Weekend At Bernie’s : Trip Report
Sometimes things just line up. You see a window of time in your schedule and the phone calls start going out.
“Remember when we said we’d do a trip this winter? Well, what are you doing on Tuesday?”
That’s kinda how this one went and before long, Aaron Bernasconi, Nadine Overwater and I were meeting on the side of the highway with enough food, gas and stoke for a 3 day adventure.
It just so happened that Aaron had a spot. This isn’t news. Being the owner/operator of Golden Snowmobile Rentals & Tours, a rental and guiding outfit based in Golden BC, it’s Aaron’s job to have a spot. But this trip wasn’t work. This one, was just for fun – the way all good adventures should start.
Nadine met us on a pacific time schedule (aka 1 hour late) on the side of the highway.
Aaron Bernasconi waiting for us to catch up.
It just so happens that it was cold as hell and the forecast wasn’t calling for much relief. -20 degree celsius sledding is not for the weak hearted or those without thick gloves. We thought we were up for the task so we filled our Yeti mugs full of tea for a long day of adventureering. The Klim Handlebar Muffs were also a good addition to the long approach ride.
This ain’t Bernie’s first rodeo. He knows the Kilm handlebar muffs can come in clutch on a cold approach
The sun cracked for minute on day 1 and we were in the right spot.
Route finding in big terrain in cold weather with murky light makes you carefully consider every move.
Day 1 was day to test out our group dynamics by adventuring into lands previously untravelled by most. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperating and it took all our mountain skills to safely navigate the terrain. In the end we pulled the plug once we were high in the alpine and couldn’t see enough to be safe. The forecasted high pressure was clearly arriving later than we planned so we called it a day and headed for camp.
waiting for light, up high on the ice; we decided enough was enough and turned it and burned it for camp.
Nadine Overwater has an infectious stoke. She has been snowboarding from her sled more and more these days and so it didn’t take much to convince Bernie, who is an old snowboard pro, and myself, a lifelong snow slider, to include snowboarding for day 2. Nadine and I used out Cheetah Factory Racing Link It Up 2.0 racks to click into our Ski Doo Summit Experts super easily and we rolled off in to the distance to see what we could find.
‘Deaner wanted to shred snowboard laps. We said ‘sure’!
At the top of a snowboard lap.
Aaron soul slashin’
After a few laps of soul slashing fun we realized our ages and that our legs were out of shape for such wild escapades. But we still had half a day left, so yeah, we pushed on and burnt some gas.
Couldn’t let this bowl go untracked
Day 2 ending right.
Day 3 started slowly. We were pretty tired after 2 large adventure days. But we were so far out there and we still had gas and time so a little half day ice cave mission was in order. It turned out to be the perfect, as Nadine put it, ‘icing on the cake,’ literally and metaphorically. Riding sleds to cools spots is such a good time but Nadine takes it to a new level. When we got to the ice cave this near 40 year old mom was like a kid in a candy store and she pushed further into the caves than we thought was possible. Sure enough, that sketchy frozen belly crawl where we channeled our inner penguin led us to an awesome cavern void of any signs of human discovery.
The reward of our adventures
Nadine and her Ski Doo go many awesome places
A good trip should always end in plans for the next one and even though we were tired and sore, we vowed that this needed to become an annual event. Until next year…
