Do you trust the government? When their website says the road will be open the first weekend in May, the road should be open the first weekend in May, right? Wrong.

We arrived to find the road plowed as far as the eye could see but the gate inexplicably was closed. A brief inspection revealed it would take more tools than we had with us to circumvent this obvious and glaring breach of trust. Maybe it was just an over sight or maybe the parks employees are scurrying around with worry about the recently announced job cuts to the point they're neglecting their actual duties. Regardless, the road was closed and the 4 inches of freshly fallen snow was rising in temperature almost as quickly as our anger at being mislead over the status of the gate/road.

We almost opted for Rowe bowl, but decided at the last minute to finally hit up a parking lot special. Across the creek via the bridge we'd used once to scout Too Tight Ridge, then a short skin up through the trees to the rocky base of the chute. We switched over, kicked steps and soon topped out at the cliff band that designates the top of this chute. There we paused, took in the views and proceeded to review self arrest skills. The fresh snow had consolidated and was sliding quickly and easily over the older stuff. A few side slips and tentative turns later we were shredding down to the crux. Adam ran into a snag and had to hop back up hill, but I soon relieved him and we returned to the parking lot. Check!

With lots of day left, but a long walk along a paved road standing in the way of a launching point for something bigger or further away, we opted to do the only reasonable thing. We got some ice cream and went home. Perhaps when the government opens the road - they say in a couple weeks now - we'll return with a house on our back and pursue something else from the check list.

This winter didn't go as planned. In addition to messing up my own, I took a shit on Adam's too. The bond between compatible touring partners is strong and I can only promise that next winter will be better. I started making it right by heading up another new line with Adam on Easter Monday. I often want to head South or West, but this time we went North to shred a line that faces East.

Another parking lot special got ticked off on a day that started out with bullet proof hardness and ended with shredding some creamy corn down something we've looked past many times.... I'm sure we're not the only ones, otherwise we'd have seen tracks up here before.

With a bit of trepidation, I joined the Moose and the Jackelope for a day on Lemming Lane. The Moose was planning 9 laps to set his biggest day ever and the Jackelope was along for the ride. I knew to stay out of the way and joined them late, after they had a few laps in the bag. After hitting my quota of a few years ago, the Jackelope and I left the Moose to get his vert on. We took the boundary exit, finding great powder turns in the steep section. We arrived back at the vehicles and the Jackelope was suffering from backcountry brain, having just having his 12,000 foot ticket punched. He ungeared, locked up the Moose's vehicle, leaving the keys on the rear wheel and hopped in my truck.

We were done out plate of nachos and nursing our beers when worry set in. It was nearly dark before we spoke the unspoken. Maybe he's doing more, betcha he's doing 20,000. Maybe the van won't start. He could have hit a tree. Maybe he got lost. The idea of an avalanche was quickly dismissed. The Moose's margin of safety is higher than anyone I know. The Jackelope won the coin toss and got the honour of calling Vitamin C. She wasn't worried, but did mention some friends had gone for a ride today in an avalanche. That sealed it, we nervously drove up to take a look see. Not much could prepare us for what we were about to find.

The Moose came running out to us at the parking lot, his discarded board leaning up against his vehicle. He'd been waiting for several hours, knowing we'd return eventually since the Jackelope had left his own keys, rather than the Moose's on the rear tire of the vehicle. "Thankfully I didn't break a sweat or I'd have really been cold". It makes me wonder what he could do if he pushed. 15,000 in around 8-9 hours and he drank something unbelievable like only 600ml.

A year ago I was burnt out and lamenting the same old, same old. A year has past and I continue to suffer from the same illness. While poaching a meandering up I decided there's no time like the present to seek treatment. This winter might very well be a write-off, but one can only look ahead to brighter days.

Today was pretty bright in the literal sense with some consolidating storm snow over top of the assortment of crusts that develop during droughts. I missed the Moose and headed up solo to check out something new. Stuff was reactive on the way up and there were a few settlements on the ridge. It's a good omen when it looks less steep from the top, but there was clear evidence of loading and I wasn't entirely sure I was above where I wanted to be.

I squashed the voice that wanted to drop in hot and jump off the small cliff band and when it ripped down 35 or 40, I was glad I'd listened to the voice that wanted to put a cut in to the clump of trees. Picking my way down the blower hang fire I soon encountered the crux, complete with a slight roll. A few cautious turns later I learned you wouldn't want to be flushed down this - a small mandatory and a kink would demand you're in control.

After a floating down the apron to the truck and a brief consideration, I passed on the other parking lot specials - there's two of them up there and one might as well recycle the up and bag them both at the same time. Perhaps it'll be part of my prescribed treatment. Dare to dream.

G3 hooked me up with a pair of their new splitboard skins for this season. I'm pretty stoked on them so far - if you'd like a chance to win a pair, they're giving away two pairs over on splitboard.com - one by random draw and the other for the best skin track photo.

What makes a good skin track photo? People or no people? Epic conditions or epic scenery? Funny or serious? Staged or candid?

Here are some of my own favourites (not entered in the contest) in no particular order.

It's pretty late in the year to be training, but local conditions lately haven't inspired much else. A date with the cable couch led to Adam and I heading out a day early. Things snapped cold the cable couch day, so it was really a moot point anyway. Some soft turns above a noise producing crust. Howling winds and no light. An uptrack where one is rarely seen - it soon became apparent they didn't know where they were going anyway. Tired of the shallow up and multiple switchbacks, we both decided to break trail. At the same time. Side by side. No hand holding though. Turns out Adam hadn't been up in these parts before, showed him the highlights and the benchmark - was surprised there's as much accumulation as there is. The evidence is buried - under both snow and crusts. No hucking today, so we continued on, cleared the cache and ridged out. On the way up I fell in love with a piece of wood that was resting in a dead tree. Turns out the straps on the pack work for boards, skis and pieces of dead wood. A little dead weight only furthered the training feel of the day. The extra swing weight on the descent was bearable and reminded me of camping trips. I wimped out, dropped the wood at the cache and we grabbed another lap. The second climb involved more trail breaking as the wind had completely obliterated the first one. Down and out to hammered road. Rinse, repeat. Off to the land of the sun for a week, so enjoy the storms, they're likely plentiful in my absence and will likely cease upon my return.

Bank robber Willie Sutton was famously associated with the quote, "That's where they keep the money" when asked why he robbed banks. In a winter which has offered up extended droughts and marginal conditions to vast areas of North America, the obvious answer as to why Canuck Splitfest is held in Rogers Pass is quite simply "that's where they keep the snow". In addition to coming through yet again with very reliable snowfall, the area is home to world famous terrain suitable to shred on in virtually all types of weather patterns and avalanche cycles.

Some of the lower elevations did exhibit a nasty ice crust in the forest, but one didn't need to climb too high before encountering hazard snow - hazardous because it was the type that offered up second hand white rooms as the cold Selkirk blower lingered in the air. Ullr had delivered the goods and nary a splitboarder could be found without a smile on their faces.

The date was shifted from last year's inaugural event to avoid industry trade shows and permit better participation from sponsors. The success of the previous event coupled with the improved date led to an immediate influx in sponsors. Virtually every sponsor from last year announced they'd be back on board again, with most of them upping the ante significantly with more donations. In the end, there was over $10,000 in prizes up for grabs in a fundraising raffle for the Canadian Avalanche Foundation.

Many participants chose to arrive early enough on Friday to take in the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival screening. About 70 people enjoyed the screening which was highlighted by "Solitaire", a film by Sweetgrass Productions which was introduced in person by splitboarder Kyle Miller, one of the athletes featured in it.

Saturday evening's raffle was once again preceded by presentations. Kyle Miller was a presenter last year, but this time he brought his new film, titled FreeRider, with him for the North American premiere. Whistler based photographer and splitboarder Andrew Strain showed off his Deep Winter entry from the past year. Revelstoke splitboarder Mark Hartley was back by popular demand and did not disappoint with an updated presentation. Mark's frequent partner, Greg Hill, was up next and he inspired the crowd with the tale of his 2 million foot season, big lines and quite a bit of splitboard footage. Greg even got caught up in the spirit of the weekend and opted to slide sideways down the mountain. According to the rumours, he was actually pretty good at splitboarding!

Participants responded to the huge pool of prizes from the sponsors and by the time the dust settled, over $4,500 in raffle tickets were sold. It was standing room only with well in excess of 100 people crammed into the dining room. Seven people, drawn from the raffle, competed for the grand prizes by way of a timed board to ski to board changeover contest. Coupled with admission charged for Friday night's film festival and money that Prior Snowboards donated from commemorative Canuck Splitfest soft goods, gross revenue for the weekend was over $5,200

After covering event expenses such as insurance, the film festival fee, and some shipping charges, I'm very proud to announce that we more than doubled last year's net benefit to the Canadian Avalanche Foundation - the precise numbers are still being tallied, but about $4,500 was raised.

I would like to thank all those who attended. This event wouldn't be the success that it is without you. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors who donated product for the raffle, Prior Snowboards for being the presenting sponsor and bringing demo splitboards, and the members of the Parks Canada team who worked behind the scenes to help coordinate this event.

I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone at the Canadian Avalanche Centre and Canadian Avalanche Foundation, including Ken Little, Gordon Ritchie, Ian Tomm and Jennifer George for their assistance with the event, to Mark Hartley, Kyle Miller, Greg Hill and Andrew Strain for their presentations, to Adam Warkentin for the stainless steel keychains, to John Cocci for the projector and A/V assistance, to the staff at the Glacier Park Lodge and to everyone else who helped out.

Should the Mayan calendar be incorrect, we'll see you all again in 2013.... but just in case, I recommend getting out as often as you can! Keep your skins warm and may all your turns be powder.

Stumbled across this photo by Jaime Vedres

The winds whipping up those waves pushed temperatures to plus 5C at elevation today - must mean it's time to find a new zone.

I added a new carbon fibre Prior Khyber to the quiver earlier this year. Weight savings is 17% over the regular model. It's been setup with Dynafit toes via the Spark adapters and the taller heel risers from Voile. The good folks at G3 also sent me a pair of their new Alpinist Splitboard Climbing Skins. They are lighter than the Voile skins and come with integrated tail clips. They offered up better glide on the 5 km round trip cross country snowboard that precedes the fun here locally and despite their shallower pile, did not seem to impede up hill performance. I've seen many times where it's been a two man job pulling apart new Voile skins, but the G3 skins did not require this Herculean effort. The glue was well behaved - came apart easily and stuck to the board without any issues. The tail clips are a breeze to use and sped up changeovers a bit.

Continuing with the New Year's Day tradition, I headed to the park to get some turns. Sadly, the party was smaller than normal given the continued dog ban. The Moose, Vitamin C and the Jackelope all headed to places where dogs aren't discriminated against. Seems the folks in charge even found money to buy a new sign for the road, though it shows a dog on leash with a red line through it, which can only mean that dogs are now permitted off leash?!?! Coming out at the end of the day, the road was pounded - no one had obeyed the sign with regards to keeping skiers, snowshoers and boot packers separate. I wonder if the wardens will be threatening these people or if that honour is reserved only for splitboarders with dogs?

I was joined by new splitter Jesse, out for only his 5th day ever. With blue skies and the weather station showing over a foot of fresh in the past couple of days, I briefly considered the Rowe bowl, but opted for Moose Peak. Jesse was looking for a bit of an orientation and there's no better spot to take it all in than Moose Peak. We had scare crossing little Akamina Lake as the ice settled with a great amount of noise and sloshing - we scampered to the shore as quickly as we could, then toured up to the base of the Moose Chute, dropped some cache and headed up the more direct route. I was without gps today and was pleased to be able to navigate the route up through the cliff bands. Jesse was kind enough to cut about a quarter of the track today and we soon topped out, took in the views and switched over.

The protected zone up high offered up soft turns that got better was went lower. I'd never ridden with him before and was stoked to find he could shred the trees at speed. Things are still thin and consequently tighter than usual with alder and Christmas trees. We stopped for lunch at the cache, loaded up and ascended again to the ridge. A short descending traverse, then down through some rocks to the Piggot Chute. The upper section was a bit tight, but the middle part was full speed powder turns. Felt great to be back shredding. No action photos as we opted to just shred it and thanks to a dead battery, no Suunto either. Those two runs are around 4,400 feet though, which more than doubled Jesse's biggest day.

I am very stoked to see myself and fellow Canadian MacKenzie Wilson in the latest issue of Jackson Hole Snowboarder Magazine. The photo was taken by Duane Nardi during my trip to Scrubfest last winter.

Check out the whole issue.