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.

Valhalla Mountain Lodge

For this year's annual ski trip we made the big mistake of scrambling to find a cook at the last minute. Oh how we suffered.







Conrad, a pastry chef by training, had us shaking our heads in disbelief almost daily. Crêpe Suzette, Black Forest Cake, cheese fondue, eggs benedict, heavenly steaks for the omnivores, brilliant veggie creations for the herbivores. In a tiny backcountry hut? You've got to be kidding.

In between magnificent meals we skied some terrific terrain.







The area around Valhalla Lodge feels big, and looks big, but is ultimately very accessible. We needed hardly any time at all to settle in and get a good feel for the place.

I don't know how many years we've been doing this trip for, perhaps dozen? A lot of years together anyway. So just when I thought nothing could top the hilarity of previous trips out came the Sambuca and viking helmets.



Yargh! See you next year guys.

A few days in Rogers Pass

Brian and Damon came out a week before the annual hut trip for some skiing in Rogers Pass. We set up camp at the hotel and had four fun days of skiing. I had hoped for some clear weather so that we could get up high and show the guys around a bit, but sadly the visibility was poor most of the time and we were restricted mainly to below treeline skiing. We spent two days in Ursus Trees, another on the Bonney Moraines, and one day skiing a slide path on the west side of the Asulkan drainage.

Brian


Damon


Evenings were spent drinking fine beer and stuffing nachos in our faces.

Chris


The last time we had all skied together was in the mid-nineties on Lyon Mountain in the Adirondacks. Seems like yesterday.

Also on this trip I finally used the Voile Drifters bought for a song last summer. They're the widest skis I've ever owned at 145-121-133. They looked farcical at first and I never really got used to just how much ski there was underneath each boot. They're also heavy when the skins are attached so I can't imagine ever using them on a long tour. But they sure were fun to ski; fast, stable, and completely effortless.

Asulkan to Lily by Dome Col

Sunny skies and good stability. What to do? First option; go somewhere that we've been before but that we know will be an excellent trip. Something like the Tupper Traverse for example. Second option; do something a little different and risk having a mediocre trip on a day with possibly the best conditions of the season.

Let's hear it for novelty!

We left Fred's car at Loop Brook and made our way up the Asulkan with designs on the Dome Col.



This route is basically a variation on the Sapphire Col traverse which we had done a couple of times previously, but rather than skiing south from the upper part of the Cleaver to Sapphire Col we would instead climb up on top of the Cleaver, ascend to the Dome-Rampart Col, and then (hopefully) drop down onto the Lily glacier.

Nice day. Spring-like, but not too hot, with great views over the Asulkan Glacier.



We were at the col by 2:00ish and had our first tentative look over the other side.



No worries, that'll go. A little rocky but nothing a little p-tex couldn't fix.



We scratched our way down from the col and over a little wind scoop to have a look at the Lily far down below us.



We were a little tentative on the way down from here; the terrain was constantly rolling off making it difficult to see what exactly we we're getting into. But we sussed it out and enjoyed several long runs until finally dropping down onto the glacier. I like this photo of Fred, even though he's barely visible, with Swanzy and the upper Lily in the background.



Huge country up here.



Plenty of places left to explore when novelty next wins the day.

Fortitude

A couple of years ago we went up Flat Creek on a day with good stability and skied the right slide path in this photo from about two thirds of the way up.



Directly across on the other side of the valley that day we saw this line on Mt. Fortitude.



It's been in the back of our mind as a potential destination ever since. This weekend with the stable conditions we went in to have a look with Nick, Neil, and Gerald.

This is the upper part of the route as seen from the Bostock parking lot.



The first order of business was to negotiate the trestle bridge.



Under, not over. You must follow ze rules! It's a beautiful climb up the northeast ridge of Fortitude through old growth forest that somehow survived the age of railway building in the pass.



Once on the ridge there are great views north to the avalanche paths which run across the highway.



And onto the snow sheds which protect the highway (scene of that whopper size 4.5 which came down in January).

(Photo: Nick)

At our high point we basked in the warm sun and enjoyed a unique perspective on the peaks in the area.



The first half of the descent was obvious. We pointed the skis downhill and enjoyed the effortless turns.



There were a couple of points on the lower third where we needed to scope things out to avoid some cliffs but this just added to the sense of adventure. If you come this way yourself, basically stay left to avoid any difficulties, and there are many variations. A great day out.

Little Sifton Traverse

Brenda lead a group from the Alpine Club to Little Sifton this weekend, which is one of the reasons we did this route just a few weeks ago.

We've participated in lots of ACC trips over the years and many of the folks we've met through the club have become our closest friends,so occasionally we try to repay the favour by leading a trip ourselves to a location that we're familiar with.

Leading trips is a funny business. As "leader" you inform people about the difficulty and the length of the day, about how you would like things to proceed, where to regroup, where the areas of concern are, and so on. You also try to learn about those coming on the trip; skill level appropriate for the day, physical fitness, etc. But despite these efforts, and maybe as a result of being amateur trip leaders, we can never quite be sure how the day will play out. Sometimes people drastically overrate their own abilities and they end up suffering all day, or they travel so slowly that they couldn't possibly reach the day's objective before nightfall. Conversely we sometimes get highly experienced people with very strong personalities who basically have come on the trip with their own agenda.

On Saturday it was the first scenario. In fact there were warning signs right at the trailhead, but we had to let things play out. Two hours into the trip it was clear that we would need to break the group up. Brenda formed a sub-group at a place where there were plenty of descent options available. It actually worked out really well. They made a detour to Puff Daddy, found the route without any shenanigans for a change, skied untracked powder back down to the road, and pronounced themselves to have had a fine day.

I continued with the rest of the group up and over Sifton under amazing blue skies and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.









South face of Sifton anyone?

Asulkan Cabin

But, skier, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

Closed highways wreaked havoc with the arrangements. 80cm of high density snow in 24 hours severely limited the skiing.

Worth the trip? When the outhouse looks like this?



Yeah. Life is short. It's always worth getting out. Even when it gets a little weird.

Asulkan Hut February 11/12/13 2011 from Andrew Parker on Vimeo.