Spring Break in BC...Duffy Lake to Roggers Pass
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Joffre Peak
Day One- Driving
Spring Break began Saturday March 11 at 3:00am when Patrick and I left Bozeman towards the Canadian coast. By noon we found ourselves eating lunch my parents house in Seattle. With some more food supplies we headed to Vancouver for maps and Sushi. Patrick’s desire for sushi had grown to an uncontrollable level, with two years in Montana. With a couple maps and more of an idea on where to go we continued towards Whistler. We stopped by a local shop in Whistler to get information about a backcountry hut north of Pemberton. To our surprise, Keith’s hut is a free backcountry hut with lots of room and a wood stove. One of the shop employees also informed us that it was a very popular backcountry area, often with crowds. The fact that there are crowds struck as a deterrent to the area. We continued up to Pemberton and decided to go for a more remote backcountry area. As we arrived at our trail head around midnight we looked around for snow. The trail head was at least 1000ft below the snow line. With no desire to carry skis and boots on our backs with overnight packs we resorted to plan two. We turned the car around and drove north of Pemberton to the Cerise Creek trailhead. We pitched a tent in the parking area 1:30am and quickly fell asleep.
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Packing for the first leg.
Day Two- Duffy Lake
Clear skies illuminated our tent and had us rousted by 7 am. We could see Joffre Peak looming in the distance with several couloirs running down its north face. We packed our bags for the possibility of three nights and headed up Cerise Creek. An easy skin left us at Keith’s hut in less than three hours. After a quick lunch we down graded to day packs and continued up the Anniversary Glacier in search of mellow powder turns. We reach the top of the glacier at the Cole between Joffre and Matier by 2 pm. The mellow turns down the glacier looked less appealing than the Australian Couloir on Joffre, or the east face of Matier. With the sun setting towards the west we decided we could get better light in the west facing Australian Couloir. A short descent to the ice field left us at the base of the Australian Couloir. An already set in boot pack made the ascent up the couloir easy. The slope was consistently 45 degrees with creamy snow on a firm base. The conditions for skiing were favorable. After ascending the couloir only a short jaunt to the summit of Joffre Peak remained. Little wind and warm temperatures allowed us to hang out on the summit as the sun began to set. We decided to ski a different route than ascended, so Patrick and I rappelled over the small cornice on top of the Central Couloir. Part way down the couloir I took a little tumble ejecting from my skis and tumbling a couple of times. No injuries accompanied the short tumble due to the soft snow conditions. Patrick regained my gear and we proceeded down towards the hut. The sun had set completely, but we did not need to resort to head lamps. The nearly full moon and the clear skies light up the glacier for creamy night skiing. We arrived at the hut to find a stocked fire and warm water. Patrick cooked up some pasta with pesto as we exchanged stories with the other hut guests. Eight of us slept comfortably upstairs on the plywood floor.
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Patrick skinning up to Keith's Hut
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Keith's Hut
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Patrick next to the Anniversary Glacier
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Patrick crossing the ice field with Matier in the background
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Patrick booting up the Australian Couloir
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Myself exiting the Australian Couloir with Matier in the background
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Patrick on the summit of Joffre Peak
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Sunset on top of Joffre
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Patrick rappelling into Central Couloir
Day Three- Keith’s Hut
Overcast skies blanketed the tops of the nearby peaks when we woke up. Sore muscles from the long skin and the fall were defiantly holding me back. I decided to hang out around the hut for the morning in the gloomy weather, while Patrick took of with a couple other skiers. We reconnected for lunch to discuss the newly forming weather. With large amounts of weather forecasted for the coast range we decided to chase stable snow and head for the interior. We packed up our gear and headed back to the car to travel to the Canadian Rockies. We drove south to crash couches in Vancouver at Patrick’s friends house. More sushi and a warm room to sleep in made for a good nights sleep before we got back into the car.
Day Four- Revelstoke
We put ourselves back into the car and drove north east to Revelstoke. A night at the Hostle set us up for the next leg of our journey.
Day Five- Rogers Pass
The visitor center on Rogers Pass opens at 7 am, so we found ourselves signing up for huts by 7:30am. We booked one night each at the Asulkan, Wheeler and Sapphire Cole. Four days of skiing then back to school. We packed two nights of supplies and trekked up to the Asulkan hut. Like usual we packed up extra weight, ice axe, crampons and rope. We were informed that there was glacier travel, so we took the necessary gear. We packed day packs after lunch in the propane heated Asulkan hut and pointed ourselves at Youngs Peak. The sun came in and out all, so we hoped to ski down Youngs in a sun break. Instead of traveling up the ridge (the easy route) we began booting up one of the chutes on the North West face. Deep facets and a 50 degree slope made uphill travel difficult. We slowly wallowed up the one of the chutes to near the top. The faceting ended up being to difficult to reach the ridge, so we waited for a sun break. The sun quickly dropped towards the horizon so we took advantage of a slight break in the whiteout. Looking back we should have waited longer, the sun did poke out some time later. Anyway the steep powder skiing with poor visibility was quite enjoyable. We navigated near our skin track back to the Asulkan hut. Two groups were already in place, cooking dinner and exchanging war stories. We joined right in on the fun, bringing some US perspective to the table. Our soup and couscous was no match for the veggie burgers, brie and wine another group hauled up. Warm hut, full stomach, and comfortable pad made for a good nights sleep.
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Approaching the Asulkan Hut
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Patrick approaching the northwest face of Youngs Peak
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Patrick wallowing in facets all the way up the face
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Clouds quickly moving in
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back to the Asulkan Hut before dark
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Wine, Beer and Brie...mmmmm.
Day Six- Saphire Col
The Asulkan Hut was booked through the weekend so Patrick and I were forced to move on. We packed up or overnight packs and began skinning up to the Saphire Col hut. We spotted some lines to ski on the way up. A horrendous cough slowed me down all morning, so Patrick took over the trail breaking and lead almost the entire way up to the Col hut through deep snow. We dropped our heavy packs at our highest camp location, and were relieved to be done with the weight. In order to ski the lines scouted from our skin track we would need to either cross a heavily crevassed glacier, or traverse out a ridge. Not wanting to carry glacier gear and exercise rusty glacier travel knowledge, I told Patrick we should attempt to scale the mountain and continue out the ridge. Patrick reluctantly agreed and we easily summited Mount Jupiter. I began booting out the ridge, avoiding the large cornices on one side. At one point I broke through the snow pack into a large crack. One side of the crack was the solid rock of the knife edge ridge, with the other side being solid cornice. The crack continued down 15 or 20 feet before reconnecting to the ridge. The cornices on top of the ridge had begun to break away from their anchors, turning Patrick and I around quickly. We descended down our same route in defeat. On the way back to the Sapphire Col hut we met some Norwegians who ended up bagging the same peak we just attained. To fend off my sickness I boiled some water and ate some of the extra pasta for lunch. Patrick stuck to the usual bagels and turned his attention to Mount Swanzy. Patrick got a head start and ripped fresh turns down a couloir just outside our hut towards Swanzy. I finished my lunch and followed. I was pretty late in the day by this point so Patrick turned around well below the summit and I turned around just after I started hiking. We ventured back to our unheated Saphire Col hut. The small wood insulated hut warmed up to just below freezing with our body heat and cooking. It was much warmer than a tent and much roomier. Sleep came quick after another long day.
