The Trooper Tour

I just got back from a pretty epic weekend of pre-finals slaying.  Spring conditions are starting to show themselves, so we managed to take advantage of stable snow and make some pretty ambitious descents.  The main goal of the weekend was what Pete dubbed "The Trooper Tour", skiing Observation Sub-Peak's north glacier to the top of "The Cooloir", skiing down it, booting back up, skiing over to Cirque Peak and skiing the couloir spilling onto Cirque's north glacier.  It was an ambitious plan, especially for me, as it would involve roughly 2000 m elevation gain and loss.

Saturday we warmed up the legs in Kananskis with a scot and a scandi.  We skied the Commonwealth Lakes Circuit and then headed over to Smuts Pass.  It was alot of skipping around with not a bunch of elevation gain, but I think I clocked ~1200 m on my watch.  It was a cool area, and I'd definitely like to do some more day-traverses in that area.  The potential for those is huge!

Pete skins up to a small col behind Smuts Col

The chugach is just out of sight from the Spray Lakes Road

Thilde and Ralph enjoy a minute of sun

Sunday was the big day.  We got up at 5, left Canmore at around 6, and we were skinning up by 8.  We made great time on the frozen crust and were soon on the ridge up to Observation Sub-Peak.  A bit of skinning over rocks, a little step of scrambling, and we were at the col between the two peaks.  In light of our intention to ski Cirque as well, Pete ruled out going for the actual summit.  Shucks, now I have to go back.  Anyway, we dropped onto our glacier run and it was pretty awesome.

Pete scrambles up on Observation Sub-Peak with Cirque Peak behind.

The Siffleur River Valley hiding below the clouds

Pete gets ready to drop into The Cooloir

Boot-top powder turns led to the entrance to The Cooloir, which we skied to the top of the fan.  Here we turned around and booted back to the top.  In the deep snow, Pete charged ahead but I soon bonked and was really in a world of hurt by the top.  I tried to get some calories in but it didn't help much and Pete broke trail all the way back up the glacier and over to the Cirque glacier.  At this point I started to actually feel OK again and broke trail for a wee bit before we roped up.  A few more switchbacks and we were below the Cirque couloir.  We booted this short pitch to the top, then dropped back down and skied the glacier back to the col between Obs-Sub and Cirque.

Pete skiing up the Cirque Peak Glacier

Pete approaches the Cirque Peak Couloir

And boots up it... still breaking trail.  I'm such a bad partner...

Oh yeah!  I dropped my poles so Pete had to lend me one.  Again what an awesome partner I am!

We skied down a ways with the skins on, then ripped them and swished quickly back to the car.  Pretty stoked, Pete's altimeter read close to 2000 m (I can't remember the exact number).  There are, however, a couple lessons that I need to learn.  My nutrition is clearly crap, I bonked hardcore twice (in both couloirs) and Pete did all the trailbreaking.  I was just there to slow him down.  I need to eat better breakfasts and fuel with more complex energy throughout the day.  I also need to work the legs more so that I can be stronger and actually contribute on these big days.  I'd really like to go back, maybe next year at this time, and try to speed lap this link-up.  I think a good goal would be to cut two hours off our time of 8 hours, and/or hit the peak of Observation Sub-Peak.

Monday, Graham joined us for a quick jaunt up Mt. Whymper.  This was an especially fun trip, with easy trailbreaking for 2/3 of the ascent followed by a bit of a sketchy shot up to the col.  Luckily, I was feeling better today and actually broke trail for a good bit of the ascent.  We didn't climb straight to the col, but rather climbed a previously wet-snow avalanched slope up to the summit ridge of Whymper, bootpacked up and across some scree, and then sideslipped back to the col.  This seemed safer than going straight up the slope below the col, and was also more comfortable with the nil visibility we were blessed with.  A break in the weather let us see down our line into Chickadee valley which we then skied in great conditions.  The top pitch is pretty steep, and the rest is pure fun.  The only downside to this tour is the fact that you have to coast out the Chickadee Valley trail, and then hike along the road back to the parking lot.  Otherwise, it was a great day!  I forgot my camera though, so no pics of our white-out experience.