We could hear the 212 helicopters from Adamant Lodge pounding the sky above us as we approached the Centurion Col. Instead of climbing up Bachelor Pass as indicated in Chic famous book "Summits and Icefields" we ascended the drainage further east and gained the pass directly. Nice route. Traverses are not famous for great skiing but we managed to get a good powder smile going on this one. We were a little surprised to see a skin track coming up from Moberly Pass gaining the peak. 100km from the nearest road and the run is still skied. Lots of room though for Dan to spread out and lay down the snowboard.
Stewart has done one of these big traverses every winter for the last couple of years. Andrew joined him on the Rogers Pass to Bugaboos last winter for a slog fest. The lesson learned is go light and fast as possible. A megamid is as basic a tent as possible. Two ski poles strapped together over a light nylon fly create a roof and then shovels dig into the snow to provide a cooking and eating platform. Lots of space for cooking and easy to set up but a little cooler and you are sleeping on snow. Dried foods in a boil bag from backcountry pantry were awesome and then a couple of quick snacks like cliff bars and guu shots completed the meals. We managed to camp beside water most every night so minimal fuel required. Keep the backpack as light as possible makes those 5,000 ft days possible. I managed to fly out a bunch of stuff with a crew at Fairy Meadows - Yeah!
From the Great Cairn Hut at Sir Sandford we ascended the Silvertip Glacier and traversed right on a nice bench towards Azimuth Notch. When the traverse starting to look really hairy we climbed directly up about 100m on steep snow slopes to gain the ridge about 150m before the Azimuth Notch. This put us in a great position to ski down to the Adamant Glacier and start our ascent up Thor Pass to the Gothics Glacier. The Pass was more like a couloir which we boot packed up and were thankfull we were over early in the morning. We climbed most of Pioneer Peak and then Dan and I skiied the easterly portion of Pioneer Pass whch is steep with a roll over at the top that just keeps going. We were stoked.
We cruised through the traverse in 10 days. Lots of very wild country and some pretty remote valleys. I must admit now to have only done two half days of ski touring this winter.... We put in some good solid 12 hours of touring and covered 15-20 km per day with some days having 5-7,000 ft of vertical. Beautiful touring weather with lots of cool temperatures and sunny days. Cruised through big mountain valleys and over high peaks and had a few helicopter from CMH buzz us. Dropped into the ACMG Assistant Ski Guides course at Moberly Pass where they looked like they were having some fun. Spent a night at the Fairy Meadows Lodge and two nights at the Great Cairn Cabin. Then it was up and over two big mountain passes and out to Mica Creek.
If we can knock off a few ski descents on the way that would be icing on the cake. The pleasure of removing the big pack and whooping it up will make up for the miles of slogging. This is Mt. Iconoclast in firm ankle deep powder a couple of years ago.
It's been a lot easier to "fly" the route on Google Earth. Searching for Rogers Pass and Mica Creek in British Columbia will give a rough idea on the route. There are a couple of variations depending on enthusiasm, snow conditions and weather. We are going to start at Rogers Pass on April 2nd and hope to finish at Mica Creek around mid April. We have a food cache at the Fairy Meadows Hut for 6 days. See you soon. Here is the link to a Google fly-over that I completed after the trip detailing the major peaks and campsites etc. It's pretty cool. Interesting way of doing a guidebook
