After crossing the road we were forced to sprint along the snowbank to avoid getting buried by an oncoming plow. We crossed the CP Rail tracks and the Illecillewaet River and then plodded up the drainage on a meandering and yes very flat track.
Edit Feb 2014:
I should note that our route along and across the rail tracks back in 2008 was acceptable at the time (sort of) but is strictly forbidden now. There is a designated access route that avoids crossing the tracks. It's kind of a Big Deal with Parks so please check the Parks website for details.
Eventually the trees thinned out and we were able to get our bearings. There's a south and a north aspect in the drainage. We followed the track up the north side and ended up on an enormous wide-open but gentle slope that presented several options. We climbed from one island of trees to another trying to minimize our exposure and aimed for a ridge line that looked like it would give us a view over into the next drainage.
We ran out of steam just below our destination at 2200 meters near the 'X' in this photo.
It was 1000 meters of fun skiing from the 'X' to where we're standing. Thinking about it, it was 5 hours of climbing for a half-hour descent. Sheesh, never do the math.
Afterwards we enjoyed a nice cold beer at the hotel lounge (5 deer, 3 bears, 1 raccoon, 1 eagle, 1 goose, 2 ducks -- see previous post) and 1 arse-hole avy instructor (details upon request).
On Sunday we skied up towards Perly Rock but never really got the visibility we needed to get there. Still we enjoyed a short but excellent run down and learned a lot for the next time we come up this way.
We also saw Petula the Ptarmigan. We saw her at the Asulkan hut last year and she makes a cameo at the end of this short video. She's the...um, white thing. With a beak. Ptarmigans don't film well in the winter.
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