Olive Hut (April 17–23, 2005)

Olive Hut, beside the Catamount Glacier just south of the Bugaboos, is in a great location. At an elevation of 8700 feet, it is much higher than the other huts and lodges of this region. However, the fact that snowmobilers ignore the law and ski, in large numbers, onto the glacier is a big problem. The hut has a capacity of six and, while tight, our group of six found no problem.

Trip Report

Our group consisted of Rob Nachtwey, Bob Portmann, Jonathan Kriegel, Chet Roe, Rylan Cordova, and me. Here is a brief report. Airspan Helicopters with pilot John Christensen got us in from Invermere on Sunday when the weather broke briefly around noon. We skied Gwendolyn that day, with three of us making the summit. On Monday we went to the North Star Glacier and summited Alpha Centauri, which had fabulous, and stable, conditions on its steep NE face. From there we went to North Star peak with four summiting and two stopping just below. The east face of that was attractive -- too attractive. Rob jumped in and started a class 2 avalanche that shook us up a bit. He was unhurt as he was deposited on a bench, with the debris continuing farther. Bob, going down quickly to check on the situation, was caught in a small bit of hangfire which caused him to pop a ski. The ski was buried and the group took 40 minutes to find it. Jonathan and I retreated down the climbing route and guided the group down the remaining steep slopes by radio.

The next day we all went on a nice tour to Mt. Harmon and the neighboring "sand dune", from which we skied down a great ski face to near the valley bottom. My binding had broken the previous day and Chet did a marvelous repair job with some metal straps we found at the hut. Snowmobilers were a constant problem on this day, some going right to the hut.

On Wednesday Jonathan, Chet, and I went for Gwendolyn while the others went to the north lobe of the North Star Glacier. As we started skinning up the steep face I was a little concerned, and about halfway up I left my ski and started booting. But the snow on this face did seem stable. There was a 3-inch wind crust from high winds the night before, but it did not seem to be a problem. The step-kicking was fine and we reconvened on a flat snow ledge before the final push to the summit. I continued kicking steps and was feeling quite good. At one point I had to decide between sugar snow on my right leading to some rocks or the steep snow on my left leading to a flat spot from which the summit was an easy walk. I chose the latter. As I made my last step and reached my axe over the top to pull myself over, the axe pried loose a 12-inch slab and my world was suddenly very changed. The whole area I was in was sliding down and I had a few seconds to realize my predicament as I was on top of a 1000-foot face that was quite steep. Thankfully, after being flushed past Jonathan and Chet, most of the slide stopped and I was only about 20 feet below them, having fallen a distance of about 120 feet. I had a sprained knee. Debris did go down farther, but the face was in fact stable. So they belayed me down to my skis and we returned home.

On Thursday I did nothing while the group toured again to the North Star area. On Friday I went out for an easy tour while the group revisited the NW lobe of the Catamount, summiting Mt. Griffith. Our flight out was scheduled for Saturday 9 am, but Rob and Rylan wanted to ski an enticing dog-leg couloir on the cliffs between Gwendolyn and the pass to North Star. They rose at 5:30, were atop the couloir (which we named "Kinky") at dawn, and skied down in good conditions. They were back at the hut by 8:10, in time to pack and be ready for the first flight out. Awesome!

We were going to spend a second week skiing in the mountains but the weather turned very hot with no break in sight. Don McTighe could fly us anywhere. But the skiing would have been lousy. In short, we were sunned out, something I would not have though possible in this range!

Rylan's Chute

On our way over to North Star on Monday, Rylan took a detour to ski this steep line. Later in the week Bob did it too.

Alpha Centauri and North Star

The view from the summit of Alpha Centauri. The ski down from here was super: steep and stable powder. North Star and its enticing and dangerous face are right of center.

North Star Avalanche

With false confidence from our line on Alpha Centauri we planned to ski the beautiful east face of North Star. Rob jumped in and triggered a large slab after four turns. His tracks are visible in the photo, disappearing at the apex. He was unhurt, but this was a warning that these slopes cannot be taken lightly. His skis did not come off, but he tumbled out the bottom without injury.

Bugaboo View

The mountain views were spectacular. Here Bob Portmann follows the route to Mt. Harmon while the Bugaboos (Howser, Pigeon, Snowpatch, and Bugaboo) dominate the background.

Purcell Mountain High

Jonathan always brings his guitar to mountain huts. Mt. Harmon in background.

The Binding Doctor

Chet Roe, an experienced telemark skier, is a medical doctor, but he also has surprising skill as a binding doctor. When my telemark binding broke (G3: rivets popped), Chet found a remarkable way to fix it using metal straps found in the hut.

Kinky Kouloir

The youngsters, Rob and Rylan, left the hut at 5:30 a.m. on the day we were to fly out at 9 so that they could ski a radical line that was not too far away. They did it in superb style, returning to the hut by 8:10. We were impressed. The route in question is the prominent dog-leg line off the cliffs between North Star Pass and Gwendolyn. Here is a photo (by Rob Nachtwey) that shows all of the couloir except the start area, which is behind the sunny rocks at the top of the ridge.