2024 has provided the Coast Mountains of British Columbia with an unusual snowpack or in better words, lack of snowpack. The end of January was filled with high levels of precipitation but not in the form of snow. The rivers in the Sea To Sky remained bank full for several days with snow melt from our already under average snowpack. At the end of the high rain, mixing air masses granted us twenty centimetres of snow above 1900 metres and strong winds. Word of the week: Variable. Boot top powder lined sheltered N/NE Facing slopes while a bulletproof ice crust coated the col’s and S Faces. Good ..read more

Marcus Baranow lives a quiet life in the hamlet of Lake Louise. His summers are spent maintaining campgrounds and his winters are simple: eat, sleep, ski. His nightlife consists of board games or working on one of his many solitary projects. Introverted by nature and isolated by geography, how is it that Marcus became the most followed skier in the Rockies? I invaded Marcus’ quiet life on his second day of recovery from a recent adventure, a 15-hour slog up and down an obscure Banff peak, to try and answer that question. People “follow” Marcus in the literal sense of the word more than the soc ..read more

“This can end anytime you want”, is what one of the last three runners whispers to the other after running over 200 miles at last weekends Big’s Backyard Ultra.  The race is held on the race director’s property, near a small town, Bell Buckle in rural Tennessee. It’s name derives from the fact that it is in his dog’s “Big” actual backyard. Things are simpler in the south so why not have a race that the race director walks to the end of his driveway and hosts a race there. The race director, Lazarus Lake, is well known now for the The Barkley Marathons held in nearby Frozen Head State Park ..read more

We are lucky to have tons of high-quality trails here in the Rockies. Although great views are in our backyard, a few more difficult and longer trails deserve the status of “Classics” by the quality of the scenery and the world-class trail running that they offer. Think Northover Ridge, Skyline, Berg Lake or the Rockwall for example. No wonder why so many backpackers have these on their bucket list!  As trail runners, we have the advantage that we can enjoy these astonishing landscapes without the burden of an overnight pack, as long as we can make it in less than a day.  Last week ..read more

Hear local Canmore doctor Dave McNamee share his adventures up Aconcagua in the Andes, near Mendoza, Argentina. At 6,960 metres or 22,837 feet, it's no small task to venture up the highest peak in the Southern Hemisphere. Enjoy the listen.   Follow the RunUphill Group on Strava.     ..read more

Brought to you by Canmore's premier small mountain skier Kieran Crimeen I've been wanting to climb this route since I got to Canada and started flipping through a friend’s copy of the Book of Lies. It’s an enticing maze directly up the face of Sir Douglas, one of the few 11’000ers in Kananaskis. Unfortunately at that point I was an ice climber and that would likely mean an overnighter and swinging tools and catching shards in the face which is really just silly. There had to be a better way. Thar she blows   Enter skiing. The big winter we had seemed like enough to cover any nasty ice s ..read more

Photo By Kieran Crimeen ..read more

By Kieran Crimeen Joel and Matt both got a couple of days off and the weather was looking sublime. It’s early spring and that means couloir season, a good time to work on the technique before we start to look at the face lines of the Rockies. We tossed around a few stupid ideas before settling on ‘having a look’ at the Funnel of Death on Bow Peak. Parking at Mosquito Creek Hostel, we made short work of West Nile and gained the moraines. Somehow along way I managed to find myself in front, looking up at the wall trying to decide which crack hid the funnel. I was assuming it wasn’t so obvious wh ..read more

Here is our new podcast! Ramblings from the Rockies: Episode 1  Some stories from the Black Canyon Ultra 100K race with Andy Reed and Liz Halleran. Discussions about what they use for food, pre race prep and thoughts and ramblings on trails running in the Canadian Rockies. A detailed recap from Liz at lizisrunningtherockies.wordpress.com/2018/03/04/black-cayon-ultras-100km/     ..read more

Written By Kieran Crimeen I’ve been ski touring for only a few seasons now so still consider myself a newcomer to the sport. Unfortunately during my second season I fell in with a bad crowd and was introduced to Joel, one of the dreaded skimo racers. He skins fast and bootpacks faster and was really a poor partner for someone as unfit as me.   Last season Joel and I got out a lot and long days in the mountains. Having no background in endurance sports or interest in training our early days were hard. But as my fitness increased so did my speed and my ability to get stuff done. I began to ..read more