 www.turns-all-year.com | Backcountry skiing photos from Wheeler Hut, Rogers Pass, BC: Young's Peak, Grizzly Shoulder Turns All Year: Previous Home Page Galleries |
| This is a gallery of photos which appeared on the Turns All Year home page in the past. Thumbnail images on this page can be clicked to view the full-sized photos, and lead into a slide show sequence for the gallery. The photos are from backcountry skiing trips to Wheeler Hut in the Rogers Pass area of British Columbia in February and December of 2003. February brought lots of new powder snow and skiing on Grizzly Shoulder, while blue December skies allowed for access to the high skiing terrain around the Illecillewaet Glacier and Young's Peak. Both trips featured great Selkirk Mountains powder backcountry skiing. | |
| List Galleries < Older Browse Galleries Newer > |
 Turns All Year CD-ROM |
|
| from January 26, 2004: Grizzly Shoulder, Young's Peak, Rogers Pass, British Columbia, February and December, 2003
| |||||||||||||||
Associated trip reports: February: Every year my teenage son (age 15) and I head into the mountains for a couple of father son get-aways. Over New Years we spent five days at the Asulkin Hut and this trip was a repeat visit to Roger's Pass--or "the pass" as the locals like to say. We stayed with friends in Golder and enjoyed a week of fantastic storm cycle skiing. The following tours were completed at the pass: Ross Peak. Permit area. Park at the Lilly Glacier Loop brook parking lot. 15 cm. of new snow over night. A technical ascent up the east ridge brings you to open slopes that lead down into avalance gulleys directly to the Road. 1000 meter run started in small trees on a steep incline. After a 1,500 foot pitch we nipped to skier's right into the trees for some difficult, steep tree skiing. More fresh snow would have been helpful. The angle was steep and there were a few cliffs to negotiate. The trees were the better option then the scary avalance gulley. Definitely worth doing if you are an advanced skier. Little snow cover over sun crust had us heading to this south facing slope. Hermit. Permit Area. 1,200 meters. Another 15 c's of snow over night. Took a chance that there was enough snow to cover the sun crust on this southeast facing run. The top pitch was quite fun but we started busting through to the crust about halfway down. A fun place to go if the conditions are right. Open glades with a few drops. Bonney Trees. Permit Area. Park at Loop Brook. 10 cm. of new snow. My son was finally able to join us on his split board on this tour. He started the trip with a bad cold that wiped him out. He watched bad movies on cbc and wished he could join us for all the great skiing we raved about every night. Bonney trees is a fabulous place to ski. The top of the tree triangle is a medial moraine that has steller views of the Bonney and Loop Glaciers. The angle is moderate and the snow is usually quite good. Every day was fun but I especially enjoyed the scenic trip up to the top of the run. Couldn't see a lot but the skiing was splendid-two feet of powder with widely spaced trees. We went straight down from the top of the moraine. Halfway down we jumped a 10 ft cliff and were rewarded with untracked snow for the rest of the run. My son goaded me into following him off the cliff and I have to admit it was fun. Highly recommended tour if you are looking for good tree skiing. Illecillewaet. Snowing all day. This was a hoot! Skied to the toe of the glacier and descended the glacier and the moraine slopes. Lots of humps and hummocks and small ridges to negotiate. Like skiing the moguls with three feet of powder over them. A very scenic tour up the Asulkin and then the Glacier crest valley. Trees, a couple of creeks, and big ridges and peaks. (Not that I could see them). Grizzly Shoulder/Hermit traverse (Hermit requires a permit). Puking!!! What can I say. It was a classic Roger's Pass dump. THE place to go when it is dumping is Grizzly Shoulder. We made it better by descending Hermit trees for an isolated run. Thigh deep powder with the first face shots of the week. Grizzly Shoulder. 25 cm. over night. Avalance danger is extreme in the Alpine. My son is toast so I run up Grizzly Shoulder in an hour and a half for the sick run of the week. The snow in the trees is deeper than I have ever seen it. Crotch level on the descent. My Tua 112 cross rides barely keep me up in the stuff. My groin was aching with cold when I finished the run!!! The trick was just to point em down the fall line and string your turns through the trees. Sick, illegal level of enjoyment. The four Germans and I that I did the run with were speechless at the bottom. Glazed looks were on all our faces. Loaded up the car and headed back to Bellingham. Saturday I rested and hung with the family. My ever forgiving woman gives me the ok to go skiing yesterday up in the Mt. Baker backcountry. 7 k of elevation with Alan Kearney at a nice stash. 900 ft. runs in consistent powder. It was a gas making figure eights all day while the masses turn Table into a wasteland. We stay late so my photograper friend can get some pics of me linking turns in the alpine glow with Table and Baker in the background. Lovely conditions ended the best week of skiing ever. Skiing seven days out of nine! December: Epic four days at the pass. Arrived xmas night to a quiet Wheeler Hut and a meter of fresh Selkirk Powder and very stable snow conditions. The best xmas present in a long while. The snow report said it best, "recent storm snow is consolidating nicely with the existing snowpack. First morning I joined some folks from Revelstoke and skied the Dome Glacier directly to the Asulkin. Four thousand feet of untracked, light, Selkirk freshies. NIcest powder the skiis have touched in a while. Snow pit shows one consistent layer of snow through the entire snow pack. No sketchy layers like last year. Best way to access the Dome is to go up the climber's right side of the rock finger that divides the dome and the sapphire. The Dome consistently provides the best snow around and this trip again proved the prevailing wisdom, the deepest deposition of my visit was at the Dome. Next up I joined a Warden acquitance and his fellow warden for a tour/patrol over Lookout Col. Up the Illicellawet Vally bottom and over the col down to the Asulkin. The trek up the Illicillawet is one of the most beautiful valleys at the pass. You ski up next to the creek with the mass of Sir Donald above you. It is one of my favorite places at the pass. This tour requires visibility and good conditions. There are several avalance fans and the final slope has some terrain traps. No worries this day-clear skys and bomber snow pack. The wardens comment about the pit at the col that it as close to being one single layer of snow as you can get. Difficult to get any movement with the shovel test. Lovely run down to the Asulkin. If you nip right and the end of the upper valley for 1/2 mile through the trees you can bomb straight down to the mouse trap on open slopes for a straigh 800 foot drop. From the valley bottom the wardens headed down to catch the bus to town and I went up towards the Dome for another 2,000 feet of skiing. When descending the dome. Traverse skier's (always speaking from skier's perspective) left at 6,700 ft. to catch another nice slope and line yourself up for the drop to the valley. One more traverse left 600 ft. above the valley skirts the cliffs and waterfall with a sweet drop through the trees to the valley. A highly recommended tour for the variety of skiing and the scenic qualities. About 3,200 ft. of down. Repeated the above tour the next. Started out as an attempt to do the Illecillewaet Youngs Peak traverse but the ceiling dropped by the time we reached Lookout col. Repeat tour with an early return to the Hut. Last morning at the pass dawns cold(-20 C.) and clear. Two parties at the Wheeler make the tour over Youngs Peak. Six folks from a lodge in Fernie doing some training and our party of three. Conditions are perfect. The folks from Island Lake Lodge take the traditional approach up the Illicelliwet Glacier while we check out a sneak that bypasses the broken up glacier. From Lookout col we head up 500 ft. to 7,600 ft. and traverse across a ledge below Lookout Peak. The rumored ledge is a great alternative and puts us out on the Neve above the worst of the glacier. It is a long way to the summit from here but the weather and views are incredible. We can see peaks in all directions. A two mile slow ascent brings you to the col below Youngs Peak and the cornice pitch. You must have ideal conditions to do this tour in winter. There is some very serious avalance terrain and the cornice pitch is probably the most worrisome. Fifty feet of boot packing up solid snow confirms that today is a rare day; clear ski and Êno avy worries. The summit triange is a bit icy but we all manage to skin up to the top. On top we relish the view and gather excitment for the six k run down the seven steps of heaven. You can see all the way to the Lake Louise and Bow summit. My previous visit to the summit in '92 offered no view. We skiined up from the Asulkin and were greated with strong winds and no visibility. After wanting to do this tour for many years I finally got the conditions. Clean tracks down from the 9,600 ft summit to the Asulkin Cabin has us all hooting . An hour after leaving the summit we are warming our toes at the Wheeler. Rogers Pass is the Mecca of backcountry skiing in North America. It has my favorite kind of touring, big alpine terrain and great snow. Also, if it is really dumping (as I noted last year in my posts re: the Pass) you can find lots of tree skiing. Gregg |
List Galleries < Older Browse Galleries Newer >
Photos ©2006 Turns All Year LLC, www.turns-all-year.com (copyright info here) |