In March 2018 the two of us did something we had never done before. We went on a guided ski traverse. (The guided part was new.) That made it very easy for us, all we had to do was sign up for the trip and show up with our gear! Many thanks to Michael and Amber for organizing the trip on behalf of the Alpine Club of Canada – Vancouver Section.
Our trip was very capably guided by Tom Wolfe of Sawback Alpine Adventures. Tom also took care of all the trip logistics: booking the huts and organizing the food. We ate very well and had a great trip with Tom and the others.
We started the trip at Bow Lake in the Alberta Rocky Mountains between Banff and Jasper. From there we skied across the Wapta Icefield, past Mt. Collie and Isolated Peak to the Little Yoho Valley, and then down to a parking lot a few kilometers east of Field, British Columbia. The Bow to Yoho ski traverse is normally a four day trip but we took seven. This allowed us to do day trips from each of three Alpine Club of Canada huts we stayed at: Bow Hut, Louise and Richard Guy Hut, and Stanley Mitchell Hut. The huts were interesting in that the Guy Hut was only a year old while the Stanley Mitchell Hut is one of the club’s oldest. It was built in 1940 and is a designated Canadian Federal Heritage Building.
Unfortunately we had less than great weather for the trip. It was cloudy/foggy every day except the first and third days. Fortunately the third day was when we crossed from the Bow Hut to the Guy Hut. That part of the trip would have been very difficult in bad weather since we spent the entire day on big, complex glaciers ending by following the top of narrow ridge.
We will have to do the trip again, hopefully this time with good weather all the way!
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