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UPDATE: This winter is a continuing tragedy for the snowpack in the Pacific Northwest, and Cain is still not open. We’ve been trying to sort out what to do, but it’s become clear that Cain is not going to be open for the BCF. We are exploring other options for a party and raffle, but for off-islanders It’s likely this is a no go this year 🙁 Who would have thought there would be no snowpack in the PNW?
We’ve got the dates lo
cked down for this years Vancouver Island Backcountry festival… Feb 8/9!We had an amazing time last year and it went better than we had anticipated, the guided tours ended up being completely full and they had to run on sunday as well to take everyone. We’ll try to have more guides this year, and run both days!
The obligatory recap for those unfamiliar – Every winter we put together an event to raise funds for the Vancouver Island Avalanche Center Society, which is our local non-profit responsible for forecasting the island. No, the CAC doesn’t recognize Vancouver Island as part of Canada. *shrug*
So what do we do? Well, we have a raffle, we have certified ACMG guides doing educational backcountry laps by donation, and we drive a groomer into the forest to pack down a dance floor and put on a huge party. We had complaints about not enough lasers or fireworks last year, but all in all we thought we did a pretty good job. We’ll do better this year.
This isn’t a splitboard specific event, but there are a lot of us splitboarders up here. The point is, you can invite your teleboarding, monoskiing, telemarking, or even AT skiier friends to come with you!
So the logistics – to come to this event you need to take a ferry to some island and then you need to drive, basically forever, until you reach a little logging road. We like to call it “well maintained”, but I would recommend you bring your chains with you. And your onsies. This is Cain, afterall.
Here is Dave’s writeup from last year
http://www.davesilverphotography.com/blog/2013/2/van-isle-backcountry-festival (and the full gallery of his photos: http://www.davesilverphotography.com/bcfest2013)Details on the site: http://vanislebackcountryfest.ca
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/206055189575014
Google map: https://www.google.ca/maps/preview#!q=mount+cain&data=!1m4!1m3!1d3799906!2d-124.6122439!3d49.5063257!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x5462fcd905eada4b%3A0x8665249d669e96bb!3m8!1m3!1d42361!2d-123.3592225!3d48.4262355!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m2!3d50.2286111!4d-126.3261111Nope, the festival is free!
The fundraising will come from the raffle tickets and from the donations for the guided laps. It’s worth getting lift tickets for the t-bars at cain because they provide incredible access to the backcountry, but if you’d rather head off in a different direction or skin up, that’s your call (they won’t be happy if people are skinning up inbounds though)
Also the hill is very much camping-friendly. It’s not uncommon to see people camping in RV’s,vans, cars, tents, etc up there – last year it looked like a campground at the backcountry festival:
This year we may pack down or groom a tenting area too, depending how many people it looks like plan to tent.
There are two accomodation options as well, the very-rugged old lodge (closets with mattresses above the main lodge) and the much less rugged fancy pants new hostel (running water!!!). Those options will book out pretty quick though 🙂
If you or anyone else from Washington/Seattle area are coming and will be going through Victoria, let me know, we could caravan up!
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