If you’ve ever wondered what it  would be like to live the life of a dirtbag skier or snowboarder, living out of a van with 2 huskies for company, watch this! This season we condensed a day in my life into 3 minutes

Click here to view the embedded video.

Earlier in the season I was super stoked to be asked to be one the 5 True British Characters for the new Lambs Navy Rum ad campaign. In February I flew back to England for a few days for the shoot at Guy Farrow Photography (missing out on a few powder days but arriving in Leeds to snow). The campaign is going out in National Press in the summer but you can check out the website with my interview footage here http://www.lambsnavyrum.com/true-british-character/julia-pickering/.

So what’s next? In just a few days I’m heading to a land of ice covered fire breathing mountains just waiting to be snowboarded. The extreme remote wilderness of the Kamchatka peninsula in far Eastern Russia bears more than a passing resemblance to the dwelling place of Sauron in Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle Earth.

Mordor.

Kamchatka.

Apparently Tolkien modelled Mordor on the volcano of Stromboli near Sicily but I don’t think he had ever been to Kamchatka. I’m sure he would’ve been surprised at the uncanny resemblance. Last year I achieved my childhood dream in the mountains of Alaska. This year I hope to achieve my adult dream of climbing and snowboarding one of the biggest active volcanoes in the world. Klyuchevskaya Sopka is considered sacred by some indigenous peoples, being viewed by them as the location at which the world was created. Other volcanoes in the region are seen with similar spiritual significance, but Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the most sacred of these. It is said that when the god Volkov created the world, this was the point at which he held it, and so it remains unfinished, unsealed, thus the volcanic activity.

The run up to this expedition has been fraught with problems with everything from the volcano erupting to broken photographers. I have decided this is a sign that the expedition has to go well! With just a few days to go before we fly to Moscow I’m starting to feel those butterflies again. After -45C on Mount Bear I said I never wanted to be that cold again and yet again it looks like we could be headed into some rather cold temperatures.  Good job we are taking plenty of down! One of our biggest issues could be nearby erupting volcanoes throwing debris onto the slopes of Klyuchevskaya and affecting the snow conditions, but if it was all straightforward it wouldn’t be quite so exciting would it? Whatever happens I’m certain this is going to be my biggest adventure yet.

We are taking with us a Yellowbrick Tracker which means you can follow our progress on the map below:

The Tracker is also linked to a specific Twitter account @kamchatka2013 that you can follow for updates.

Visit Berghaus Online Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, men’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.

You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Choose from a range of cutting edge waterproof jackets, fleeces, trousers & more from Berghaus.

Back on UK shores it was a mad rush to get everything ready to leave for winter. With early season snow conditions looking so good we wanted to be a part of it. Yet again our leaving date was delayed by a series of mishaps but just days before Christmas we finally hit the road.  A stuttering engine which seemed to right itself along with pouring rain and a strong headwind marked the start of our journey south.  As we neared Dover a sudden crash from the roof made us think the Mayans may have been right. As we looked around nervously the rest of the traffic seemed to be in normal full flow. Oh crap, the solar panels must have come off the roof. Now, as we hadn’t caused a crash behind we could only assume this was not the case until we had an opportunity to pull over. The solar panels had indeed come down but were intact and still attached. The van roof however looked as if a hot knife had sliced through it and we were now leaking in water everywhere. As we had a ferry to make, a quick temporary solution was required. Duct tape, the answer to all of life’s problems.  (The roof was later fixed with a fibreglass repair kit).

We pulled off into the nearest Aire after Calais. Our headwind had not ceased since entering France and all night howling winds battered our little haven. Images of the wind tearing off the roof and the van being turbulently swept across the motorway plagued an already restless sleep. Day dawned to marginally calmer weather and North Eastern France rushed past the windows until out stuttering engine decided to un-right itself. It was Christmas Eve before we were heading into the Alps, through the Mont Blanc tunnel and into Italy. I woke up on Christmas morning in a lorry park somewhere along the SS26 in the Aosta valley.  After a day of traipsing around ski resorts, struggling to find free parking areas for motorhomes and realising the snow was better back across the across the border, by nightfall we were back through the tunnel. Christmas Day 2012, for me, fell on the 27^th instead of the 25^th. Wood burner fuelled with mulled wine warming on top, Christmas dinner in the oven and snow falling heavily.  Board legs are now back, the dogs are loving it and I’m ready for another awesome season.

Visit Berghaus Online Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, men’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.

You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Choose from a range of cutting edge waterproof jackets, fleeces, trousers & more from Berghaus.

On May 5, 2012 at approximately 4:45pm, our team of five splitboarders and four skiers successfully summited Mount Bear, at 14,831 ft (4,520 m) one of the top 20 highest mountains in the US, deep in the Wrangell-Saint Elias Mountains. It was -45 degrees Celsius at the summit with howling winds, hanging around was not an option. Our successful summit marks the first snowboard ascent and descent of Mount Bear and probably the first female descent. The range is a mountain area the size of Switzerland and a true wilderness with some of the world’s best ski and snowboard mountaineering. We had hoped to ride the powder on a few of the lower unnamed peaks after we had knocked off the objective. Alas the weather gods had decided this was not going to happen as we waited out a storm that very nearly resulted in us missing our homeward flights.

So back home in the Lakes and I’m gradually getting the feeling back in my toes and the ends of my fingers. Its always hard coming home after such an adventure. I’m definitely feeling like house dwelling might not be for me. The simple life and the open road are very appealing right now. That and fueling the addiction for heli-boarding again!

Berghaus Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

The latter half of our time in the Alps was vastly improved by installing a wood burning stove into our van. It’s quite unbelievable what a difference this made compared to the gas heater that was already in and simply just did not cut it in the cold temperatures. I named her Bessie and for the first time in 6 weeks I could sit in the van without a coat on, I could feel my feet and my hair didn’t freeze when I got out of the shower. It’s now like my little cabin in the wilderness.

Ironically just a few weeks after the wood burner went in temperatures rose dramatically. I went off to Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps for the Berghaus Athlete Camp for 4 days at the end of February. When I returned to France I was amazed at the snow loss. Admittedly the warmer temperatures were much more pleasant but at serious detriment to the snow conditions. On the plus side we could sit outside in the sunshine and have bonfires and beers in the trailer park in the evening. The week of my birthday in March brought us colder temperatures again and more snowfall. It felt good to ride fresh powder again but it wasn’t to last as the warm weather quickly reappeared. I was starting to feel like I should be in boardies and flip flops rather that snowboard gear. Our last week in the Alps brought both new snowfall, hot sunshine and wind; something we had not felt much of.

We headed out for a 2 day camp in a disused farm building high in the mountains and managed to get a bit of snowkiting in. We had one last bonfire party the night before we left and then we were off, leaving in glorious weather, back to the UK. It didn’t feel too bad leaving as the weather made it feel like the winter season was coming to an end anyway and people were getting ready to move on. Looking at all the fresh snow now in the Alps now feels worse though! I have however got seriously used to van life and love the freedom it gives you. I was ready for moving on but not quite ready for the reality of coming back home and living in a house again.

House dwelling only lasted a week before I was on a plane to Iceland and onto Greenland the following day, on a Berghaus product testing trip. After arriving in glorious but cold weather, 2 days later the strong winds kicked in and the product really did get tested. Doing the thermal imaging was really interesting as we had sensors placed all over us to find out where we generated heat and where we lost heat. Amazing!

Now I’m back home again for another week manically preparing for the next trip. In just 6 days I am heading out on expedition to Alaska. I still can’t quite believe I am going to snowboard AK and I’m  unbelievably super stoked to be going. Our plan is to fly way beyond heliski terrain and head into the Wrangell-St Elias range to set up base camp amongst some virgin peaks that have never been ridden before. Alaska has had record snowfalls this season, 65 ft in Valdez, so all we need is good weather, stable avalanche conditions and it will be epic. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I have also had 2 altercations with large hidden rocks that have created some very interesting artwork on my backside. And why is it that all of the best descents end up in gnarly goats tracks when you’re in a mad bid to catch a bus and you only have about 3 minutes to do it? This very question has resulted in us manically snowboarding over low lying fields, through people’s gardens and down main roads, all in order to get ahead of the elusive bus and pick it up in the next village.

Van life in the cold is hard work but also extremely rewarding. We eat better here than we do at home and we have been to several van dinner parties. Roast chicken, salmon, chicken fajitas, pork chops and homemade lasagne have all been on the menu. Diesel and Marshall have made a new friend, the rather aptly named “Chien”, a Jack Russell who loves to come over and torment them.

One van dweller keeps a cat complete with van door cat flap and another has a pet hamster. He says this means he has to keep his van at hamster survival temperature at all times rather reminiscent of the miner bird I thought.

This past week has probably been the hardest for us due to the excessively cold temperatures. Despite being insulated and keeping a separate water tank inside, all our pipes froze this week, meaning no shower! Warwick has been working on defrosting and plumbing in a new system each evening and last night we came so close. The rejigged system meant the water was coming through the shower but the pressure wasn’t enough to trigger the water heater. Aaargh!

Lots of random stuff is freezing in our van eg: our olive oil. Now apparently each batch of olive oil is individual and therefore there is no set freezing temperature for it, so we are none the wiser as to what actual temperature it reached in our van that night. Fruit juice, milk, eggs, lettuce, ham, moisturiser, shaving gel and conditioner (but not shampoo) has also frozen. What next I wonder? I have been reliably informed that red wine freezes at -27 C so unless I leave it outside I should be ok there.

Of course the upside of the cold temperatures means the snow is amazing. The past couple of days there have been a layer of freezing fog at lower elevations that was so cold it felt much like being punched in the face when you rode through it. At higher elevations though, although even colder, there were much more pleasant blue skies and the warmth of the sun pushed through. Today we climbed two technical ridge lines, rode two big powder faces, one tight couloir and one tree line. Not bad for one day, and to top it all off I finally got my shower!

Our new home for the winter is a 1988 Fiat motorhome that we bought just a few weeks ago, as an upgrade to our pop top roof camper, Pedro. Her name is Cassie and she is very cool. Don’t get me wrong I loved Pedro and will miss him dearly but Cassie is like a palace compared to him.

The journey through France was fairly uneventful with the exception of one rather hairy moment overtaking a lorry driver who was either drunk or falling asleep at the wheel or both. Oh yes and a rather upsetting moment for Warwick when Marshall ate his Chelsea buns. Marshall and Diesel are our 2 huskies who are accompanying us this winter season. I think they are still wondering when we are going home.

So here we are in the Alps, settling into the ski bum, van dwelling lifestyle. I don’t think I have ever seen this much snow in France. It was snowing when we arrived and we woke up to more snow this morning. Unfortunately the visibility was really poor today so we decided to go on a skijoring adventure in the forest with the dogs. The snow was really deep which made it pretty hard going. Snowshoe trails are quite gnarly on skis with a husky dog pulling you. The poor dogs just kept sinking into the snow so I ended up going upfront to break trail while Warwick and the dogs followed. I am not a very good skier but snowboarding behind the dogs is too hard for them if there’s any sort of incline and the changeover time of a split board isn’t practical with the dogs. They’re fast asleep now probably dreaming of perfectly groomed dog sled tracks.

Due to open water in the Scoresbysund Fjord we had to cut the corner and go overland to the windy outpost of Kap Hope. After a sketchy journey across slushy sea ice we reached the hill into Scoresbysund village. I misjudged the severity of the hill and bogged down the snowmobile in deep snow. Within 5 minutes the locals were out in force to see what was happening. After digging out we left our fuel drums to be filled at the depot and headed to the local store. The local children were fascinated by our new snowmobiles and spent considerable time climbing on them and asking questions.

Once stocked with supplies we started our 45km journey back with heavy trailers. The weight proved to be too much and we quickly got stuck in the slushy sea ice. Sea ice problems this winter have hindered the local hunters a great deal. Strong winds of up to 230kph broke the sea ice up leaving a lot of open water and even where the sea ice has refrozen it is very thin. On top of this a lot of late winter heavy snow has made conditions even more hard-going making it very difficult for the local hunters to travel as normal. Finally off the sea ice we escaped back onto land the weather started to close in again leaving our visibility very limited.

The wind was quickly filling the sled tracks in and it was becoming difficult to see. A steep incline to cut the corner as before, but this time with heavy laden trailers, meant we had to bed a track in first. After what seemed like hours we rounded the corner onto the safe haven of Hurry Fjord to breaking weather and an astonishing sunset.

We really have had a massive amount of really horrible weather. Strong northerly winds, heavy snow and 10m visibility are something we’ve had to contend with a lot more than we had hoped. However the few glorious days we have had have been amazing. When the sun finally shines and the mountains reappear the snow conditions have been amazing for snowboarding and skiing. And in Greenland it’s always fresh tracks!

We have managed to head into some stunning valleys, skin up some beautiful mountains and snowboard and ski some fantastic lines. Greenland really is a place of extremes and to get these amazing days we have had to experience rather a lot at the other end of the spectrum. The snow is falling now with no wind, got to be another blue sky powder day coming up soon.

Julia Pickering’s Profile

Three days of hard graft followed digging out and building a Weatherhaven to house the snowmobiles and equipment. Then the blue skies and sunshine were replaced by zero visibility, snow and howling winds.

Finally two days later the sun returned and we could see the world again, so we headed to the remote mountains around Carlsberg Fjord in far Northern Liverpool Land. This part of Liverpool Land is rarely visited and most of the mountains here are unclimbed. The 85km snowmobile route in looked to be fairly straightforward, the weather forecast for the next few days was good and we were not expecting any major problems. However, conditions were not on our side!  The snow was incredibly deep on the access glacier and despite their wide powder skids, the sleds struggled, we had to dig and push and pull several times just to get going again. This made our return journey into a bit of an epic.

We finally came off the glacier in the dark into howling winds that had filled in our previous tracks with snow. After the GPS stopped working, we were route finding under the spectacular glow of the Northern Lights. Suddenly we were travelling over wind scoured, exposed rock and as we tried to find a way around, every route we tried ended at an impassable ravine. We were progressively getting more tired and hungry and the temperatures were tumbling. The only option left was to make an emergency camp at 2.30am.  Only a few hours later we were up again melting snow for water and trying to get the tent warm.

The following morning was glorious but very cold and the sun never lies. Our compasses were 180 degrees out, must have been something in the rock? In the light of day with the sun as our guide, we were able to navigate back and a few hours later we were back at base eating brunch and planning where to go next.

Julia Pickering’s Blog