Related: McCrae Backcountry Skiing: Wanderlust on Snow

Report from October 15, 2019

As we predicted, we arrived at the McCrae Lake Recreation Site trailhead with snow up to our shins and thick overhead clouds. With a stomach far too full from the previous night’s Thanksgiving meal, we began our ascent on skis up the trail at precisely 9 AM.

We eventually made it to the alpine meadows where the snowpack was getting deeper and deeper. The temperature was hovering around the freezing point, the winds were calm. Boy, were we stoked!

As the clouds parted, we swerved hiker’s right to climb the steeper northwest ridge. As soon as we stepped out of the forest’s safety, the winds picked up. Hurricane-force gusts almost blew us off the ridge’s crest. Man, I missed winter!

As we hurried up the ridge, we noticed a stiff wind slab facing northwest, following the prevailing wind’s direction. We kept this hazard in mind since we were about to ski a similar aspect. After 2.5 hours of touring, we reached the top of the glacier. What a spectacular view! I never get used to it.

Iannick and I were so excited that we skipped lunch in favour of powder turns while the visibility was decent, a rare occurrence on McCrae. The glacier was covered with 20 cm of sublime, dry champagne powder with a solid underlying base.

Knowing the area by heart, Iannick pointed out the crevasse to avoid. After all, it is October: the snowpack is shallow and the crevasse systems are either exposed or thinly covered.

Related: The Early Season Snowpack: How It Affects Your Winter

The first lap was amazing, far better than I expected for this early in the season. It goes without saying: the glacier delivered.

Without hesitation, we toured up the glacier in search of more snow. Iannick the Wise controlled his urge to bolt up the slope and started methodically probing the snow with his pole every few meters or so. He was searching for the hidden danger. Halfway up, Iannick was visibly agitated. He had unknowingly stumbled across the edge of a crevasse and poked a gaping hole through the snow. Looking past, all I saw was a black hole of misery and death. A little shaken, we pressed on for a second lap.

Yet again, the snow was pure gold. We headed for a small hill we named “Moon Landing” for its desolate moon-like terrain. We crushed a few turns down a thinly covered couloir and regrouped at our original uptrack. After some gnarly survival skiing, we returned to our ride at 2 PM. And so began my 2019-2020 ski season… on October 15.

Route Info

5-6 h	820 m	10.5 km	1770-2415 m

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