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

Return to McMurdo

After 3 years of booking the McMurdo Hut for a season opener in December, we decided to give it a try in January, hoping for a deeper snow pack and more skiable terrain. We did our best to recruit some friends, but at the 11th hour ended up being the only ones heading into the hut for the weekend. We drove to Golden on Thursday night to ensure an early start into the hut Friday morning. After a wrong turn down an active haul road that I don't think existed last time we came in (not recommended), we made it to to the staging area at 21km up the Spillimacheen FSR by 8:30 am. From there, it was a quick rip up by sled the road to the McMurdo FSR before turning just after 56km to take the 2km trail to the McMurdo Hut.

Bundled up and ready to sled

Top Hat Ski Traverse - Yoho National Park

 Distance: 16km

Elevation: 1216m

A perfect January day for a ski tour in Yoho

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

Jumbo Pass Cabin Pow Fest

Approach to the Jumbo Pass Hut

Booking a winter hut trip is a gamble. You never know if the weather will cooperate or if you will even be able to get into the hut at all. We booked the Jumbo hut months in advance after multiple failed attempts to secure a booking at any of the Columbia Valley Huts. Somehow, the stars aligned and we ended up with 5 days over the Family Day weekend. With a treacherous start to the backcountry season and a low snowpack, people were hesitant to commit, but thanks to Steve's network of cool friends we managed to put together a crew of 6 stoked skiers who were all praying for snow.

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.

Trespass Ridge Fernie

Distance: 14km

Elevation: 1300m

Time: 4h 15min

Up the Tunnel Creek Road

Trespass Ridge is a great day trip out near Fernie! Starting at the Tunnel Creek parking area west of Fernie, we followed the road up as if we were approaching the hut. After 4km, the skin track to the hut branches off right up a drainage but if you continue to follow the road, it wraps around under Trespass Ridge. Follow the flat logging road until it starts to climb again. Take the right spur and follow it to the cut block. From here you will have a view of the ridge.

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.

December Pow at McMurdo Cabin

Starting at sunrise

Our 3rd annual December pilgrimage to the McMurdo Cabin was our first weekend of skiing for the 2022/2023 season. After horrible snow conditions the previous year and a rough start to the season, we had very low expectations for the skiing and we couldn't find anyone with a sled who wanted to come with us. Despite that, Kyle and I managed to find some decent snow and had a surprisingly fun weekend at the hut.

Powder Cowboy

Sunshine and sleds

The return to Powder Cowboy after a year off due to covid was a welcome reunion of friends from all over BC and Alberta. We descended on the Little Sand Cabin with sleds, beers, Heather's baking and a whole lot of stoke to get out touring with the best crew around.

Begbie Shoulder (112 Chute)

Distance: 12km

Elevation: 1400m

Peter drops into 112 Chute  as Kristina and Sabina look on

Our fourth and final day with ACMG guide Sabina started with a plan to ski some yoyo laps in the Bonney Trees. Much to our surprise after no new snow, all the winter restricted areas in the pass were closed for the day, likely due to rapid warming and another storm system expected that afternoon. This was the third time in four days that the WRA's had been closed and we had started to run out of options. Despite frequently visiting Revelstoke to ski the resort, all of my ski touring in the area had been centred around Roger's Pass so when Sabina suggested a tour up to Begbie Shoulder I was excited to check out a new zone. Maybe we should have questioned her a bit more about what the day would look like as we were exhausted from three huge days in the pass. But then Kristina may have never learned what it felt like to be "really tired".

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

Valhalla Cat Skiing

First lap, can't wait

After 2 years of eager anticipation, the Valhalla Catski trip out of Nelson, BC was finally a reality. It was delayed by COVID last year, but despite the 5th wave and omicron over Christmas 2021, it was all systems go for the trip at the start of January. Kyle and I had a rough start to the trip with a 7hr drive from Fernie to Nelson. It has snowed heavily on Thursday night and Kootenay Pass was closed for avi control forcing us to take the ferry, but we did finally make it with time to ski a half day at Whitewater.

McMurdo Hut - Early Season Ski Touring

Heading out to McMurdo this year, it was either going to be all time deep pow or absolutely horrendous due to a recent rain event up to 2200m days before. What we encountered were some of the most challenging and terrible backcountry conditions I have ever skied, a disastrously messy hummus explosion and we almost ended up spending a night in the car in Kicking Horse Canyon. Despite the struggles, we had an excellent weekend with our new friends, ate lots of gourmet cheese and got to escape reality for a few days.

"10/10 would recommend"

Deceptive pillows - look fluffy, all crust