Glacier Circle Cabin

We made the trek into the Glacier Circle Cabin over the Victoria Day long weekend with Nick. There was just enough snow remaining for us to ski right from the car. But only just.



We started out under clear skies but the visibility crapped out by midday.



We chose the Macoun ramp route for the descent into the circle. This photo shows the entrance into ramp route with the Witch Tower route across the other side of the valley.



After 9.5 hours we finally set eyes on the old cabin for the first time in five years. It was in good shape except for a few missing shingles on the roof and we sorely missed a hand saw to cut wood for the stove.







The next day we had a relaxing morning before heading out to look around. Glacier Circle is a stunning place to be.





We retuned via the Witch Tower route the next morning under beautiful clear skies giving a us a great view back to where we'd been. The cabin is located in the trees at centre right in this photo.









Once over the glacier we were forced to start hiking through the rockier parts of the trail.



But not for too long.



Outbound Depart @ 6:15 Arrive @ 15:45
Return: Depart @ 6:19 Arrive @ 13:52

Mount Baker Coleman Deming Route

Dave asked us to have a go at Mount Baker. On Friday night after work we drove most of the way to Vancouver and then met him just over the border in Sumas. Spending the night in the camper at the Helios Ridge trailhead gave us a good early start the next morning. We hiked for about an hour before putting on the skis and making our way up the broad glacier.





Every now and again we'd get a whiff of strong rotten egg sulphur smell. The accusations flew thick and furious before Dave pointed out that, duh, it's a volcano. We were dumbfounded. It just never occurred to us that Baker would in any way be...well, sort of active. Cool.

It took a long 8 hours to reach the summit. Thankfully the scenery helped pass the time. It was simply stunning. Shimmering icefalls all around, views of the Pacific Ocean to the west, and snow capped peaks in all directions.





Baker is a busy place this time of year. It's near some major population centres and the access is dead simple. There were several parties camping on the glacier making a two day trip of it. This was our view of a line of people booting up the steep headwall just below the summit. (There is a better line to climber's right that avoids the need to remove skis.)



We reached the top at 2PM and had the place to ourselves for a few precious minutes.



Brenda with her Miss Bakers on Mount Baker.



From the summit we could look down into the source of the sulphur smell, a series of steaming vents called fumaroles.



The ski down was pretty rough on something more closely resembling mashed potatoes than snow.



Still good though. And fast. It wasn't long before we were back at treeline for a nice cold drink.



Climbing a volcano within a few hours drive of home. Who knew? Thanks Dave.

Vaux Moraines to The Overlook Bowl

Our third visit to The Overlook Bowl this year. This time we finally got around to going in from the top. Blue line roughly shows the way.



It was a stunning day. The open creeks were a reminder that winter was rapidly melting away.



We made our way up past the toe of the moraine and towards the Sir Donald bivy site.



Sir Donald was particularly stunning with a skiff of new snow.



A convenient series of connected bumps lead us directly onto the ridge.



After some back and forthing along the ridge we decided that this was the way in.



Steep! And a substantial drop. Not a huge drop but nevertheless we weren't entirely sure how stable it would be in the hot afternoon sun. So we tunnelled our way downwards with a series of steps until able to gingerly set foot on the slope.



The whole surface layer sluffed off exposing some old tracks on the bed surface underneath so it was probably the right approach...at least for the first person!



It was full-on spring conditions the rest of the way down.



A very cool day in the mountains.

Video Peak

It's pretty quiet in Rogers Pass these days. We hoofed it up Video Peak and only saw two other parties all day.









Also, a first descent?



Probably not but if we can't stay at the hotel any more at least we should be able ski it.

Big White Backcountry

The was a day trip to the side country at the local ski hill. We've been up a few times this year but haven't blogged those days. Today was really nice so I thought I'd share a few pics. It's an interesting time of year: backcountry skiing one day and mountain biking from our front door the next. Kelowna isn't exactly Revelstoke or Golden but we'll take it.

Blanket Glacier Chalet

Not the greatest snow conditions for our annual ski trip this year. However we took advantage of the fast travel conditions to venture far and wide.

The cabin is pretty basic compared to most other commercial backcountry lodges we've visited but it's efficient and very well designed and grew on us through the week. But the sauna. Oh man. Simply the best.



The tenure is shared with CMH heli-skiing. With the conditions severely limiting the terrain available even for heli-skiers they were forced to spend a lot of time in our vicinity. Total pain in the ass is putting mildly. Oh well, we co-existed.

At one point after they had dropped in above us yet again their lead guide Ken stopped by to offer his apologies. No worries, we were cool. And also to offer a "pop". A what? We were dumbfounded, not sure that we understood. But yup, that's what he meant. Free lift! We took full advantage and 10 minutes later were standing on a ridge top above a run that would have taken us several ours to reach if we even could have made it there at all. In the end the run was merely okay but the story was priceless!

The Overlook

Back to the Overlook again. The Avalanche Crest trail was so icy that we took off our skis and walked!



But this day will forever be known as The Day that Martin Lost his Ski. A picture being worth a thousand words...

Freedom! Spot the ski.


By some miracle it hit our uptrack, flew through the air like a magnificent javelin, and buried itself tip first in the snow(bottom left in photo)








It was a near thing but all's well that ends well.

Lookout Col Traverse

The rolling terrain below Lookout Col was so wind blasted and scoured it was like skiing up a series of snowy dunes.



On the far side of the col Martin and I watched the others struggle down the south facing slope and decided to contour around into the bowl searching for better snow.



It worked out and we had some fun turns.



What a place.

Vaux Moraines

The guys were staying at the Wheeler for a few days of skiing before we all headed into Blanket Glacier the following week. Conditions were still...let's just say character building below 2200 metres or so. We hoped the Vaux Moraines would still be holding snow so we headed that way once again.



We were lucky. The wind had blown in quite a bit of snow onto the north side of the moraine.