Related: Sapphire Col Traverse: An Alpine High

Report from December 3, 2020

I assembled the team: Iannick and Freddy, two experienced backcountry skiers that I would trust with my life if shit was to hit the fan. Our day began at the Loop Brook parking lot, frozen solid by the cold morning breeze. It’s no understatement that this drainage is an ice-box, being surrounded by some very serious glaciers. After a prompt transceiver check, we slogged up the Loop Brook, crossing fast-moving water at the Elephant Trunk. From there, we were but a short bushwhack away from the narrow moraine leading up to the Lily Glacier. Let’s call that one the Lily Moraine.

Along the way, we observed the presence of surface hoar on sheltered aspects, noticeable by the magical glimmer the crystals produce as they reflect sunlight. We quickly hopped on the Lily Moraine, a high-ground route that would negate the overhead avalanche hazard from the exposed west slope of Mt Afton. The Bonney massif stood high above us with its heavily crevassed glacier lying at the base of its headwall. From our perch, we could spot the Dome and its col, the high point of the Lily-Dome Traverse.

We shimmied along the Lily Moraine until we cleared the hazard posed by Mt Afton as the tree cover started to thin out. From there, we traversed through the low ground and connected with yet another moraine, looker’s left of the Lily Glacier, which was barely in our view at that point. This was a painful reminder of global warming’s impact on small glaciers. The small toe had receded halfway up the valley, now only a few hundred meters below the Lily Col.

Eventually, the height-of-land walk came to an end as we reached the end of the moraine, just a little above treeline. We now faced the rocky, wind-scoured west face of the Rampart, a broken, knife-edge ridge that looks like the back of a stegosaurus. Let my nerdy Jurassic reference sink in with you a bit!

Since we planned on traversing below the slope, the overhead hazard was worth discussing. Things were looking good: the natural avalanche cycle happened more than a week ago, the aspect, albeit solar, wasn’t warmed up enough by the low-lying December sun, and the ridgetop winds would remain calm for the foreseeable future. Excellent! During a brief lunch break, we met two aspiring ski guides, Jeff and Joe, people I consider friends and touring partners to this day. They unintentionally joined us for the ascent since we advanced at nearly the same pace.

We began the uneventful crossing under the west face of the Rampart. Uneventful is good! The katabatic winds had done a number on the snow’s surface. The 20cm of dry powder below turned into a hard crust. It took all the edging I could muster to maintain traction on the wind-affected snow. I was damning myself for now bringing ski crampons. Somehow, Iannick had no trouble dealing with the side-hilling as he bolted way past us on his fruitless quest to drain his infinite supply of energy.

We escaped the Rampart’s crosshairs just as the snow was visibly warming up, a reminder that moist snow spells disaster. We pressed on towards the upper bench of the Lily Glacier. As we crossed above the Lily Col (2480m), the winds, funnelled through the terrain constriction, dramatically picked up to the point where they almost knocked Freddy over. We felt like one of those polar explorers forging a path through a frozen landscape riddled with sastrugi.

Once we reached the toe of the upper Lily Glacier, we donned the glacier travel and crevasse rescue equipment, aka all the dangly bits. After a short refresher on glacier rope management, we began the short pilgrimage up the glacier, now roped up. It’s worth noting we roped up for practice since the Lily Glacier is barely crevassed. Usually, I don’t bring the gear up there, but it doesn’t hurt to be on the cautious side.

We eventually reached the base of the Dome Col, caked with faceted snow. I knew the sugary snow would make booting up the rock slab a chore. We packed away our glacier gear and prepped our backpacks for the short stint up the col, now lying in the shadow of the Dome.

To my surprise, the bootpack was easier than expected. Jeff and Joe made short work of it, following a well-established track that was put in a few days ago. Within minutes, Jeff and Joe, who were now standing proudly at the top of the col. Looking back, the views of Rogers Pass were absolutely stunning. This is a one-of-a-kind valley!

With much time to spare, we gained the Dome Col and peered past the Dome Col into Asulkan Valley, magical as always. A hundred meters away, our impromptu partners were perched above the Asulkan Glacier on a prominent ridge dividing the latter from the Dome Glacier, called the Cleaver. The Jupiter massif was standing high in the distance, towering over the Asulkan, a view that granted me a good bit of insight into the surrounding terrain. Those terrain photos will come in handy when I’ll be attempting the Jupiter Traverse in spring.

After a good fifteen minutes of rest, we clipped in our bindings and transitioned from the Cleaver onto the Dome Glacier through a precarious wind-battered ramp. This was now the second part of the Lily-Dome Traverse. The snow was, without a doubt, sub-par, an unavoidable fact of life when skiing exposed alpine terrain. Slow, cautious turns were the name of the game.

Surface conditions improved past the ramp. The wind-affected snow turned into light, fluffy powder. Based on our local observations as well as the avalanche forecast which indicated a “moderate” hazard at al[pine elevations, we decided on skiing the Dome Roll, a large convexity leading into a steep glacial slope. Otherwise, we would have veered right following the Cleaver and dropped into a mellower grade.

From the top of the glacier, the slope seemed to roll off into the unknown. I’ve got a particular dislike for rolling glaciers since I don’t get to scope out the crevasses below. After sending it off a serac in Chamonix on one of those, I learned my lesson. Nonetheless, the slope’s grade past the convexity took me by surprise, at which point I gained a little too much speed for my lightweight skis to handle. Luckily, conditions were prime for a quick brake as soon as I realized my predicament.

After sharing our stoke at the bottom of the glacier, we sneaked through a narrow, icy choke, located skier’s left of the Dome Headwall, a steep rock slab below the glacier’s toe. I was struck by the beauty of this feature, covered in clear blue ice! How pretty! We traversed a series of convoluted moraines towards the foothill of Mt Afton, only to burst through a pillow field right above the Asulkan Brook. From there, we performed the usual slog out of the Asulkan Valley and traversed back along the highway to the Loop Brook parking lot in the dark with the loud rumble of trucks whizzing by us.

With good terrain knowledge and proper training, the Lily-Dome Traverse is an accessible, uber-scenic alpine traverse along with the Little Sifton Traverse and the Sapphire Col Traverse. Highly recommended, go do it! Hire a guide if necessary. It’s worth its weight in gold.

Route Info

8-9 h	1600 m	18 km	1100-2590 m

The post Lily-Dome Traverse: Glacier Skiing At Its Finest appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: lily-dome traverse: Glacier Skiing At Its Finest

Report from March 1, 2020

The positive energy was palpable. Laurent and I been aching to get our head in the clouds for a long time and get a good look at the Icomappleux Valley, located behind the Lily and Sapphire cols. We mostly wanted to hop back on glaciated terrain, practice our rope work and sharpen alpine navigation skills, all important facets of ski-mountaineering.

We set out early morning into the twisting canyons of the Loop Brook Valley, branching out into smaller gullies that were carved eons ago by the glacial streams of the Bonney and Green glaciers. We veered right at the Elephant Trunk and ducked into the trees, heading straight for the Lily Glacier in the shadow of Mt Swanzy (2891m). Hopping onto the Lily Glacier was the first step in the Sapphire Col Traverse.

We dug a pit at 1700m in search of a dangerous surface hoar layer buried 60cm under the surface. We planned the Sapphire Col Traverse accordingly, traveling through slopes we thought wouldn’t harbor this dangerous persistent weak layer (PWL). We plotted our route through wind-blown and solar terrain that would minimize the likelihood of surface hoar being present. Wind and solar exposure tend to either blow the crystals away or melt them down. When we had doubts about the location of the PWL, we would stick to low-angle, low-consequence terrain where slab propagation would be minimal (think heavily treed slopes).

We traveled up the gently-sloping lateral moraine terminating the Lily Glacier. Mt Swanzy and Clarke Peak stood watching silently overhead, with the wispy cloud swirling around their summits as the sun pierced the thin veil. The rocky headwall of Mt Green could be seen across the valley. The sight was to die for. It reminded me of why I endure through the hard work to visit those valleys. On the right, we spotted the Bonney Moraines in the distance, a typically “short” ski touring trip in the Loop Brook Valley. Their east face was lit up, contrasting against the shadowy backdrop of Mt Bonney, the highest of the valley at 3100m, and Parsons Peak.

After a few hours that flew by, we emerged from treeline into the exposed alpine slopes west of the Rampart. We gazed upon the Lily Glacier, a tame glacier by European standards, with a few crevasses that can easily be circumvented. I identified old avalanche debris at the toe of the glacier that ran for a surprising length. It originated from a crown on the NE flank of Mt Swanzy, probably from a recent storm slab.

After seeing this evidence of previous natural avalanche activity, we stuck to higher ground following the base of the Rampart, instead of jumping straight on the glacier and setting a trail through the debris. Thankfully, the snow became shallower and lighter as the winds had clearly done some work on the surface. Trail-breaking was much easier.

At that point, the flat light made it difficult to evaluate the terrain further up. The clouds rolled in quite quickly. I broke trail for that part, feeling the snow with my pole as I was mostly worried about unknowingly stumbling upon a wind slab. The slope was averaging the 40-degree incline requiring careful kick-turns every now and then. I took great care in carving a perfect 12-degree trail for future like-minded explorers.

We eventually arrived at the bottom of the Dome, an elongated summit that reminded me of the dorsal fins of a stegosaurus. At the footstep of the Lily Glacier, we roped up for the remainder of the traverse, keeping a constant 12m between us. Visibility was at an all-time low. Fortunately, we could spot the rocky face of the Dome in the distance and simply walked along its base.

After 20 minutes of circumnavigating the Dome through deep snow and howling winds, we reached the base of the Sapphire Col, the traverse’s apex. I led the climb, picking my way through a series of alarming wind slabs. The exposure was serious. A mistake could have been fatal. With careful route-finding, we gained the Sapphire Col. To our relief, the Sapphire Col Hut was unlocked. With the winds almost blowing us away, we sought refuge without hesitation.

It’s in this unheated shelter that we met ACMG guide, Russ Lybarger, who was warming up in the company of his esteemed guests. Nice guy! I felt like I had a ton to discuss. Alas, time was of the essence. Laurent and I had to move. We transitioned for the descent down the Asulkan Glacier and its moraines.

After navigating the series of moraines in near whiteout conditions, we descended below the cloud ceiling and skied the Mousetrap, a towering glacial moraine below the Asulkan Glacier. Great powder! We then toured down the Asulkan Trail to the Illecillewaet parking lot where we stumbled across snowboarding legend, Jeremy Jones, and his pals. It seems like everyone is in search of the Rogers Pass experience! A long slog along the Trans-Canada highway got us back to our starting point, the Loop Brook Parking Lot. Surprisingly, both Laurent and I were still in excellent shape. I pulled out my phone and ticked the Sapphire Col traverse off my exhaustive to-do list.

Route Info

9-10 h	1615 m	20 km	1100-2600 m

The post Sapphire Col Traverse: An Alpine High appeared first on The Uptrack.