Trip Report

All times are Alberta time.
Day 0 = April 19,  1992

Day –1: Organize in Banff. Enjoy meeting superclimber Joe McKay, who shares house with Roddy. Also Terry Duncan who, with Joe, did Rogers–Bugs traverse a few weeks ago. 16 days.

Day 0: Drive from Banff. Lunch in Jasper. Car shuttle to Blue River. All packs weigh more than 50 pounds, off the scale of my spring scale. Estimate 52 pounds for my starting pack. Finally, two helicopter rides get us all to a high point on the ice near the top of the McLennan Glacier, close to the Gilmour Glacier. We were let off at 8500 feet, about 3000 feet higher than we expected to be, which was nice. The heli ride was great: good views of Robson, and of the peaks we will be skiing near. A party of two was already camped at that spot. They were to be picked up a few miles away a week later and were just out for some good skiing. We set up camp and build a windbreak.

Day 1: Winds pick up during the night. High winds. Part of windbreak collapses during previous night. We lower the tent around our bodies to get it out of the wind. The storm continues during the day, so we move nowhere. We improve the wind wall and make occasional visits to the other party's tent. Eat very little food. Start reading Jurassic Park.

Day 2: Great dawn. Clear. I'm out of tent before the sun comes up and get a fabulous photo of tent and glacier. One of my ski poles was bent by the force of the winds against the tent! We start skiing along toward the col facing Mt. Sir Wilfrid Laurier. At 10:00 we make radio contact with Stefan at CMH Valemount for a weather forecast. From the col (which is the high point of the trip, 9700') we see the col near Penny Mt. that we thought we would go through. Roddy skis over to take a look. It's very steep and full of new snow. He and Chic return and we decide to descend and go around Penny, as did the party of two.

We descend roped, with skins on, beside an easy icefall. Then ski down without skins to a great camp site with some rocks for sitting. Roddy kicks steps in the slope way that will get us on to the Tête Glacier. It had already avalanched and he goes up through the debris. He makes steps and returns to camp. I ski a little bit on easy slopes. The party of two descends below us to circle the ridge.

Day 3: Weather good. Roddy leads up his steps and he and Chic place a rope at one tricky crossing. We all do this section one at a time. Tom and I play scissors, paper, stone to see who will go first. I win and go first. Strenuous with the heavy packs, as the slope is very steep (45˚ in spots). But the climb is uneventful. We lunch on the easy part of the Tête Glacier, and then begin gentle climb along the edge of the glacier to a col. When we reach the col, visibility deteriorates to zero. We wait 20 minutes and then it clears enough for us to proceed. We descend with skins to a nice camp high on the North Canoe Glacier, near the impressive peaks of Laurier and Sir John Thompson. The site is near a beautiful scoop with neat cornices. We are surely the highest sleepers in Canada this night; even higher next night.

Day 4: High winds during the night, and heavy snow. We sit in tent. By 1300 the skies have cleared, so we pack up and move. First we descend easily to below the face of Sir John Thompson. Then we climb an easy icefall to gain a flat area of glacier. Then we descend a tricky icefall to get from the N Canoe Glacier to the S Canoe Glacier. There was an easy way down on the east, but we went a little west, and had some steep travel, with some retracing. And we might have started one very small avalanche. But we finally got to the bottom without incident. Now we faced another icefall to climb. It was pretty easy, but it was getting late. These icefalls are not at all marked on the maps. Roddy had worked hard all day, breaking trail in a lot of new snow. We pushed up, with Roddy and Chic taking 15-minute turns in the lead. Roddy seemed a little testy here as we rushed to top the icefall before dark. Chic, as ever, was steady as can be. We found a decent flat spot beside a high crevasse, safe from any icefall off the cliffs, by about 1930. The night was clear and cold. We cooked dinner by headlamp and went to sleep late. We are hoping for a stretch of good weather, and the forecasts from CMH guide Stefan Eder always say "high pressure is building".

Day 5: Great morning. We sleep in and are off by 10:00. Up to the easy part of the glacier and the col called the Raush Gateway. What a great spot, if windy. Altitude was about 9500 feet and we had great views south and west. We were higher than many of the nearby peaks. Now came a tricky descent. Roddy and Chic explored. Roddy found a good way down, and Tom and I followed, with a little concern, since we lost track of Chic. He had returned to get his pack by a different route (it was very windy at the edge) and we had not seen him. We carried our skis and plunge-stepped down the steep slope. I slipped once, but stopped myself with my boots and skis. This was a pretty spot because of the ice flutings on the ridge beside and above us.

Shortly thereafter a CMH helicopter dropped off guide Stefan Eder and he skied down to say hello. Then Chic and I made a quick descent in good snow, and we climbed a little then descended a lot to the col that leads to the Ella Frye drainage. We descended other side a little then climbed and contoured west to a col on the main divide, where we camped. An exposed spot, but winds were not too bad. Visited three major river-sources this day: Columbia, Fraser, Thompson.

Day 6: Good weather at dawn. We head west around ridge from a small peak, then follow ridge. Eventually get to McAndrew Lake. Lots of sun, great views. On the final ridge approaching the lake, Roddy hacks through a small cornice with his skis and slips a couple of times before getting through. Then 1000 feet or so of great skiing on south-facing open slope. Then tricky tree skiing. I took a bad fall, wrenching my left knee badly. Stupid. We kept skins on until the final descent to the lake. Skied right to the cache. There was another cache there for a party following us. Sort food that evening.

Day 7:   Calm at breakfast. Then rain. Stay in tent all day. Almost finish Jurassic Park with marathon reading sessions.

Day 8: Rain all day, stay in tent. Finish Jurassic Park. The velociraptors are unleashed on the world. Still raining.

Day 9: Abort. Pack up. Starts to rain as soon as we are packed up. We descend to the junction of McAndrew Creek and N Thompson River, where we are picked up by helicopter. The few sidestepping parts are difficult for me with my hurt knee. Free ride, thanks to Stefan. Cloudy and foggy, but pilot is good.

We later learn that one of party of two we met earlier feel into crevasse. No radio. Got out and spent one day recuperating. Were picked up at preplanned time on Tete Glacier.



Mileage/Climb notes.

Day        1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9

Miles      0          3          4          4          8          8          0          0          4

Climb     0       large    small    small       0          0     –2000      0        -small