This past Friday I set out on a pretty big ski mission with a good friend and regular adventure buddy, Justin. The goal was to ski a gully that I’d had a bit of a time with on two previous adventures, both in the summer.
This gully sits between the West and East Summits of Castle Towers, a mountain northeast of Garibaldi Lake. A few years ago, I did a circumnavigation of the lake via the high route in the summer with my friend Devon. The first attempt, we had to turn around because the weather came in. The second time, we couldn’t figure out how to get down this gully, which was our main access point onto the Sphinx Glacier. It was loose and, for lack of a better term, sketchy. The main issue was that we were missing beta for the route down, so we turned around after about an hour of trying.
A year later, we went back and safely descended the gully to complete the route.
This year, I had the idea of skiing it!
After spending so many hours struggling in that gully, I thought it would be fun to rip down it on skis. So on Friday, Justin and I set out to do just that.
Just past three-quarters of the way there, 5.5 hours in, 1900 meters of climbing over 16km, Justin admitted he was feeling pretty off. Earlier in the day, he had mentioned he felt like he might be fighting a bit of a cold.
I got curious and asked a few more questions. He explained he was worried his energy would continue to drop as we went on. Having done many missions with Justin, I know how strong he is, so I was a bit confused.
At this point, we had hit a section of rock and had to take our skis off to navigate the ridgeline. We were having this conversation while I was trying to find a line through the rock and snow. I realized I needed my ice axe to secure myself and asked him to grab it from my pack. When he unclipped my bag, which was also holding my skis, it shifted. Nothing fell out, thankfully, but it was one of those moments where I knew we needed to stop and reset.
Justin then said he had a really strong feeling in his gut that we shouldn’t continue. He couldn’t fully explain it, but he couldn’t shake it either. I could tell by his body language that he was serious.
I enthusiastically said, “Let’s turn around.” and genuinely meant it.
I repacked my bag and met him at the top. Within minutes, he was back to himself, and we ended up having an incredible ski down Polemonium Ridge, then the Helm Glacier, and back to Cheakamus. (Okay, the ski out down the trail was fricken terrible but the rest was amazing.)
I thought I’d share a few takeaways from that day:
It’s okay to not stick to the plan when it makes sense. That shift might end up being better than the original plan but you have to create space to actually enjoy it rather than ruminate on what wasn’t.
Listen to yourself and listen to your friends/people you care about/care about you when they’re trying to tell you something. This can be hard when it’s not what you want to hear.
Just because you don’t reach the goal doesn’t mean it was a waste of time. You can be disappointed, but don’t let that disappointment take away from everything you experienced or learned. Often those moments are what prepare you for the next big thing.
In moments of chaos, stop, take a breath, and check in with what is happening. It’s easy to ignore or suppress signals when it’s not convenient.
Moments like this in the mountains teach me a lot about myself. A big part of that is learning how I want to show up in difficult situations because challenges aren’t always straightforward. They bring out sides of us we haven’t met yet, for better or worse.
That’s part of the gift of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, seeing not only what you’re capable of, but who you become in the process.
As for the sketchy gully, I’ll go back when the timing is right 😉
