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Published: April 10th 2006
At the Start
Taken just outside the Num Ti Jah lodge, this is the group just about to head off, at this point we're full of energy and not in the slightest bit smelly....They said on the trip criteria that no alpine ski touring experience was necessary and a 'moderate' level of fitness was required, which is a bit like telling an office worker that running for the bus in the morning is adequate training for running the London Marathon......!!
I'm talking about a 3 day back country alpine ski touring trip that I went on last week on the Wapta Icefields. The Wapta Icefields are comprised of a series of Glaciers that run along the Continental Divide from Peyto Lake to the North and the Trans Canada Highway to the south. The area is vast, covering some 2500 sq km, and is possibly one of the most beautiful places that you can choose to spend your time, a feeling that is intensified by the exposure and element of danger that is inevitably encountered whilst venturing out into such an environment.
Our trip, arranged through The Living Room in Banff (which I must say is one of the greatest programmes in Banff that organises non-profit trips for us poor people who get paid peanuts for working in Banff) had us skiing from Bow Lake up to Bow Hut, then across to Peyto
Bow Lake
View of Bow Lake and the mountain behind it as seen from the Num Ti Jah Lodge Hut then back down to Peyto Lake and then home.
Day 1 - Bow Lake to Bow Hut
The first day was always going to be tough when we found out that we were to meet at 6am, meaning a 5am wake-up call, but I dutifully dragged myself out of bed and headed downtown to the Living Room to meet up with the rest of the team. I had organised myself the day before and already packed and prepared the feast that was to be had the second night - beef fajitas for 11 (somehow us three girls drew the short straw with food, being picked to cook for the group on the second night which meant we had to carry the food for two days!!)! My rucksack was quite heavy to say the least, and this was not helped by the transceiver, avalanche probe and shovel that was handed to me by Lanny, the trip leader, before we departed. So we all piled into the van and, to the sound of ‘Highway to the Danger Zone’ from the Topgun soundtrack, headed off to the Num Ti Jah lodge at Bow Lake to start our adventure.
After
Crossing The Lake
And so we head off. You can just see the end of the lake in the distance. As you can see, the sun was shining - I was not the only casualty of sun-burn! a quick lesson in using the transceivers (in which it took Lanny about 20 minutes of digging in the same spot to find the transceiver that he had buried, which as you can imagine filled us with great confidence….) we hoisted on our packs, clipped into our skis and headed out across Bow Lake. It was a beautiful blue-sky day and the surrounding scenery was just stunning. However the sheer hard work of the ski touring soon distracted me from the views and around 20 minutes later I was seriously wondering what I had let myself into and was questioning a) my sanity and b) my ability to get through the next hour, let alone the next three days. But turning back was not an option, so on we went, soon settling into a rhythm and getting used to the action of ski touring. After crossing the lake we headed into a gully system that is known as the ‘avalanche trap’ (needless to say we didn’t hang around too long in this area) then headed out into the open slopes that lead up to Bow Hut. All in all we covered around 8km and 1250 feet of elevation gain, including
Up To Bow Hut
This was the hill that we had to climb to get up to the Bow Hut. It was steep, long and in an avalanche zone so stopping to rest was not a viable option... a killer of a final hill, also in an avalanche zone, on which I had to stop to ‘admire the view’ a number of times, nothing of course to do with the fact that my legs had turned to jelly and had completely lost the ability to do anything. We arrived at the hut at around 2.30pm. Most of us questioned whether we would be able to move again, but after a quick rest and removal of all non avalanche related gear from our packs, we were ready to go on, so we roped up and headed out onto the glacier behind the hut to get some fresh tracks (after around 1 hour of straight up climbing to get high enough to make it worth it!). We then decided we had had enough for one day and took our weary limbs back to the hut where we were served a gourmet meal by the boys (beef curry - very good) before heading off for a very early night.
Day 2 - Bow Hut to Peyto Hut
We awoke refreshed and ready to go, and after a hearty breakfast we were back outdoors with our packs on eager
St Nicholas
This is the peak that was above Bow Hut. to get going. The second day was a serious day that took us out onto the crevasse filled glacier so we all had to rope up together in case one of the snow bridges gave out and one of us had an unexpected downward plummet! We headed out up behind Bow Hut and climbed upwards for the best part of an hour before the hill levelled off. We had amazing views of the valley behind us and St Nicholas to our left. It’s difficult to describe how it is up there. You’re surrounded by vast, untouched snow fields and impressive rocky peaks, and the weather can change in the blink of an eye, one second it’s clear and sunny, and the next you can barely see the person at the end of the line and the falling snow bites into your face and the wind howls. We were lucky though, we only had about thirty minutes when the weather closed in, the rest of the time was clear and we were treated to the views of the mountains stretching out as far as the eye could see all around us.
After traversing around 4km around a gully, we were
Specks on a Giant Snow Field
I think this photograph goes some way to showing how stunning the area is. You can see the peak of St Nicholas on the right hand side. in for a treat when we found that the final section of the day was a 3km downward run to the hut in fresh powder… much enjoyment was had by all as you can probably imagine!! After a quick lunch in the Peyto Hut some of us headed back out again to retrace our steps back up the hill behind to have a second chance at first tracks in the powder. The effort of getting back up there was enough for most of us though, and after skiing back down we headed back to the hut for some R&R and a stonking great meal of beef fajitas and chocolate brownies.
The toilet for this hut was outdoors - quite an experience!!
Day 3 - Peyto Hut to Peyto Lake
By the morning of day three we were starting to feel that we had spent the last three days in rental boots lugging very heavy bags up very steep hills. But we were eager to get going, especially as we knew that although we had the greatest distance to cover in this stage than we had done so far, most of it would be down hill, including the
very first section where we covered around 4 or 5 k in about half an hour. This part also included the best powder runs that we had encountered so far on the trip - to quote the Canadians; it was ‘awesome’!!! We then skied up to and past a glacier monitoring station (which was unfortunately quite high up a very steep hill) to stop for a leisurely lunch, stupid photo taking and alpine elevation (don’t ask, just look at the photos!). We then got to look like real hardcore alpine enthusiasts as we had a section of downhill that couldn’t be skied, so we strapped our ski’s to our packs and boot packed our way down.
That left us with just the last downhill section and the lake to go, simple, you would think….. Three members of the group were ski instructors, and when you watch each of them fly head first into the snow on the section in front of you then you know you are going to have problems… Somehow I managed to get down with plenty of arm flailing and waited with the guys at the bottom for the rest of the group. At that point
Toilet
The toilet at Peyto Hut. Needless to say, none of us were keen to head out there once we had made it to bed! It did have the most spectacular view for a toilet that I have ever experienced though! Paul said, ‘Hey look, someone’s dropped their pole, no wait, that’s flying way too fast to be a pole, shit, it’s a ski…..!!’ Cameron, the only person in the group without a brake on his ski, had managed to fall, loose his ski, and then literally loose it as it went flying off down the hill. Fortunately for us all, it stopped in a tree well before disappearing forever, and watching Cameron come the rest of the way down with one ski was entertaining to say the least.
That left us with the final slog back across Peyto lake, which was beautiful but never-ending, then a final 1km climb up to the car park and home!
A trip of a lifetime!
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gez
non-member comment
very cool