With weather less then ideal we had to scrap our original plans and head south in hopes of better weather. We decided among are endless options to head down to Lake Louise Chateau and do a circumference of Fairview Mountain and ride down surprise col a 2000 vert colouir which runs to the shoreline of Lake Louise.
With a wrong turn we set foot on the wrong trail traversing well over 2 miles before backtracking to the Fairview trailhead at 1 in the afternoon. We were fortunate that someone else had already put in a skin track as we raced up the mountain switching over to bootpacking once acquiring the windswept ridge.
With rain on the lower slopes of the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, Jason Hummel, Sky Sjue and myself decided to travel out to the Canadian Rockies to experience some of the most rugged peaks I’ve ever witnessed. With so many accessible peaks along the Icefields Parkway, it was hard to choose among them, but after stumbling upon Mt. Hector– an 11,000 foot peak with well over 5,000 vert of skiing, it became an easy choice.
Some of the locals thought we were crazy to attempt Mt. Hector, as many wait until the days are longer but we felt strong and thought it was worth a shot. We reached the trailhead just around sunrise, at the relatively late (for climbing) hour of 8:30 a.m. It quickly became apparent that the continental snowpack was quite different from the maritime, as a quick pole test went straight down through the snow and down to the dirt. As we skinned up through the forest, we watched the sunrise alpenglow on the peaks to the west. As expected, snow cover was low on exposed ridges, so we often transferred from skinning to bootpacking and back again.
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.
Hopefully, we’ve got less than a month to go before winter has got Washington’s mountains in an unbeatable deathgrip. But until that beautiful day, it’s time to explore! With a break in the endless downpour of the last few days, Dan, Jason, and I found ourselves on the Northwest side of the Olympics dreaming of … Read more
Heliotrope Ridge is the Mount Baker equivalent of the Muir Snowfield on Mount Rainier. There are a few places in Washington where you can hike to to get early season turns. With low elevation glaciers and an easy hike it just takes a little bit of snow to get powder turns. After our first storm of the season it was time to drive north. The plan was to set up camp at the base of Heliotrope Ridge and spend the following day lapping the area. With a phone call from Jason Hummel I was on my way up the Glacier Creek Road. Soon enough I would be getting for first blue sky powder turns of the season.
