Led by Luca J, Calgary ACC’ers Joey SP, Sheri F, Jun L, and Shaun L completed the Bow Yoho Traverse during the 4-day Easter long weekend. Though it was the first ski traverse for 2 of the participants, we worked well as a team to navigate to 3 different huts and bag 3 peaks along the way!
Leaving a car at Emerald Lake on Friday morning, we skied to Bow Hut from Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. After lunch and dropping gear at the Hut, we skied up and down Mt. Gordon.
Saturday we stashed gear in a snow pit on our way to climb Mt. Collie, where poor visibility made the double-corniced summit ridge a bit spicy. We bootpacked a bit near the top of the “Guy Hut Ridge Route”, which is the safer route to the new Louise and Richard Guy Hut, as described in Mark Klassen’s MCR titled “Rockies: Des Poilus Hut: guidebook and map update”. It would have been better to skin up this route instead, before enjoying a nice run down to the new Guy Hut.
Sunday we waited for a large ACC Edmonton group to ascend Isolated Col before following suit. Stashing some gear in another snow pit on the other side of the Col, we skied up and down Mt. McArthur in poor visibility, bootpacking for the last 50m.
After a crowded night at the Stanley Mitchell Hut, we skied the well-tracked Ice Line route on Monday to the treed slopes above Emerald Lake. Some arduous bushwhacking ensued as we picked our way through the trees down to the Lake and back to our car.
Overall stats for this awesome trip are: 62.25km, 4005m gain, 4580m loss.
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