Delving into Dushanbe

It's hard to believe we've made it all they way here. After almost 30 hours of transit across the world and  not sleeping for two days (save a few upright airplane naps), Team Flow has touched down in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe.
We are delighted to report that all the luggage made it through the several transfers to this little airport in Central Asia. Four ski bags, five duffle bags of expedition equipment and over 350 lbs of clothing donations
came off the carousel, a headache for security personnel checking the  baggage tags but we rolled out of the terminal triumphant, with everything accounted for.

Turkish Airlines waived over 350 lbs of checked baggage fees to get these clothing donations to Tajikistan

The team has to give a big shout-out to Turkish Airlines who agreed to let us check all 350 lbs of clothing donations  free of charge. Their willingness to back this project prompted support from their codeshare partnerss United Airlines and Air Canada, who both agreed to match the excess baggage waiver for their portion of the journey. After a lot of emails, phone calls and last minute hurdles, every piece of donated clothing from Whistler Blackcomb, MEC and friends in our communities has made it to Tajikistan. The clothes will be mostly distributed through the Gorno-Badakshan Province Jamoats, the village councils representing the towns we will be travelling through on our way to and from the Fedchenko.

View from the top floor of the Poytakht Hotel, Dushanbe

Our local fixer, Saidali Gaibuldaev of Pamir Guides, greeted us at the airport at 5 a.m. and loaded our mountain of duffles, ski bags and backpacks onto the roof of his trusty Landcruiser. After checking in at the Poytakht Hotel and sitting down for a relaxing breakfast, we took a few hours to settle in. Sleep came more easily to some team members than others, and by lunch time it was back to the all-important last minute preparations.

Shopping at the Green Market, Dushanbe. Food for 30 days on a glacier can be a complicated affair

Managing 30 days worth of food for five hungry ski mountaineers is not as easy task, but with no food caches on this trip we have no other choice. Breakfast consist of muesli and oatmeal with powdered milk, dinners are a rotating menu of ramen noodles, pasta and rice with dehydrated meats and vegetables.  Lunches are a mix of breads, cured meats, cheeses, dried fruits, nuts and chocolate snacks. Water will be purified from streams during the approach and exit of the glacier, and melted from snow once we are travelling on the ice. Each of us also needs to carry four liters of fuel each for cooking and melting drinking water.

It will be a monstrous burden to shoulder, especially for the approach onto the toe of the glacier. However, once on the ice our sleds will lighten the load by allowing us to drag majority of our gear and supplies. We have tried to get the best information we can on the conditions of our entry and exit, but at this point we will just have to wait and see.

From Holly, Emelie, Selena, Zeb and Vince, we'd like to thank you for taking an interest in our project over the last few months. You can stay updated on our movements on the Flow of the Fedchenko Facebook page, provided by our inReach SE two-way satellite communicator.

See you on the other side!

VS

Did you know 'barf' means 'snow' in Tajik? Must be why we say "puking snow"

Team Flow named 2014 Polartec Challenge Grant Winners

Exciting news from Team Flow this week- we were one of four parties selected for funding by the Polartec Challenge Grant!
We are humbled to have received support from Polartec, which has funded over 100 expeditions around the world since 1991. Past recipients have included some of our greatest inspirations, including Andrew Maclean, Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker.

The grant has also coincided with two more members committing to Team Flow's expedition to the Fedchenko Glacier in Tajikistan.

Selena  Cordeau has an impressive resume of ski traverses through the mountains of British Columbia and Yukon, as well as 21 day traverse through the High Atlas in Morocco. She will bring her experience and knowledge as a glaciology technician to the team. Selena has received numerous research and expedition grants, including the Alpine Club of Canada Jen Higgins Fund.

Zebulon "Zeb" Blais brings a wealth of ski mountaineering experience to Team Flow, working as a ski guide  and avalanche course leader in mountains from Alaska to Argentina. His travels have taken him to 15 countries over five continents, summiting peaks and experiencing cultures of the developing world.

As we begin to make final preparations just 60 days from departure, this grant will help with travel expenses for Selena and Zeb as well as assisting with ground costs once we touch down in Tajikistan. The Polartec Challenge Grant joins the ACC Jen Higgins Fund and Mountain Equipment Co-op as the signature sponsors of our expedition. We thank you for your support!

VS

Training in full swing, preparations continue

Jason and Holly cross Trorey Glacier in Spring conditions

Recent storms have reinvigorated the winter spirit in Whistler, but in January it was still mostly dry with minimal snow coverage. The Spearhead Range was still crevasse country on January 24, so the Whistler section of Team Flow (Holly and Vince) set out to spend a full day negotiating its fissured glaciers. Joining the full day tour was Jason Amerlaan from Squamish, an expert climber and experienced backcountry skier. Jason seemed just as happy as us to walk for 30 km over almost 11 hours with no powder turns, so he was welcome to join in on the suffering. As well as offering excellent guidance on negotiating rocky down climbs, his home made energy bars proved to be both tasty and effective.

We set off from the Blackcomb Glacier gate as soon as it opened, knowing that daylight hours were going to be short. Holly had been recovering from a couple weeks of illness and was treating the day as warm up for training. I had climbed Black Tusk two days earlier and was ready to start hauling a heavier pack, so I loaded up my 70L pack with camera gear, water and soup cans as well as all my regular touring gear.

Crevasses were still lingering at the end of January

There had only been one significant storm since the last mission when Emilie was in town in December, so the glaciers were still ridden with hazards. Gaining Decker and crossing onto the Trorey Glacier was routine enough, but once we reached Tremor Glacier we had to start watching our step. We all started to get a better eye for spotting crevasses from a safe distance, by observing the depressions in the glacier and giving the school bus-sized holes a wide berth. We stopped at midday for lunch at the Tremor-Shudder Col  for lunch, the usual turnaround point for the Spearhead Traverse. Past that point, it's just as quick to finish off the loop than to backtrack.

Tank tops in January on the Spearhead Traverse

The weather was like Spring, with temperatures as high as 7 degrees C with a cloudless sky. Much of the day was spent touring just in our base layers, with water needing constant rationing. Though there was no powder to speak of, we did lay out a few creamy turns on the Ripsaw. Thankfully we were in the shade of northern slopes for the hottest parts of the day.

Diavolo. Always an ass kicker

Every time I tour the Spearhead Traverse (this was my fourth circuit), I always dread climbing Diavolo. It's the last real punch of vertical on the route, so if you can make it up Diavolo, you're pretty much home free. Feeling confident with the soup cans not able to break me yet, I took off up the climb with gritted teeth. On the final few hundred meters before the col I began to feel dizzy, and Jason offered me some of his fruit-rich energy bars. I made it to the col and sat down and ate most of my remaining food, knowing that the worst was behind me. Holly wasn't far behind, the last weeks of flu not able to phase her.

Downclimbing onto Overlord. Jason was the only one confident enough to do it with skis and pack

We started to dream about beer and burgers, but we weren't done yet. Accessing the Overlord Glacier is usually a quick ski down, but with the snowpack at the time we ended up having to down-climb on rocks to avoid a lengthy detour. Rock climbing in ski boots was new for all of us, but with a bit of teamwork, we all made it down safely.

On the home stretch, reaching for headlamps

We reached the Fissile Whirlwind Col just as the sun began to disappear behind the McBride Range. Normally this is where you b-line for Singing Pass (the express exit to Whistler Valley), but with the snowpack at lower elevations questionable, we played it safe and toured back over the Musical Bumps, over Flute and exited through the resort on Whistler Mountain. Dodging snow cats under headlamps, we made it to Skier's Plaza and proceeded straight to Blacks for those beers and burgers.

Stay tuned for some exciting announcements from Team Flow! We are now less than three months away from departure on the biggest adventure of our lives.

VS