Sorcerer Lodge

Just finished my week with the Geriatric Telemark Society. This year to Sorcerer Lodge in British Columbia’s Selkirks. Friggin’ gnarly.

Saturday \ Day 1 began in a dorm room in Golden, BC. A couple of late shift partiers were coming in as we went up for our 0545 breakfast. Then to the helipad sans luggage, thanks to Northwest Airlines. Through the efforts of Sorcerer staff, our missing pieces arrived in time for the final chopper ride in! So we got in a couple of easy runs, 2,000’.

Day 2 we gear up for a big day. Our second guide joins us via his own heli-shuttle, Robson “Mr. Trump” Gmoser. A great day, sunny above the clouds and lots of vertical. Up and down the Perfect Glacier, over the pass, past the Little Matterhorn, back through White Russian Col and down a huge descent. 5,700’

Stinky got a bit gripped up the back side of the col. He dropped a ski right at the crux snow pillow. Hanging on to the ski and fighting to avoid a ride down a few hundred feet of wind-hammered crust, he was losing an inch at a time. He finally kicked his free boot into the slope to regain the upper hand. Watching all this from the number two spot got me overly cautious as I scooted past above him.

We broke in the sauna in the evening, the best! Then Timmy and I started our cribbage domination.

Day 3. Down Wizard Gully on the way to Swiss Col. A lot of climbing brought us to a nice snowfield in the cloudbank. Flat light skiing is becoming a theme of the trip. Another theme is that I’m struggling to stay smooth on the slopes where most of my compadres are looking great. I need more snow time, and this wasn’t the year to do it. I sign up for the B-team and quit with 3,500’.

Day 4. Neat day up the Escargot Glacier. The light is super flat for most of the day. You can’t tell the ground from the sky or the rock walls around us. People are getting launched from unseen snow mounds and planting themselves into invisible drifts. Not the day to go first. In spite of 3 meters of snow on the glacier, we rope up just in case a crevasse supports an inadequate snowbridge. I skip the days’ second traverse, through bulletproof sastrugi. 2,500’.

Wednesday \ Day 5. The snow is now an inch of breakable Styrofoam over a thick unconsolidated layer. That spells rest day for many of us. Boardie easily triumphs in the Acquire game and we eat and drink as if we did ski 5,000’. As if!

Day 6.
We’re getting some freshies, and just in time. We start with my best run yet through some thick powder. A couple of more runs and the uptracks are going well, so I stick with the A team. We decide it’s time to amble across a number of avalanche chutes (albeit one at a time) in order to gain a new knob. Then, I give up some hard-fought elevation by side slipping through the steep and thick woods before coming out onto a sun-crusted avalanche debris field. Even guide Tom crashes on this crap. Nate finds us an exit into a nice, and steep, glade and we finish with some turns for the run. A beautiful tour up the little creek before hammering back up to the hut for a 6,000’ day.

Day 7. The week is shaping up. By this last day we’ve gotten close to a foot of new snow. We head into the steep and safe woods. I eke out only a single run on this epic day. Everything is great except the skier as I overturn and fail to point ‘em down. It’s just too steep for me. Being more hazard than skier I decide to get out of everyone’s way.

In all, great comraderie. Wonderful hut. Great food, great guides. I’m frustrated with my remedial skiing. If I make it back, it will be with more skills.

Cast of Characters

Tom Raudaschl – Guide

Robson Gmoser – Guide

Eileen McKee – Cook

Kellie Erwin-Rhoads – (highly overqualified) Hut Boss

Dave “Boardie” Boardman

Steve “no name” Jennison

Kurty Klussendorf

Timmy “Two Shoes” Power

Bob “Beep” Power

Steve “Paco” Sterner

Tom Sult

Johnny “Lightweight” Thompson

Don “Oaty” Uden

Nate Weisz

Dave “Two Skins” DiMarzio

Tim “Stinky” Schowalter

Bobby Governski