West coast mission

Emma and I moved over to the US earlier this year and we've been checking out more of the boating on the West Coast. We hooked up with friends Simon Wiles and Cheryl Robinson who are currently on a driving mission all over the States to re-experience the pleasures of living out of a back of a van together with the usual suspects from the UK.

Snow pack in California this year came a little late in the season. When I came over first of all back in December Heavenly only had 4 lifts open, but that meant a bargain season pass price of 350 bucks. Herr Steve Rust joined us in South Lake Tahoe earlier this year once we'd had a decent bit of snow come in for a sneaky session.

The knock-on effect was a slightly more low water season than usual in California, but that gave us the opportunity to get in a couple of runs down classic multiday trips such as Fantasy Falls and Upper Cherry Creek.

However if anyone ever suggests cutting short the walk in by dropping straight into Cherry Bomb Gorge next time, we may have to have words... Only a short 9 hour walk in with laden boat down a 45 degree slope ;)

Once the water ran out here we headed up to BC / Canada where the snow is still pretty good in places.

Whistler has good pack this year and rivers up that way are still pretty high. We just got back from a multiday trip down the Stein river for which we managed to get hold of a float plane as shuttle vehicle... Involved some cool slides, epic BC logjam portaging and bear avoidance measures, and ends up in a continuous section for a good part of the last day. Drop us a line if any of you intend to be out here on the West Coast at any point - will be out here for a while...

Marc & Emma Musgrove