A Taste of Canada: The Joffre Traverse through the Lillooet

for a much more complete version of this TR check Cascade Crusades

Here in Washington it’s yet another day of fluctuating snow conditions. At Crystal Mountain, where I help fund my touring season by teaching advanced snowboarding classes, we’ve experienced bare ice, patches of foot-deep windblown snow, puddles, refreezing, and even the occasional slushy spring-like conditions within the last week. As I ride up the chair with my class– four 13-year-olds, who are eager despite the torrential rain and sleet– I consider regaling them with my latest adventure, which concluded not a 24 hours before, and is surely just beginning to leave my muscles sore.

I’ve just returned from British Columbia, where Jason Hummel, Sky Kilos, and I completed a traverse and descent of the Joffre Group, a sub-section of the more vast Liloet Range. When Mr. Hummel proposed that I abandon Washington’s well-groomed boilerplate for what became six hours of scenic approach and a half-hour of fall-line descent, I admit I wasn’t completely sold. But when he mentioned that our objective would include a sixteen hour drive round trip, I was in! Wednesday afternoon I met up with Jason and we drove to Vancouver to pick up Sky.

Sky Kilos (Skisickness.com) is a highly regarded skier within the ski mountaineering community and an all-around badass. We headed north from Vancouver on the Sea to Sky Highway, past Pemberton, and began to get excited when we noted the snow on the trees at 2000’. Since our highpoint would be around 8500 feet, this was a good sign.

As we climbed up Cayoose Pass, the temperature dropped to ten degrees. At the trailhead, we donned headlamps for the late-night skin out to Keith’s hut, situated at the base of the Matier Glacier and Joffre Peak.

Skinning under the vast network of stars, we reached the hut two hours and four miles later, and happened upon three other skiers already occupying the space. We quietly put our gear away and picked up some much-needed shut eye. Around nine a.m. we gathered our gear together, and, as recommended by Andy, a Squim local we met at the hut, decided to embark upon a traverse in the Joffre Group, and ride the aesthetic north face of Slalok, down to Joffre Lakes.

Under a low-hanging overcast sky, we traversed away from our objective to meet up with a ridge that made a perfect ramp to the col separating Joffre and Matier. As we traversed along the ridgeline, we were met with pockets of perfect snow, and began to get really stoked for the descent. From here, the view of both the Liloeet range and Costal Mountains opened up to massive alpine bowls and aesthetic lines as far as the eyes could see.

From the ridge line, we dropped down onto the Matier Glacier and traversed across and around crevasses barely visible from the past few months of record breaking snow accumulation. Finally, we arrived at the steep south face of Slalock. Soon traversing turned to kickstepping as we ascended the steep exposed face. There wasn’t much room for error, as an accidental slip could send us tumbling 2000 feet down into the serac field below.

Once gaining the ridge, the weather quickly deteriorated as the cloud deck slowly lowered upon us, and we switched to downhill mode as quickly as possible, for a perfect fall line of sustained pitch for well over 1000 meters until arriving at Joffree lake.

What started as a huge open face quickly turned into a steep couloir as we made large, open turns beside exposed glacial ice. When we arrived at the frozen Joffere Lake, we were all grins form ear to ear. As we left our tracks behind, I vowed to spend at least a little more time in the Costal Range this season.