Having flown halfway around the globe, the snow is still melting here and there. Our Swiss road trippers torture their aged motorhome over the mountain passes of British Columbia one last time in the Canadian spring. They reap what are probably the last powder shots of their Canadian ski season with a sighing \"Goodbye Winter\".
Bearpass
As the rugged mountain terrain exposes the "Bearpass" road to a high avalanche risk, the snow cover is monitored and blown up by a team throughout the winter. To get an overview of the weather in the valley, several automatic weather stations were installed, one of which even had an associated control hut. Of course, we gratefully accepted the offer from the avalanche safety manager to use the hut as a starting point for ski tours. The funny thing is that he had seen our camper at the side of the road and simply stopped and took an interest in what we were doing. He left us with a bunch of tips, a map and this very offer. Very open, helpful and friendly people!
So we spent a few days in this hut, which offered a fantastic view over the valley and enjoyed tours in "Swiss conditions". Unfortunately, the weather then got progressively worse and gave us a few down days in Stewart. At least we found time for a short detour to Hyder in Alaska, just two kilometers away. However, the weather refused to improve and so we had to abandon our plan to ride a 2000-metre couloir very close to Stewart. So we left the village and drove to the next junction...
Roadtripping and the coin toss
At this junction, we had to decide whether we wanted to continue north to Bell II or head south. The indecision turned into a coin toss. Another 100 km north, a German hitchhiker, a cab and even more nice lines were the result of the gamble. Bell II is not actually a place, but just a bridge and a lodge belonging to "Last Frontier Heliskiing". Apparently common in Canada, good terrain means good snow sportsmen, which in this case was the MSP film crew. Bell II has very good ski touring opportunities directly from the highway, which gave us two more tours in very good spring conditions.
Waterslide, Vancouver and spring
Satisfied, we made our way back to Vancouver. During our first stopover in Smithers BC, however, we learned that the local ski resort was celebrating its closing weekend. Of course, we couldn't miss out on this. The highlight is that many people dress up on this day and events such as a cake eating competition, a waterslide and snow volleyball take place throughout the ski resort. We ended up getting carried away with the waterslide, which was a wet affair. Everyone had a blast that day and left us with the opinion that skiing is more appreciated in Canada than in Europe, a worthy end to our season.
Back on the road - and we made it almost all the way to Vancouver in one day. And so the climate turned from winter to spring with short-shorts weather in record time. As we still had a few days until Michi returned, we visited one of the most famous climbing areas in Canada in Squamish, 40 minutes north of Vancouver. Here, granite walls up to 600 meters high tower over the village, which are a true paradise for crack climbers with countless cracks.
With the first days of climbing in our arms, we welcomed Michi in Vancouver. Complete again, we left Canada with heavy hearts. Our next goal was to explore the west coast. So, with a good ski season in our luggage, we traveled south to the United States, towards the summer... and quietly say "Goodbye Winter".
Text & Pictures: Jonas Blum, Balz Koch, Michi Röthlin
