KOKANEE TRAVERSE 2018

KOKANEE TRAVERSE 2018
May 3, 2018 Brent Hepfner

IMG_0233Was it done before? Yep, but maybe not the way we did it.  Is it a popular route?  Not really.  There are several ways to traverse Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park.  It is a large, spectacular area, most of which is remote, big terrain.  

There were several folks signed up for this trip but most cancelled out.  It had to wait for a fair weather window so I can appreciate that not everyone has the flexibility to wait around to go skiing. The forecast was looking great when April 21st came around so Kevin Canning and myself headed out.  The plan was for 4 nights on the traverse which would have us climbing and skiing the Kokanee Glacier, Kane Icefield, Woodbury Glacier and Caribou Glacier, exiting via Woodbury Creek.  I had arranged for a local sledder to tow us and our gear 16 kms up Kokanee Creek FSR to the Park.  From there it was 9 kms to our first camp near Slocan Chief.  We did stop at the ACC Kokanee Cabin to say hello and ask for current conditions they may have observed.  

Day 2 climbed the Kokanee Glacier and skied a nice, long line down to Coffee Pass, setting camp #2 on a high ridge below Kane Peak.  The very disappointing part of the trip happened first thing the next morning when I fell over on a crust and blew-off the heal piece on a binding.  In the middle of nowhere, almost, with a destroyed binding we had to study the map to revise our plan to allow us to get back with a minimum of downhill turns.  Being ultra-conservative on the toe-piece (because there was no other choice) we managed to ski way down into the Joker Basin and ascend some steep and cliffy ridges that, after a long, exerting day with some sketchy solar aspects eventually circled back around to our camp #1 before nightfall.  Next day skied out.

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