Surprise Pass

Surprise Pass is a good 10km loop if you are looking for a shorter day touring in the Rockies, with great views and a 900m descent from the pass down to Lake Louise.

Looking up at the Surprise Pass descent from the bottom

We parked at the Lake Louise Parking lot and started touring up the snowshoe trail, following signs for Mt. Fairview and Mt. Sheol. The well traveled skin track wraps around Mt. Fairview to the south (lookers left from the Chateau Lake Louise) and crosses a number of large slide paths. We contoured around, passing through a col between Fairview and Saddle Mountain. Up until this point the going had been easy but as we reached the alpine, the firm crust made it difficult to get a good edge. 

Looking down the valley towards Aberdeen Glacier as we get above treeline

We had to descend a short, steep pitch (too short to bother taking skins off) and fell multiple times on the hardpack as we tried to keep our elevation. Eventually we gave up and side-slipped down into the basin where we were able to get some traction.

The hardest part of the day - the side hill!

We passed 2 couloirs on our right and then the gully for Surprise Pass came into view, directly across the valley from the Aberdeen Glacier. With skis on our backs, we bootpacked up the gully to reach the pass. 

Starting up the bootpack with Aberdeen Glacier in the background

Going up

Almost there!

Conditions were not idea, but the bootpack was well established. It was a chattery, bulletproof descent down to the back of Lake Louise.

The narrow top of Surprise Pass

Connor hangs on tight for the hardpack descent

Skiing back across Lake Louise was quick and we were back at the car in under 4 hours. The skiing may not have been amazing, but it was hard to beat the company!