Camp West Lite - Rogers Pass

Distance: 9km

Elevation: 1250m

Looking down the whole run from ridge to highway

Tupper Traverse - Rogers Pass

Distance: 19km

Elevation: 1700m

Time: 7.5hrs

A view of Mount MacDonald from the Connaught Slide Path on the east side of Tupper

STS Couloir - Rogers Pass

STS Couloir

Cheops North #4

1100m

11.5km

Kyle starting the rappel into STS Couloir

With Forever Young Couloir ticked off the day before, the birthday party decided to keep the stoke high and tackle STS Couloir. This line has been on the list for a long time and the stable snowpack and cold but sunny weather made for perfect couloir skiing conditions. 

Forever Young - Rogers Pass

Forever Young Couloir is a classic Roger's Pass Line accessed off Youngs Traverse, below Youngs Peak. It is a big day out with 900m of steep couloir skiing as a reward for your effort.

Distance 23 km
Elevation 1666m

Forever Young Couloir

Sneaky Pow Day - Bonney Moraines

Bonney Moraines

Loop Brook Parking Lot

16km

1389m

After possible the worst start to the ski season, Kyle and I had low expectation's for our trip to Rogers Pass the weekend after New Years. We had been riding dirt on our bike trails up until the first week of December, and had just spent a week in Fernie over Christmas eating chocolate, watching Star Wars and lazing about. We had tried a few days of skiing, dodging rocks and dirt on the ski hill and cross country trails but after a particularly dismal day of ski touring we gave up on skiing altogether and embraced a Christmas Holiday of board games and naps. With minimal snow in the forecast, nobody wanted to join us in Rogers Pass (shocking). We were feeling sorry for ourselves and had missed the cancelation deadline on the hostel so decided to use the weekend to get some exercise and burn off those Christmas calories with a nice walk in the mountains.

Fresh snow in the parking lot

Little Sifton Traverse - Rogers Pass

Distance: 12 km

Elevation: 1400m

Time: 6hrs

A rare clear day in Rogers Pass gave us the perfect opportunity to tick off the Little Sifton Traverse

A Roger's Pass classic, the Little Sifton Traverse gets you up high in the alpine above Grizzly Shoulder and offers excellent views of Sir Donald, Illecillewaet, Asulkan and Cheops. There are options to summit Little Sifton, or ski some yo-yo laps on the way down the confusingly named Grizzly Slide Path out the the Hermit Parking Lot.

Early Season Pow - McGill Glades (Rogers Pass)

Distance: 12km

Elevation: 1150m

Time: 5hrs

McGill Glades deliver

After a mediocre day on Bruins Ridge and Hospital Bowl the day before, I had low expectations as we started up from the Bostock Parking lot towards the McGill Glades. So low in fact that I was feeling sad we hadn't skipped out on skiing altogether to stay up for the midnight Moontricks show in Golden the night before (we are now to lame to do both apparently). The only thing that kept us on track was the fact that Kyle was in bed at 8:30 and I felt too guilty to wake him up to come to the show with me. Good thing too, because we managed to find awesome powder and explore a whole new zone!

Bruins Ridge and Hospital Gully - Rogers Pass

Distance: 14km

Elevation: 1150m

Time: 5.5h

Lots of alders in Connaught drainage this year

Mid-December in Rogers Pass is usually a safe bet for some good snow, even if the Rockies haven't seen much precipitation yet. This year was different. Driving west from Golden, there was barely any snow on the ground. Even as we arrived at the visitor centre we were shocked at how small the snowbanks were. Equipped with our rock skis, we made our way up toward Balu Pass, with a plan to ski 8812 Bowl.

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

Lookout Col and the Ravens - Rogers Pass

Looking down at our tracks on Lookout Col and the Ravens from the Dome Glacier

Day 2 of our guided long weekend began with an early wake up to even more fresh snow in Revelstoke. After cleaning our cars, we met Sabina at La Baguette to discuss possible route options for the day. Once again, the winter restricted areas in the pass were closed leaving us limited options. We settled on a route up to Lookout Col via the Illecillewaet Glacier in hopes that it would not be as busy as some of the other non-restricted zones near the visitor centre or up the Asulkan Valley. 

Teddy Bear Trees

Kyle, Peter, Kristina and I spent 4 days skiing in Rogers Pass and the Revelstoke area with Sabina Wodak, and ACMG guide who spends most of her time skiing the pass. Conditions were all time and we ticked off a some epic objectives while learning lots of new backcountry skills.

Heading up Connaught Creek from the Visitor Centre

January Rogers Pass - Misery and Redemption

This trip didn't look like it was going to happen...

We had planned to camp and ski Roger's Pass with Connor months ago and David was driving out from Vancouver to meet us. Two days before departure however, Calgary was in a deep freeze. As we were getting the trailer ready, Kyle wondered aloud if we would blow it to pieces on the drive out of town in -25c. Frantically, we scoured weather forecasts and plotted driving distances to warmer ski areas. After a few phone calls back and forth, we decided to keep Rogers Pass as our destination but wimped out on the camping and secured a nice warm room at the Dreamcatcher Hostel in Golden. Are we getting soft?

Some alpine views from high on Grizzly Shoulder

Roger's Pass Double Weekend Pow Fest

Sometimes you need to book an ACC hut a year in advance, and other times you luck out and are able to snag a weekend at the last moment after 90 cm of snow. We were recently fortunate enough to spend two weekends at the AO Wheeler Hut in Rogers Pass in the middle of a storm cycle. 

Emily and Trevor had organized a trip to the Wheeler Hut in Rogers Pass in mid-December with some of the usual suspects. Kyle and I rolled into the pass around 9 pm but made quick work of the 2km ski into the hut. We were greeted by our friends and said brief hellos before they went off to bed in anticipation of a big pow day to come. Phil and Paul were also staying at the hut with a big group for the annual "Rogers Pass for People Scared of Rogers Pass Trip," so between our two groups we knew quite a few people in the fully booked hut.

Packing in a snowstorm, getting ready to head into Wheeler Hut

Daddy Cool and Puff Daddy in Rogers Pass

Does it ever stop snowing in Rogers Pass? I doubt it. I have never been up there on a clear day, its always dumping. With over 100 cm of storm snow on the ground and 70 cm in the forecast through the weekend we somehow managed to sneak in two amazing days with surprisingly stability. We took advantage of our good fortune to bang out a couple of laps in the Puff Daddy area with Heath and Alan. Jordan, you missed out big time buddy!

Stoked on the skin track

Roger's Pass

I got some time off! Amidst a whirlwind trip back and forth across Canada, I had four days home and took advantage by heading up to Roger's Pass with Kyle and the trailer. There hadn't been any snow in a few weeks and conditions were pretty stable, which allowed us to go and do some exploring beyond the typical runs on Grizzly Shoulder and Teddy Bear Trees.

Greetings from Roger's Pass - the ultimate ski bum playground

 Day one was a bit of a wake up call for me. I hadn't been skiing in a few weeks and the legs were out of shape. I had also foolishly decided to bring my big heavy "slack country" skis in hopes of amazing powder on the way down, completely forgetting that I would be spending 95% of my time lugging them up the hill. This combined with a steep, icy skin track and not very grippy skins led to much sliding backwards and frustration. It got so bad that Kyle would pull me up every switchback just so he wouldn't have to watch me struggle to use my poles to prevent myself from losing all my forward progress. It was exhausting.

This fat Stellar's Jay followed us for over an hour hoping for a snack

 We made our way up to the top of Grizzly Shoulder and dropped into Roger's Run. Up until about 200m below the top, we hadn't seen any other skiers all day. It was nice to be out on a weekday. We managed to find the run, staying skiers right of the big rock gully and avoiding dense trees farther to the right. The snow was old but better than we had expected. It was nice to ski a new run, but I much preferred Puff Daddy which we skied last year. I struggled a bit because I was so tired from the tour up, so it was a good thing that we dropped right back down to the visitor centre where the trailer was parked. Some people get sucked skiers right and end up in the creek, but we picked our way through some dense trees to access the highway and were a short walk away from our home away from home after our day out.

The exit from Roger's Run was less than desirable

 The next morning, Matt and Charlie got an early start from Calgary and met us in the parking lot as we were finishing breakfast. We set out with a goal to ski Video Peak via Connaught Creek. The avi hazard had dropped again and people were getting after it. Over on Cheops a number of snowboarders were making there way down a sweet couloir. Others were making questionable choices by setting skin tracks straight up couloirs with significant overhead hazard, which actually got called out on avalanche.ca and by a few of the other skiers. Like I said, people were getting adventurous, for better or worse.

Pillow line that I was dying to hit. I must return

 The clouds moved in as the day went on. As we climbed up towards Video Peak on the ridge between 8812 Bowl and Hospital Bowl, we realized that we weren't going to be able to gain the peak without dropping down the back from Bruin's Pass and crossing a glacier. Next time we will have to approach from the climbers right if we want to ski the line straight from the top, or be more prepared with glacier gear. We made it to Bruin's Pass as it totally socked in. The aspect we had been hoping to ski down Hospital Bowl was wind-loaded so we opted to ski the lower angle 8812 Bowl instead. We dropped in and were soon below the clouds cleared with 1000 metres of mellow, untracked, boot-top pow to enjoy all the way down.

Stopping for lunch on the way up to Bruin's Pass

Matt ripping by

Kyle checks out our tracks as we drop back down to Connaught Creek

We celebrated a good day out with a beer in the parking lot before Matt and Charlie left for Golden, where they had the hostel booked. Kyle and I stayed in the pass and enjoyed the propane and generator heated trailer good life.

Matt's teddy bear sampling a refreshing brew after a hard day on the slopes

And the cutest couple award goes too...

 Our crew grew by two more on Thursday morning as Ken and Tyler joined Matt, Charlie, me and Kyle for a ski up Flat Creek to check out Fortitude Ridge. It involved a long, flat (shocking!) ski up the creek, before heading into the woods to gain the ridge. I was lagging, thanks to the bricks I was using on my feet. I wasn't too impressed with the snow at the lower elevations, but as we gained altitude, the snow got lighter, deeper and much more enticing. 

Flat creek access involves ducking under the railway and a lot of creek crossings!

 At the top of the ridge, I thought we were done. Boy, was I wrong. The first good line you reach actually tapers down to a narrow creek and ends up being more of a bushwhack than a fun ski lower down. Matt recommended continuing up the ridge for another few hundred metres to the second slide path. 

Matt and Charlie contemplate slide paths on the other side of the valley

The team making their way up Fortitude Ridge

It was worth the extra effort because it was a fantastic run 1200 m back to the valley, with well spaced trees. Because of the long approach, nobody else had made it out that way, and we got fresh tracks despite the last snowfall being over a week prior. Also, we never hit the crusty snow we had encountered on the way up and had light, fluffy snow all the way down!

Kyle gets stoked to drop in

Fresh pow and fresh tracks

A typical day in the life of Kyle - Brandon Epp

Back in the valley, it was a LONG ski back to the highway. It was just enough of a downhill that we didn't have to throw our skins on, but it was hard to carry any speed and we had to push along the flats with our poles. The skin track up zig-zagged back and forth over the creek crossing snow bridges. We saw an animal track that looked like it had been slip-sliding its way down the snow and creek and Kyle later identified the track as an otter! As our gaggle of skiers made our way down, many of the snow bridges started collapsing, leaving us with options like jumping over the creek, looking for creative alternative ways around, crossing logs, or falling in the creek (Kyle). It was best to be at the front of the group because by the time 4 people had crossed a snow bridge, there wasn't much snow left! 

Ken, our token telemarker. Free the heel, free the mind, man.

Charlie and I hit the road back to Calgary, leaving the boys to spend the weekend in the trailer and continue the exploration of Roger's Pass for 4 more days - lucky guys!

In the end, over my three days in Roger's, Kyle and I traveled about 40 km and 3500 m of elevation and I was dragging on my heavy setup the whole way up. After 6 seasons of touring on a frame style binding, I finally bit the bullet and bought a pin binding immediately upon returning home. I am seriously looking forward to a more enjoyable uptrack for those long days out.

Rogers Pass - Puff Daddy

For the second time in two months, we got the privilege of skiing with David and Tyler, and this time Tristan came along too! After a slow drive out to Revelstoke through a snowstorm, we spent the night in the Revelstoke Mountain parking lot. The other guys had skied the resort on Friday and had talked us into driving past Rogers Pass and joining them for another resort day on Saturday. It was well worth the extra kilometers and we had a fantastic time at Revelstoke before heading up to the pass for the night. We spent the night in the trailer (David and Tyler slept in their Subaru) and woke up to a brilliant sunny day. I am pretty sure everyone I know was checking in at the visitor centre, and it turned into a very social morning before we got on the trail.

Sunny skies and fresh snow in Roger's Pass

Rogers Pass - Motel Mayhem

After a long ski hiatus I got back on snow this weekend in Rogers Pass with the ACC Motel Mayhem trip. It was a weekend of firsts - first time skiing in the Pass, first ACC ski trip, first time skiing with Phil and Kathrine, and the first time I seriously regretted not bringing my snorkel on a ski touring trip. We met Friday night and drove out to Golden to stay at the Dream Catcher Hostel. The owners were incredibly friendly and the hostel was clean, cozy and comfortable. I highly recommend staying there if you are ever in Golden. We entertained ourselves with the left over beer from the Ice Review, socializing and planning out where to ski on Saturday. 

We left the hostel just after 8 am and drove up to the Discovery Centre to collect our Wilderness Passes before parking at the Loop Brook parking area. There were lots of groups gearing up, it was going to be a busy day!

One-eyed ski ninja