SkinTrack

Trip Reports & Conditions

Canada webcam snow report: west to east

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After a week of flurries and rain at lower elevations the temperatures higher up were much colder and we can see some real snow now. Weather forecast is calling for more precipitation over the next couple of days except some occasional sunny periods. Let’s hope snow is here to stay.
Update on this report at 7pm on Oct 26:
People are reporting that some decent skiing is to be had around the Revelstoke – Rogers Pass area, higher elevations of course. Also, it looks like Sunshine Meadows (and Village) got some reasonable snow past few days and skiing was reported.
Below are images (taken at 11am on Oct 26, 2009) from five webcams that capture scenery at five different ski resorts:

  • Whistler Blackcomb, Coast Mountains (Whistler, BC)
  • Sun Peaks, Interior (Kamloops, BC)
  • Big White, Interior (Kelowna, BC)
  • Kicking Horse, between Columbia and Rocky Mountains (Golden, BC)
  • Lake Louise, Rocky Mountains (Lake Louise, AB)

Whistler Blackcomb

Webcam is located at 1860m on Blackcomb Mountain. This is 1100m higher than the base which had around 1cm of snow covering the grass at 11am this morning.
blackcomb-mtn

Sun Peaks

This webcam is located at 1270m by Umbrella Cafe which is basically the base of the resort.
sun-peaks

Big White

Webcam is located at the bottom of Snow Ghost Express, at the base, at about 1700m.
big-white

Kicking Horse

Webcam is located at Eagle’s Eye (top of the resort) at about 2430m.
golden

Lake Louise

Webcam is located at the top of Ptarmigan, at about 2150m, looking towards Larch.
lake-louise

Canada snow report: Rockies, Selkirks, Yukon, Coast

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Early season snow report from the Canadian mountains says that some already ski, some are very close, and some are still riding bikes and hiking.
After receiving couple of emails with snow conditions from various places a friend of mine suggested it would be good to write it up in a report. And especially the early season conditions are important to share since they can either safe some driving or jump star the season.
I will try to come up with such a snow report on a “regular schedule” as the season progresses but I am yet to define the word “regular”. And I hope that guys won’t mind using their direct quotes with my occasional comments.

Rockies (Oct 8, 2009 – Canmore area)

“We’ve got 6-8 cm  of fresh in Canmore. Not pow shredding, but I’ll be on the xc boards tomorrow,” Steve wrote.
6-8 cm is not much but for Canmore is close to peak season conditions…after all it beats the Coast right now 😉

Selkirks (Oct 8, 2009 – Rogers Pass)

Andrew works and plays in the same mountains, so he knows his backyard. Here is what he reported for Rogers Pass area:
“I went  up to the Asulkan cabin yesterday and there was about 2 cm of melt freeze graupel at 1700m and 10 cm of nice fluffy pristine face-shot quality pow at the cabin (2000m), almost enough to cover up all the rocks, almost.
When I left work today there was some serious flurries going on, so there is proably a few more cms now. But that is all. It’s a good start and I hear there is more on it’s way, so the first turns will be soon.”

Yukon (Oct 8, 2009 – Whitehorse)

Yukon seems to be doing the best so far. With the trend going, they are almost getting past “the early season conditions” factors up there. Here is more details from James:
“Back on skis today. Headed up Montana Mnt, about 45 min south of Whitehorse toward White Pass and Skagway, Alaska.
It’s been snowing like mad for 4 days straight here in Whitehorse, so decided it was time.
About 25cm of fresh above 1600m and skiable above 2000m.  Still a lot of rock dodging to do but turns on Oct 8 ain’t bad. Heading Haines, AK way tomorrow for another snow hunt.”

South Coast (Oct 8, 2009 – Vancouver, Whistler, Squamish)

On the Coast, we are pretty much… It makes for good fall hiking though with beautiful colours everywhere. Even up at Whistler and Pemberton area it is safe to say that it’s quite impossible to ski, unless you ski “glacier ice”.
Andy says: “It is still summer on the Coast!”
Alex, from Whistler, adds more detail on what is really going on:
“A week and a half ago we got dumped on up high.  Around 10cm of snow, much of which has still stuck around, but nothing even near skiable.
Some friends skied near Squamish yesterday, mostly neve though.
It’s going to be rowdy starting up this year, all of our snowbridges have melted, and crevasses are hungry. Large expanses of ice are now showing, that previously were covered most summers, and the heat also brought massive rockfall.
Early season is going to be tricky.  Hopefully, its deep this year.”

Mount Baker Ski Area gets snow

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There is about 5-15cm of snow on various aspects at Mt Baker Ski Area. Not quite enough to really ski, however, there were some brave snowboard and ski tracks.
Yesterday, Oct 3, I drove up the Mt Baker Ski Area road to do some hiking. As I got higher it became very obvious that my low-cut hiking/running shoes wouldn’t be too suitable for the conditions. Snow was on the ground already at Heather Meadows parking lot.
Road that leads to Artist Point via Austin Pass was closed for the winter and a bit of snow covered it at the gate. By Austin Pass the coverage was just enough (5-10cm of hard snow) to skin up. Skiing would have been a bit sketchy but possible.
The weather was excelent with occasional wind gusts, but not too strong. Mostly clear skies and around 0-5 degrees Celsius.
Next few days are supposed to be sunny and fairly warm, so I think the snow will melt to ground on south aspects but may hold on on shadowy north slopes.
Here are few photos to give you an idea how it looked up there yesterday:

Looking east towards Mt Shuksan from a pass north of Table Mt (above Iceberg Lake).
Looking east towards Mt Shuksan from a pass north of Table Mt (above Iceberg Lake).
Mt Baker from Artist Point.
Mt Baker from Artist Point.
Looking at north slopes of the Ptarmigan Ridge and Coleman Pinnacle. Mt Baker in the clouds.
Looking at north slopes of the Ptarmigan Ridge and Coleman Pinnacle. Mt Baker in the clouds.
North-east slopes of Table Mountain in the background.
North-east slopes of Table Mountain in the background.

North Joffre Creek mini-traverse: Spring skiing and bush whacking

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This trip took place in Duffey Lake area in the southern part of Coast Mountains, Canada, during May 23-25, 2009. Duffey Lake backcountry skiing is a serious rival destination to the famed Rogers Pass near Revelstoke, BC.

A detailed description of the North Joffre Creek traverse can be found in John Baldwin’s book – Exploring the Coast Mountains On Skis.

Day 1 – bush whacking

Peter fighting some serious flora to get us started.
Peter fighting some serious flora to get us started.

Since spring conditions are one of the best to explore new terrain, due to high snowpack stability, stable weather and long days, we decided to go out on for three days.

Two of us, Stano Faban and Peter Mrazik, headed up the Duffey Lake road on Saturday morning. We parked our car on a logging road (km 3) on the east side of the North Joffre Creek, since this was the spot where we would finish the trip.

The late date and warm days just before our trip prepared quite a bush whacking for us. Avoiding swaps, which are skied over in the winter, by crossing the creek and the valley higher up meant dry boots but very thick bushes. We couldn’t carry the skis on our packs since we weren’t able to move a step forward with such a setup.

Navigation is vital...as is a lunch break.
Navigation is vital...as is a lunch break.
Finally, after two and a half hours (at about 1400m), we made it to some continuous flanks of snow. Once on skis, we moved through the old forest at a decent speed arriving at a lake east of Cassiope Peak for a late afternoon lunch.

From here we headed directly west towards a wide pass (more of a ridge) between Cassiope and Saxifrage Mountain. The lake was in melting conditions, so we opted to stay on its north side by climbing up about 50m higher onto some mellower terrain.

After reaching the wide pass we decided to go little further towards Saxifrage and pitch a tent there to be ready for some morning spring skiing.

Route to a pass east of Cassiope Peak, which is just out of the photo to the left.
Route to a pass east of Cassiope Peak, which is just out of the photo to the left.

Day 2 – ski time

Early morning plans were slightly disrupted by our vacation moods. However, this turned out to work in our favour as the east face of Saxifrage was in prime conditions at around 8.30am.

East of Saxifrage Mountain. We skied down slightly right from the center.
East of Saxifrage Mountain. We skied down slightly right from the center.
We boot-packed up to reach a ridge just right of the summit. From here it was a scramble for few meters and then a short boot-pack in the snow to reach the top. The view was amazing.

Skiing down the east face is getting steeper (around 40-45 degrees) but in those conditions it was perfect. This was a summit and a face that I was eying for some time since it looks quite attractive from Cayoosh Mountain where I go often. Cayoosh is just few valleys to the east from here.

After getting down we packed our gear and headed north through another fairly wide col immediately east of Saxifrage. From here, skiing down to White Lakes was great. Although, on couple of spots right off the top, the snow was bullet proof, it eased to spring corn very soon.

Once crossing the White Lakes we stopped and turned around. The valley looked spectacular and sure worthwhile to stick around for some skiing. We’ll come back in the future.

Our living room, on a shoulder of Cirque Peak, was waaay nicer than any waterfront condo.
Our living room, on a shoulder of Cirque Peak, was waaay nicer than any waterfront condo.
After a long “lazy” lunch in a pass between Mount Olds and Mount Oleg we climbed up to the summit of Mt Oleg and skied back to grab our packs. Then we skied further down the Place Glacier to reach Joffre Glacier.

After good laughs and some more skinning we cooked our dinner on a shoulder that is south of Cirque Peak. We relaxed, talked, laughed and ate in an amazing calmness of the surrounding mountains with no society craziness in sight.

Joffre naming “controversy”

When reaching the Joffre Glacier we realized a funny fact. Joffre Lakes that are on the south side of the Duffey Lake road are fed water from Matier Glacier.

Being on the north side of the Duffey Lake road and standing on the Joffre Glacier we wondered how this geographical naming happened. From the map, it’s very clear that Joffre Lakes and Joffre Glacier have nothing to do with each other except their names. (If someone knows more please post a comment below.)

Day 3 – more great skiing

Since we knew all we had to do was climb around 200m and then ski down and walk to the car, we took our time. There are trips when we travel on a preplanned “schedule” but we decided to make this one a vacation style. Weather was great, jokes were flying, so why not just wander around a tent a bit more than usually.

Skiing from a small summit in the shoulder we slept on was amazing (photo below). It was around 900m run all the way to the trees where we reached NE fork of North Joffre Creek. Here, we followed some older ski tracks down the creek, then at about 1600m we started to traverse into the forest to the east of the creek.

Great view of Mt. Matie just before we ski of the shoulder of Cirque Pk.
Great view of Mt. Matier just before we ski of the shoulder of Cirque Pk.

“Tree skiing” wasn’t as good but at least we didn’t have to hike yet. But soon enough, at about 1400m, we had to switch from ski mode to walking down in an old forest. We got lucky and not too long after the hike started we reached a logged patch which led us to a logging road that took us to our car.

Recommendations for this trip

After completing the route we realized that this is a perfect trip for an introduction to ski traverses and multi-day backcountry skiing. It’s not very demanding with only about 25km in length at around 2200m of climbing. The navigation is quite straight forward and the views are great.

If you want to ski more than just moving along with a big pack then there are plenty of options on various aspects at various angles.

The best time for this trip would most likely be late April since there should still be enough snow to avoid bush whacking, while the snow should be settled enough for great stability already.