Andy climbs the Saskatchewan Glacier
By Steve B
The original plan was to ski up the Saskatchewan Glacier and onto Castleguard Meadows Friday, dig snow caves then climb Castleguard Mountain on Saturday and ski back out on Sunday but plans change.
Friday morning at 9:00 am nine members of the club loaded up packs and pulks at the big bend in Highway 93 and headed over the hump and onto the long approach to the Saskatchewan Glacier for the clubs final tip of the season.
Marie and the Blanket Glacier Chalet
By Don Wales
OK! It looks like nobody else is going to write this trip report so this is my opportunity to tell some lies about the great group of people we had on this trip.
Blanket Glacier is a short 7 minutes helicopter ride from a little south of Revelstoke and it is renowned for its snow; in fact on average 25 meters of snow falls which translates into about a 9 meter base. We have been told if you get 1 or 2 days without snow falling you are lucky but, for the second year in a row, we have been fortunate with only 2 overcast days each week.
Vance, Ivan, Margo and Derry enjoy the sunny weather and explore the valley above Fryatt Hut.
By Steve B
Vance, Margo, Derry, Ivan and I loaded heavy packs and pulks at 9:00 am Friday morning and headed across the frozen Athabasca river and quickly joined up with the Fryatt Valley Trail. The lower section of trail is fairly flat and meanders through the woods offering the occasional glimpse of the Endless Chain Ridge to the east and Mount Christie to the south. Another group had been in the previos week and left a nice track and we had to do minimal trail breaking.
By John Cameron
Moderate temperatures and good snow greeted eight enthusiastic back country skiers at the Sunshine parking lot for our second mountain tour of the season.
The trail was well covered in snow and made the ascent easier as the wax and skins were holding well. A lunch stop was made just before the last ascent on Healy Pass where 3 or more feet of snow greeted us. This made for some interesting moments on the way down to the cabin especially for yours truly having ventured out on his first real back country trip.
Minus 20º Celsius temperatures didn’t deter a dozen club members from heading up towards Nigel Pass for the first back country trip of the season. The initial plan was to spend Saturday doing turns at Parkers Ridge but some prior scouting on Friday by Vance and Derry found that snow conditions were not favorable for turns so we switched to Plan B and headed for Nigel Pass.