Calendar Shots

Since my first hike in the Valley of the Ten Peaks back in 2002, I’ve always remembered the couloir above the lake.  Every time I walked past a “Canadian Rockies” souvenir calendar stand, the 3-3 and a half screams to be skied.  I’d never really done much skiing in the Rockies, and after having my first real ski mountaineering experience, I’m definitely going to return.

I had been talking to fellow skimo racer Ian Gale about the good-looking weather we were having, and when he knew there were other people stoked on skiing, all of his spring ideas started coming out.  Not really knowing much one way or the other, it was decided we’d head to the Neil Colgan Hut up on the edge of the Fay glacier, spend the night and hit up the north facing lines off Mt. Quadra and Mt. Fay.

We had some good beta 0n the routes since a pair from Revelstoke had been up on Fay earlier in the week, and just as we were finalizing our plans, Mr. Greg Hill was sending the exact route we had our sights set on.

Highest habitable location in Canada

We arrived in Lake Louise later in the afternoon on Friday, May 14th, met up with an old friend and waited for our fourth man, Ian Jackson, to finish up work down in Kootenay Crossing and make his way up.  Some final discussions and we were driving up Moraine Lake road in what was some perfect timing since it was the first day the road was open and therefore eliminated a long bike ride in.

Skinning up to the 3.5

Snow at the edge of Moraine lake was pretty isothermic and we were just hoping things in the 3.5 weren’t quite so heated up.  After making our way to the base of the couloir, we decided the hazard of something coming down was pretty low and we started the 1000m bootpack to the top.  Cresting just before dark, we were fortunate to spot the hut in the high col between Mt. Little and Mt. Bowlen, and we cruised into the comfort zone by headlamp just after 10pm.

Clear skies the next morning had us all quite excited.  However, the warm weather outside had us concerned since it hadn’t really cooled off as much as we’d hoped.  It wasn’t going to affect the morning objective of Quadra, but it might affect our ability to get up Fay as well since we were hoping to get back down the 3.5 before things really got warm.

Quadra

On the Glacier

Heading down

Booting up Quadra

Quadra sub-summit

Skiing down around Little was fast and fun.  In no time we were throwing the crampons on to boot up to the Fay-Quadra col and glide down for our first view of the north side.  Things looked good.  We quickly booted up the chute and hammered on as the three of us boys tried to keep up to Julie on the bootpack.  On the top, Ian scoped out a nice entrance that didn’t involve sliding in over rocks, and we leapfrogged our way down a great steep run that will be a highlight for years to come.

Neil Colgan Hut area

Looking down 3.5 to Moraine Lk

Retracing our route from the morning, we headed back to the Colgan hut for some lunch and to pack our things to head out.  Slides roaring down most of the east, south-east and south faces, had us anxious to make our way back out.         Arriving at the 3.5, I only imagined what a line such as this would ski like in powder.  The turns of the top weren’t too bad at all, but you knew that we’d be getting into some much more variable snow, and it was just a matter of when.  Soon after, we were fighting our way through the runneled snow before exiting onto the lower fan and some serious schmoo.  A quick jaunt across the lake and we were back at the truck.

Such a beautiful place.  I keep looking at the weather hoping that they’ll be another good forecast, but it’s not looking too good for this weekend.  Might have to hit something local…hmmm.

Low angle schmoo

Lower 3.5

Quadra line