed on top of the spire the turns were pretty darn good! We all went up for a third lap, well worthwhile.

Claude definitely takes the run of the day, popping out of the heel piece of a ski one turn in on the first run and making it work! On the way back to camp both he and Josh cleared the creek on a kicker built the day before to keep us entertained.

Given we had limited time and with the heat limited options, Sergi suggested that we ski back down to town late afternoon and head up to another camp for two days to end the week. Definitely made for a longer day but was the right thing to do. So we broke camp and headed down to town, arriving just before dark. Good to be back to Gorcha's amazing food and drink.

After a hot shower, a great supper and good nights sleep we were well ready for the next days climb up to camp two in the Geske region. Given it was going to be a 4 hour day we didn't get going until mid morning and it started off with an hour drive through Glola, a neighbouring town that was known in the Russian days for mineral springs. It was kind of eery driving through a fair amount of development that was all shuttered.

Finally at about 11 am we started the hump up, and it was a hump. The trip was known for steep up tracks however today it was out of necessity. We essentially followed a hiking trail and traction was an issue at times. Part way up I pulled out the ski crampons to give me a fighting chance and there were a couple of spots where boot packing became inevitable. Having said all of that, 3 hours in and we cleared out of the trees and got a view of the valley. Definitely memorable!

After 4 km and roughly 800 metres of elevation gain, "camp" was a flattish spot on western side of the valley. One of the highlights was watching Pacha climb a tree in his ski boots to collect the prospectors tent that was home for most. Being on the west side, it did get dark pretty early and we had to melt snow for water.

Having said that Sara Mae and I attempted to learn from the previous camp and were armed with biv sacks. It actually worked out really well, we made a nice level platform covered with small branches for comfort. To be honest it was about double the work I would have put into it on my own but Sara Mae was on fire and I benefited from a very comfortable bivy. SM's first use of a biv sack or so she says!

Supper was definitely an improvement on the previous camp, Sergi did make an effort to bring in more supplies and we went to bed with full stomachs. The next day was the only cloudy day we had all week and it did feel a little more chilly than previous days although the daytime high was just below freezing.

Getting away at a decent time, we headed up the valley looking at the north facing slope at the head of the valley and with a vague description of more terrain to the climbers left. When we got to the juncture we elected on the slope at the head of the valley. As always it wasn't as steep as it looks in the photo, however the snow was variable enough for Stephen to head out a dig a pit. Low hazard, high consequence was the muttering so we carried on.

The col was windy and cool with, as you can see, not a ton of snow but well worth the effort... for the views and the group shot!

There was definitely some good turns on the way down and we then headed right up the offshoot of a valley to check it out. There was a great looking couloir at the head of it and half the group head up it. Three of us were getting a little weary (yes I was one of them) and hung out on a moraine for a bit and watched the show. Keith looks happy with the decision...

Sara Mae, Keith and I didn't wait for the others to get down and headed back to camp at 4 pm. There was great snow down a gully feature and we got back just before the rest of the gang.

Our last day of skiing woke up to blue sky and single digit negative temperatures. The plan was to catch a couple of the couloirs closer to camp and head out mid afternoon. The snow was definitely crunchy and the odds of pow weren't high, that combined with some lassitude caused a rift between the sex's with the guys getting up and after it and the lady's (yes, including Keith) hanging out in their sleeping bags.

They didn't miss much, there were two couloirs to choose from and we started by checking out the on the right which was a light dusting on crust, as it steepened we backed off and checked out the one on the left which was worse.

In the end we went back to our high point on the first one and ripped it down and had a slight climb back to camp which we made back to late morning. We then slowly tore down camp, had something to eat and waited for Claude. Not a bad way to spend a day in the mountains!

We were all pretty convinced that the track back to the road would be a doozy and it didn't disappoint, I think most of us skied with skins on with plenty of side stepping around obstacles. Sergi's truck and a hired driver waited for us at the bottom and we were back in Ghebi in time for showers and a great last meal.

Needless to say, there was plenty of gear drying out when we got back and it was good to scratch Gorcha's dog Beechuma behind the ears. He was our protector and spent much of the night barking at I'm not sure at what.

Big surprise, the last night lead to a bit of a piss up. Beer, red wine, sparkling wine, chacha (of various flavours) a home made sherry like substance and back to beer. Great fun and Sergi opened up quite a bit, I'm not sure if he was drunk or just happy to see the needy Westerners on their way. It became apparent the passion Sergi has for the mountains of the area and opening up the terrain. The evening ended with him sharing drone footage of some massive couloirs starting at 4200 metres. What made it very impressive is that he was flying the drone while shredding!

The next morning at a not very early time, we all piled into Achi's van, this time complete with one brand new tire!

The hung over drive back to Tiblisi did seem to take forever but in reality was the same 7 hour drive as before and this time the roads got better and better on the way back. The highlight was stopping at a roadside group of eateries and finding donairs. Awesome, they were just what we needed!

Great trip, great adventure! I felt very fortunate to share the experience with a fine bunch of folks that kept it together through some of the challenging times and new how to have a great time on the snow! Thank you Keith, Stephen, Claude, Bianca, Josh and Sara Mae for a fantastic trip and to Gorcha for the hospitality and Sergi and Pacha for showing us around.

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