Bon Echo

During a family visit to southern Ontario we managed to squeeze in a side trip to Bon Echo Provincial Park for some climbing. I did some of my first climbing here in the early 90's and have returned time and again to scare myself senseless at this remarkable crag for almost two decades.

Update March 1 2018:
The photos in this post were hosted on Google's Picasaweb but Google killed that service. Thanks Google. Here is the full album on Google Photos which hopefully Google won't kill any time soon.



The cliffs rise over 100 meters directly from Mazinaw Lake. Most of the climbs are only accessible by boat. The Toronto Section of the ACC maintains a boat and property here with a small hut and magnificent waterfront sauna.



There's something intangible about Bon Echo that makes the climbing here especially spooky. Everyone feels it. The routes are long and wandering and loose in places; gear is often really sketchy; the water below adds a certain surreal quality; and the grades are "old school" to put it mildly. Yet combined with the swimming between climbs and good friends and hot lakeside saunas in the evening it all adds up to make one of the most enjoyable and memorable climbing experiences I can imagine.

Front of the Pinnacle


Vertigenous


Boris's Route


We miss this place! Can't wait to go back again. Anyone want to plan some kind of get together for 2012?

Abbot-Afton Traverse

A few weeks ago Brenda organized an ACC outing to Mounts Abbott and Afton. There was plenty of interest in the trip and it was a group of eleven that started from the Illecillewaet campground. Included in the group was our good friend Brian from Montreal who is applying himself diligently towards being a climbing bum this summer.

There was still lots of snow on the trail beginning near Marion Lake but Abbott ridge itself was perfectly dry.

Abbott Ridge


Mount Abbott must have one of the best effort to reward ratios of any hike in the area. The view in every direction is spectacular on a warm sunny day.

Nick with Afton in the background


At the top of Abbott the group split up with some of us heading to Afton and the rest retracing their steps. Afton is a fine little scramble and was a good choice for the wide range of experience levels in the group.

Climbing up from the Abbott-Afton col


Brett on the top of Afton


To complete the traverse we descended by the north ridge and then cut across the bowl to rejoin the Abbott ridge, taking time to refill water bottles and skip stones on the way.



The evening was spent at the campground drinking cold beer and Macallan. There was some idle talk about trying something more ambitious the next morning but in the end thoughts of a sleep in and a lazy breakfast won the day. I'm never going to get into shape this summer...

Avalanche Crest

"I don't see the point really" said Nick, gazing upwards into the swirling mist.

It was a convincing argument. And a difficult one to counter. How to respond? Waxing lyrical about the great views was no help since we couldn't see a darn thing. Playing the 'it's good to simply be outside today' card would never work either; it was cold, wet, and miserable. I was just debating the merits of using the old 'good for training' ploy when Nick provided reason enough on his own.

"Ah well. I supposed I've got nothing better to do today," and put his head back down to resume plodding upwards along the ridge.



The hoped for weather window didn't materialize on Saturday morning and any hopes of traversing Mount Avalanche were quickly dashed. Instead we hiked up the Avalanche Crest trail and then along the ridge. Calls for a hot soup at the Nomad finally halted our progress at around 2400 meters. There was knee deep snow in places and more coming down by the time we turned around.



At least the snow made the descent somewhat easier on the knees and very quickly we were into the lush forest on the lower part of the trail.



We checked out the log bridge crossing to the Herdman Couloir for another day. I wonder how steep that final snow slope is up to the ridge?

Mount English

Mount English in mid June is typically a hike and scramble with a bit of snow. This year we brought the skis expecting to ski from the car.



We guessed correctly for once. This is the normal camping spot about 200m up the road from where we parked the cars.



I can't exactly say that we were rewarded for our efforts with fantastic spring turns. The mist was right down and it rained consistently throughout the day, and climbing up through the trees was a little grim.



We booted up to the col and called it a day.



And ski we did.



And now, officially, absolutely, we are done skiing for this season. Unless there's still a bit of snow below Hermit Meadows over Canada Day...

Dome Glacier and Wheeler Hut

John and Jeff are two fellow inmates of the yoga class I attend. Oh how we suffer! They're also backcountry skiers and we joined them this weekend at the Wheeler Hut for some some end of season skiing. Not that we could actually keep up with these guys or anything since they could probably give Greg Hill a run for his money. So perhaps "followed their up track" is more accurate than "we went skiing together".

Steve and Nick joined us on Saturday morning and we headed up to the Dome Glacier. The weather was in-and-out for much of the day making for some great photos as we climbed up along The Cleaver with Sir Donald as a dramatic backdrop.



When we reached the Dome Col the sun came out for good giving us great views all around.

Nick at Dome Col. Sapphire Col in the distance.


Dome from Rampart


Andrew on the Rampart


Mt Fox seen through Asulkan Pass


We found light wintry snow all the way down from the Dome Col, behind the Cleaver, and out onto the Dome Glacier. Below that it was every man for himself in sloppy, nearly isothermal snow.

Brenda with Youngs Peak in the distance


With me starting a new job our plans to head to the Columbia Icefields this month have fallen through. So unless I can convince everyone to go to the Glacier Circle Hut (nudge-nudge wink-wink) that may be the end of the season. There's still plenty of snow, but it's the motivation that is beginning to wane...

Three Pass Traverse

Update Jan 2017:
Google killed Picasa so the photos in this post no longer click through to larger versions. Thanks Google. Here's a link to the full photo set if you're interested.

We skied the Three Pass Traverse over two days during the Easter weekend. It was a wonderful trip through some spectacular alpine terrain under warm spring conditions and blue skies.



The route begins in the familiar Connaught drainage behind the hotel in Rogers Pass. On the first day we climbed up to Balu Pass, descended into the Cougar Valley, and re-ascended to Catamount Pass. From here we made a short side trip to climb Mt. Catamount before dropping 1300m down to Ursus Creek to spend the night. After a 1900m day with overnight packs we were happy to call it a day. We had a pleasant evening re-hydrating with tea and Scotch.

#1 Balu Pass


Next objective Catamount Pass as seen from Balu Pass


Brenda just below Catamount Pass


#2 Catamount Pass


Nearing Catamount summit


Not quite the true summit but good enough


Nick skiing off Catamount


Campsite


We packed up the next morning and hit the trail just as the sun starting peaking into the valley. It was a gentle climb up Ursus Creek and soon we came out of the trees and had our first views of Bagheera and McGill; huge peaks that tower over the narrow valley.

McGill


Bagheera


First view of McGill Pass


Approaching McGill Pass


Nick just below McGill Pass


#3 McGill Pass


The slope from McGill Pass down to Bostock faces just about due south and it had been cooking in the hot sun all day. The heavy wet snow was diabolical. We thrashed around a bit after skiing below the usual exit route but eventually got our bearings after booting back up to the summer hiking trail.

A wry smile from Brenda


It was a super trip and well worth the effort. Bugs to Rogers next year?

Bonney Glacier

We had only gone up Loop Brook on days with poor visibility, the treeline skiing being one of the better options when things are clagged in at Rogers Pass. On my last visit I resolved to come back on a sunny day to do a bit of exploring. Inspired by recent photos from fellow Kelowna blogger Loïc we ventured up there on a glorious day over the weekend before Easter. With the warm temperatures we were looking for that mythical high, north, and sheltered terrain that would still be holding cold snow.



Climbing up above the moraines we then made a high traverse across the glacier towards the Bonney-Green col. Following an old skin track for a while we noticed that a mouse had also been using the track; the prints looked so sharp in the fine snow, we joked that the mouse must be running along just ahead of us. This went on for a few hundred meters until we came across the very mouse itself. Well, ex-mouse anyway. Poor thing looked like he'd just keeled over a few minutes ago. Still warm (yes I checked).



As we climbed higher the snow started to dry out. We hadn't figured out exactly how we were going to ski back down, so just as the sun began to disappear behind some high clouds we sneaked through a rock band at around 2400m and started to look for an exit. A rocky rib looked to offer the shaded run that we were after.





Not entirely sure that it would go, we nevertheless ripped off the skins and headed down. Wowee! 500 meters of cold light snow all the way down to the head of the valley.





Where we came across "interesting mouse incident" number two. Not sure if this is clear in the photo (click to enlarge) but mouse tracks come in from the left, wing and tail impression, no mouse tracks leaving the scene.



The rodents are taking a beating in Loop Brook.

Hermit Meadows

Steve has developed a penchant for the Tupper Traverse this spring, trying to get us up there several times lately. The weather on Saturday wasn't overly sympathetic to the idea, but we're aways happy to oblige Steve with his eccentric notions so we shuttled a car to Stone Arch and began tromping up towards Hermit Meadows.

Saw a white rabbit, and *this* time had my camera.



We quickly realized that on this day we weren't going to get over Tupper; the trail breaking was diabolical and we were getting 60-70cm of ski penetration in storm snow over moist snow over sun crust. The weather completely crapped out too and we couldn't see a darn thing.



We pulled the plug at around 2100m and did a couple of laps below the Hermit Meadows campsite.



The skiing was pretty tough though, as evidenced by Henry's looping double-eject swan dive face plant.



To top the day off I had an awkward tumble when a snowy ledge collapsed underneath my skis with a loud whoomph! I dropped several feet and landed sideways on a hard wind roll. At first everything seemed okay but by the time we reached the car I knew something was definitely wrong.

To make a long story short, the doctor says I've cracked a couple of ribs. What a drag. Hurts like stink.