Trip Report
Stan Wagon, Silverthorne, Colorado,
Sat 4/13/97. To the ACC clubhouse in Canmore after flying in with Peter Crisci. Noisy, somewhat dirty, but adequate. Probably should have stayed at Lake Louise hostel instead, but that is more expensive. Met Katie Larson, Kurt Morscher, and Bob Salazar who had driven my Ford Explorer up. We were easily able to gear up. Weather report and satellite photos not promising, though past several days saw full sun.
Sunday, 4/12/97 To Bow Hut in warm and clear weather. 11 a.m. -> 2:10 p.m. My pack was about 47 pounds, and others were between 47 and perhaps 56. The hut was packed with day-trippers. No new snow in days. People were complaining that local area was skied out. Katie, Peter, and Stan got out for an 800' run in the afternoon. Salmon for dinner.
Occupancy: Guide Jim Bay and 5 clients (one of whom went to West Hill High in Montreal, near where I went to high school), 3 guys from Calgary, 4 women from Banff, and us: Total = 18.
Monday: Katie, Bob, Peter, and I head toward Mt. Rhondda in worsening weather. Still good views of Mt. Gordon, etc. Gained Rhondda ridge via south shoulder and made our way north. Saw lots of old tracks. Used GPS to locate the suggested route down, since it was marked on map. Super powder run of 600'. Then back up to the ridge to ski a different line, but visibility was bad. Lots of good ski runs all along the east side of the ridge. Then the long traverse back to the hut. Got good view of a steep run on Gordon's NW side! This potential ski run is quite visible at the far right of the photo on p. 140 in Lou Dawson's superb new book Wild Snow (AAC Press, just published). Kurt, at the hut, saw 3 skiers come down the St. Nicholas headwall, so he went out and skied it himself. Very steep, but stable. Yet, much closer to the hut, he released a small slab in a small roll. Dinner = peanut butter pasta. Occupancy: 3 guys and us.
Tuesday: All go up to Gordon but whiteout stops us a few hundred feet below summit at head of the NW chute we saw yesterday. Ski down carefully from 9900, back to hut for lunch. Then Kurt and I go to Olive-St. Nicholas col and down the headwall he skied yesterday. Steep for me, so I traversed some. Then I skied and hit some old tracks which hurt a hamstring. Katie and Bob also went out and did the steep run by a shorter approach. Hans Braun and 4 young Germans came up: they were spending the night on the glacier. Occupancy: us plus 2 guys from Edmonton who own a small ski area with 300 (sic) feet vertical. Nice fellows.
Wed: Very low visibility. As we approach Olive Pass we saw a party of 3 ahead of us. Then a party of 3 skiing down to Bow from Peyto. Then a party of 4 coming up VERY fast behind us. Three parties converged at the col, where we paused to rope up. The party of 4 (Utahans) turned around at this point and went to Bow. The party of 3 (Tim, Andy, Philippe) took a too-northerly route and had to recover from that error. We took an E bearing followed by SE and eventually caught up to the party of 3. Katie was first on the rope. At that point they headed off while I pulled the GPS, which said that Balfour Hut was 0.9 miles away at 171 degrees. I directed Katie from second position on the rope. Got there in 20 minutes. I don't think I will use the GPS often, but I consider it just another tool, like a compass, and in certain conditions it is just wonderful! Occupancy: 5 + 3.
Thursday. Declining visibility (and it was already very bad!) So far every day was worse than preceding. We all watch as the 3 head up toward the Balfour High Col en route to next hut. They dig a pit about 300 feet up and then turn back. So there was a lot of discussion among us as to best route to the high col, avalanche conditions, alternate routes out, etc.
Bob took a rest day while we four went to Diableret Galcier on the W side of Balfour Pass. First we examined the amazing ice cliff near the lake at the pass. Then on to the glacier. There was some discussion as to best route up the glacier, but, with some difficulty, we reached a consensus. Visibility down to 0 so we did a Rutschblock test on the way up and examined the snowpack. There were clear instabilities about a foot down. Then went to the top of the ridge in very white conditions. Waited 45 minutes. No improvement. So we started down and, amazingly, came back to the snow pit. Then some vis. came, so we did get some good turns in. The region in the vicinity of Balfour Pass is most beautiful, with some water ice (from the lake?) very close to big glacier ice features.
Bob reported that a party of 3 (we saw them descending to Bow yesterday) came through and went right up to the high col with no problem, taking a steeper line than those who backed off earlier. And they had bad vis.
We had the hut to ourselves. Pasta dinner. Very stormy night.
Friday: Finally a nice dawn after a night of heavy snow. We cleaned the hut and headed up, roped, with Kurt and I at the ends. We followed the tracks of the successful party. Hard trailbreaking. I broke for the first 500', then we flipped the rope and Kurt took over, taking us up through the ramp. Full sun. Great ice formations on the face of Balfour, including ice arches! I took over for last 500 feet and we reached the col 3.5 hours after starting. We had planned to leave packs here and try for Balfour's summit, but clouds were moving in and the route description did mention avalanche potential. With all the recent snow, we decided to head straight to the Scott Duncan Hut.
Very easy descent to the hut. Small hut. After settling in we observed what appeared to be people at the high col (2.75 air miles distant). Hard to be sure. Kurt, Peter, and I went to the Lilliput area and skied a bit on the Balfour Glacier, but visibility became poor. While walking on a ridge Kurt stepped through a cornice briefly! Katie and Bob climbed about 500 feet up the steep ridge of Mt. Daly, but could not go farther because of very steep snow slope.
At around 6 p.m. 4 people showed up. They had gone from Bow to Balfour via Vulture Col (we saw them skiing down as we climbed) and then in our tracks to the high col. Then they summitted Balfour, and came on to the hut. A very impressive day! But they were very strong. Marcus Nash had just won the U.S. 15 km freestyle cross-country championship! And the others were various coaches and racers from the University of Utah (including Kevin Sweeney, current coach there). They made us feel appreciated as they liked both our tracks and the tidy condition in which we left the hut. They also observed that our tracks up to the high col changed in width at about the point where we switched leaders. Observant, but then again these fellows have put in many miles on tracks! Of course, we did some second-guessing of our own choice when we learned they made Balfour summit, but given conditions and loads of new snow I think our decision was sound.
The hut was a little crowded that night, but ok. Stormy outside, as usual. Great dinner (burritos) and great margaritas thanks to Katie.
Last day, Saturday April 19:
Started at 10 am with nice light packs. Easy to the Niles col, then some crusty skiing and very steep crusty forest. The party of 3 that had been at the hut before us had gone out by Bath Glacier route but we kept to our Sherbrooke Lake plan. Bob took a big fall losing a water bottle and fuel bottle that were attached to outside of his pack. He replaced them in same place, took another fall later, and they were lost for good. We skated across Sherbrooke Lake, located the trail to West Louise Lodge and started down. It was in good condition for skiing. What a pleasant surprise to hear my wife's voice in a little while. She had flown to Calgary and driven up and located the obscure trailhead, and there she was, a mile from the highway. Out to the lodge, taking 3.5 hours for the descent. On to the Outpost in Lake Louise for some beer! Total climb for the trip = 15000 feet.
Then we split up, with Peter and Joan recovering the car at Bow and Peter heading home while Joan joined us at the Arl Motel in Golden. See the Mistaya section for the continuation of this report.