Lily Glacier to Dome Col Traverse

Sunday morning came early but was kickstarted with a coffee at La Baguette. As we drove up to the pass, the clouds started to break and we got our first views of the trip after all the storms. After dropping a car at the Illecillewaet parking, we double checked our glacier gear and started up Loop Brook towards the Elephants Trunk. It was going to be a big day climbing up the Lily Glacier to the Dome Col and the weather couldn't have been better.

Working our way up the creek from Loop Brook

The up and over route is a 1500m climb from Loop Brook to the Dome Col via the Lily Glacier. Once at the Col, you descend into the Asulkan drainage down the Dome Glacier. Depending on the conditions you can make your way down to the mousetrap (skiers right) or head left and finish in an avalanche path near Mushroom People. That exit does have some waterfalls and cliffs at the bottom so you do need to watch where you are going. The whole route is about 18 km and took us just over 7 hours to complete. It was an excellent objective for a sunny day in the pass.

Kristina out in front with Mt. Swanzy ahead

We followed a broken skin track up the brook. It was a pleasant temperature in the valley but we could see the wind howling at the ridge tops. From the top of the Elephants Trunk, we had amazing views of Mt. Ross and its couloirs, as well as views across the highway to Cheops, Balu Pass, Video Peak and beyond.

Up the Elephant's Trunk

Snack break

Spectacular Mt. Ross

We trended left towards Mt. Swanzy as other tracks broke right headed for Bonney Trees and Bonney Moraines. As we left the trees, we got our first view of The Dome far above us at the back of the bowl.

Breaking out of the trees below Bonney Glacier

Corona over Mt. Swanzy with the Bonney Glacier to the right and Mt. Clark above

A party of 2 ahead of us was breaking trail and we were stoked just plod along in their tracks. We crossed over onto the moraine and started to climb.

Heading up the lower moraine with good views to the couloir on Ross across the valley

Following the moraines up and left toward the Lily Glacier (Dome on the left)

As we worked our way up towards the toe of the Lily Glacier, we finally caught up with the other party, another guided group. The guide was setting an excellent skin track and moving quick. We ended up following them all the way up to the Dome Col and didn't have to break trail once. We skied up the toe of the glacier unroped due to the overhead hazard. We had probed >3m of snow on the glacier, but there were some crevasses open on the lookers left side that we avoided. Once we made it past a hanging cornice, we roped up for the final climb up to the Dome Col. At this point, we had been traveling for almost 5 hrs and had gained most of our elevation.

Approaching the toe of the Lily Glacier

How far we have come already!

Onward and upward

Long slog up the glacier

Mt. Swanzy and the Lily Col

We stopped for a lunch break below The Rampart. The views were stunning and it was warm in the sun. The snow up the Lily Glacier had been wind scoured and firm. We hoped that the snow on the Dome Glacier side of the col would be better skiing. From our lunch spot, we could see the Lily Col and over towards the Swanzy Glacier, and area of Roger's Pass I had never seen before.

Kyle has happy feet again

Looking down the Lily Col

The final climb to the Dome Col followed a wind scoop to a short but steep boot pack between The Rampart and The Dome.

Final push to Dome Col

Into the wind scoop

Dome Col bootpack

On our way up

Almost there

We climbed up into the sun and were greeted by a few other parties who had skied up from the Dome Glacier side. Some of them were dropping in to ski the Lily Glacier (despite our warnings of bad snow), but most were heading back down towards the Dome Glacier and Asulkan Drainage. From the col, we had views across the valley of our line from the previous day (Lookout Col and The Ravens) as well as unobstructed views of Youngs Peak and Mt. Sir Donald. It was beautiful. It had taken us 5.5 hrs to reach the col, traveling at a steady but comfortable pace. We had lots of time to take in the views before starting our descent.

Top of the pass. It's all down from here!

Views across to Lookout Mountain and Sir Donald with our tracks from yesterday in Lookout Col

Kyle dropped in first down the Dome Glacier. The snow wasn't as deep as it had been the day before but it was still great skiing down the open slopes. We had a long descent back to the valley, broken up into multiple sections through the fresh powder.

Making turns down the Dome Glacier

Good day for photos

Powder farming

Happy days!

As we descended, other ski lines came into view, including the Forever Young Couloir on Youngs Peak.

Forever Young and Young's Peak

Back at the car, we were exhausted but so happy to have completed this big day out. We gorged on nachos and pizza at the Village Idiot in Revelstoke before a soak in the hot tub to soothe our aching legs. What an amazing day!

Waiting for our well deserved pizza