InFocus Magazine

As the storms roll through day after day, the portents are all in place for another wild winter on Vancouver Island. The snow is piling up in the mountains and more snowfall records are likely to be set as La Nina returns again this year. For Cumberland based Island Alpine Guides (IAG) that means they are likely to be busier than ever.

IAG offers extensive courses and guided trips to make exploring the Island “Alps” enjoyable and safe. Year round they offer an array of climbing and hiking packages. In winter, they specialize in avalanche training and back country touring.

Jan Neuspiel, IAG’s managing director, has 25 years guiding experience. Born and raised in Ottawa, the genial 50-year-old says that skiing was a family affair—“almost a religion.” He left Ottawa “very soon after first year university to become a ski bum, which I’m proud to say, I’m still doing today on some level.”

Neuspiel’s first stop was to explore the Rockies, where he soon became involved in back country skiing and mountain climbing. His introduction to guiding was in the river rafting business. “I discovered that I really loved that way of life, that job—the whole business of taking people into beautiful wild places and sharing that with them and looking after them,” Neuspiel says. “All of that stuff really appealed to me so then it morphed pretty quickly into guiding climbing and ultimately skiing as well.”

After stopping long enough to get a diploma in outdoor recreation from North Vancouver’s Capilano College, Neuspiel headed to the Himalayas in north western India on a skiing expedition, which would be the start of 25 years of Himalayan adventures. “That trip kind of fell apart but it got me over there and then I made my way across to Nepal and that is where I got my first job,” Neuspiel says.

“A couple of years later, I made my way back to northern India with my skis and finally realized the dream of skiing in the Himalayas there. I did some of my skiing there with a friend I had made in Nepal, an Australian, who was starting to toy with the idea of starting a helicopter skiing operation in that part of the Himalayas. Long story short, a few years later I did end up hooking up with him and working at that operation. And, before I knew it, I was running the operation and had been there for 11 years!”

Neuspiel laughs, noting how lucky he has been throughout his work life. But hard work no doubt enters into the mix as well. Himachal Helicopter Skiing is based in Manali, India, a city of 30,000 people located at 6,398 feet. “We grew it from a business that, when I joined, ran about three weeks of heli-skiing, to a business that owned three helicopters and was operating 12 weeks a winter, 250 clients in a winter. So yeah, we grew it into quite a business.”

While in Nepal Neuspiel met and married his wife Amanda, originally from England. Amanda works as a medical herbalist and thus when they decided to leave Nepal their destination had to be temperate for her work and mountainous for his. “The main contenders that fit that description are New Zealand and the west coast of BC,” Neuspiel says. “Neither of us is from New Zealand so we thought we’d consider the West Coast. We came to visit a friend in the Comox Valley and liked it. At first we really dropped our bags here but over time we settled in.”

Neuspiel continued to spend about four months out of the year in India, while gradually building his knowledge of Vancouver Island’s mountains and back country. When they adopted their son Vijay five years ago it was time to think about making a more permanent home here. That was when Neuspiel and another Cumberland resident, Cliff Umpleby, started Island Alpine Guides.

In his web blog Neuspiel sums up how IAG is doing: “Here we are entering our fifth year thinking, ‘The timing was about right.’ We’ve grown considerably every year since we started and are looking strong into the future as Vancouver Island’s premiere mountain school and guide service. Looking into the future we certainly intend to keep meeting the needs of our fellow islanders right here in the island Alps.”

IAG’s most popular winter course is the Avalanche Skills Training One (AST 1), followed closely by the Intro to Winter Travel. The AST 1 is offered at both Mount Washington and Mt. Cain. IAG is licensed by the Canadian Avalanche Centre to provide the two-day courses composed of about six hours of classroom and 12 hours of field instruction. In the classroom, participants learn about avalanche terrain, mountain snowpack, the nature and formation of avalanches, assessing avalanche danger, avalanche transceivers, safety measures and self rescue. In the field students learn terrain recognition, route finding, safe travel, stability evaluation, hazard recognition and small party self rescue. IAG also offers a four day long Avalanche Skills Training 2 course.

For the two day long Intro to Winter Travel the staff guide participants through gear selection and preparation while they manage the logistics of transportation, tenting and cooking. Neuspiel describes a typical outing from the arrival at the departure spot: “We would do final checks through gear, pack up our packs, and have a briefing before we head off up the mountain. We would ski our way to a location where we intend to camp for the night. In the process there is a lot of learning that goes on. Our instructors realize that the best way to teach a lot of outdoor pursuits is through using teachable moments to allow people to learn the stuff they’ve come there to learn.

“We get to a spot, set up a camp, and if the timing is right, probably go out for a little cruise around. If it is a trip where people are on skis, go for some ski runs; if it is a snowshoe trip, go for a wander around on snowshoes. If a person is on a split board, we’re going snowboarding, whatever it is. Camping out in the winter is full of lessons of its own and so we would help people through all of that and teach them how to be comfortable and enjoy sleeping out in the snow. The second day would involve doing a whole bunch more ski runs or whatever and ultimately heading out to finish the trip.”

Not sure if back country touring is for you? “Back country skiing is really suitable for anyone who skis and who is interested in being outdoors, particularly in the wilderness,” says Neuspiel. “It is particularly well suited to those who like powder snow. In terms of criteria the person needs to be a strong intermediate level skier and reasonably fit. Other than desire and a sense of adventure, that is about it.”

Once you’ve taken the courses, Island Alpine Guides has a multitude of tours to satisfy all tastes and abilities. There are Mount Washington and Mt. Cain back country tours, weekend ski tours to Mount Myra, Mount Adrian, or Mount Tom Taylor, heli-accessed touring at Alexandra Peak, Mount Adrian, or Mount Matchlee, as well as a seven-day Mount Washington to Comox Glacier traverse to name just a few of the winter options.

Neuspiel laughs when asked about the snow and the quality of local skiing. “Everyone asks that. Surely it is all Island cement, right? The best skiing is anywhere on the right day. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. I’ve skied snow as good as anywhere on Vancouver Island. I’ve skied cold smoke powder, over the shoulders, on the back of Mount Washington. It is a matter of being in the right place at the right time and that is a big part of what we do as guides. We make sure we get people to the right spot at the right time to get the best snow they possibly can.”

Island Alpine Guides staff is almost all based in the Comox Valley and are members of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. “They are an interesting group of people who share my passion for the mountains and for being in the mountains with people,” Neuspiel says. “They come with a variety of different experiences—from a mountain guide from France that has joined us here in the last couple of years and brings his own French flavor to things, which is fantastic, to a woman who has a really strong background with Outward Bound as an instructor and so comes with a really strong set of teaching skills, to a hiking guide who has been with us for a little while now who has just got keen with a capital K written all over him with everything that he does.”

Neuspiel also focuses his energy beyond the clients of IAG to assist all back country enthusiasts through two reporting services: the Vancouver Island Mountain Conditions Report and the Vancouver Island Avalanche Bulletin. The Mountain Conditions Report was initiated by IAG as a way to share information among people travelling in the backcountry.

He describes what information is provided: “What’s the access like on these logging roads now, what condition is that trail in, are the crevasses on that glacier opened up more, did you see avalanche activity, was there a big rock slide somewhere? Whatever it is that helps people planning their trip.” A new blog has been developed for this report to combat previous problems with spam. Information should be sent to info@islandalpineguides.com.

The non-profit Vancouver Island Avalanche Centre Society publishes an avalanche bulletin three times a week throughout the winter. The current bulletin advises that the many storms to pass over Vancouver Island in the last week of November have created high snow packs with a lot of instability. Jan is the lead forecaster for the Centre and he wants to encourage everyone to send him any information they have about snow conditions on the Island. Email him at forecaster@islandavalanchecentre.com. The information will make the Bulletin better and the interaction with the forecasters will also provide people with an opportunity to hone their skills in assessing snow pack.

Vancouver Island may not be the first place that comes to your mind when you think of mountain adventures but Neuspiel is working on changing that. The motto for Island Alpine Guides is “think globally, adventure locally.”

“There’s no shortage of challenges and real mountain topography here,” Neuspiel says. “The other point is the Island mountains have a unique beauty that is all their own. I have to say that over the years it has really grown on me to the point where, in my aged state, if I just wander around in these mountains for the rest of my career I’ll be more than happy.”

Avalanche Safety Tips

Carry avalanche rescue gear—probe, beacon/transceiver, shovel, etc.—at all times when travelling in the winter backcountry.

Avalanches can be associated with sunshine and daily warming. Consider travelling early while everything is frozen, or at night. The Canadian Avalanche Centre website (www.avalanche.ca) lists conditions that may lead to avalanches.

Watch for cracks across the snow surface and listen for the tell-tale “whump” noise associated with a slope collapse.

In avalanche country, always travel in a group and ensure everyone stays within sight of one another. If caught in an avalanche, use a swimming motion to try and stay at the surface. If possible, move to the side of the avalanche. If you’re not at the surface when the slide stops, quickly punch the snow to create an air pocket with one arm and push your other arm toward the surface to help rescuers locate you.

www.islandalpineguides.com
www.islandavalanchebulletin.com