Slalok

 

On April 10 my dad, my dog and I left our house. It was a cloudy day, but my dad thought that we would still be able to make it up Mt. Slalok. It is situated beside Mt. Matier and across from Mt. Joffre. It is in many photos of people who hike the Joffre Lakes trail, the coastal equivalent of Mt. Victoria at Lake Louise. We reached the trail head of the Joffre Lakes at 9:45. Soon after that we left the empty parking lot. It was fairly clear as we crossed the first lake and ascended to the second. The previous night we had attended Multiplicity, an inspiring night about many different adventurers. It was awesome, but it was a late night. That meant that our progress was slower than usual. We reached the far side of the third lake by 11:30. We started up the small ridge(lateral moraine) that led to the climbers left of the seracs (icefall in a  glacier).

It became pretty windy and the climbing was hard. It was fairly steep and the only snow was very scoured due to the high winds. We saw a ptarmigan that was making much better progress than us. The small white bird raced straight up the icy slopes. While skinning up the ridge we slowly came closer to the clouds. We reached the steeper section that is a very tricky steeper rock face in the summer. Ascending this part was much easier than the last time we were there which had been in September, when we climbed Mt. Matier. The blue ice next to us looked so incredible. It is the prettiest blue I’ve ever seen. Every time I see glacial ice I am amazed by it’s beauty.

As we  mounted the glacier it became flat and we stopped. My dad said that we should go to the Joffre – Matier col because the visibility was so poor. If we did this we would be able to see and follow the rocks on the base of Joffre. If we reached the col and it cleared up we could climb to the top of Matier. If it stayed cloudy my dad would feel safer because he knew the terrain better. While we were talking about this it cleared up a little and so my dad said that we could start up Slakok. It was clear enough to see where we were going, if it got too cloudy we could turn around. As we reached a small notch that we used to get on the ridge, the clouds almost left.

It was sunny and very beautiful. Looking across we could see Mt. Joffre and all the directions were also awesome. We took a picture because we didn’t know if it would stay like this for long. We ascended the ridge for a short while until we hit a steeper pitch. Here we took off our skis and carried them for about 50 meters. This part was a bit nerve wracking, but I knew focus would get me to the top.

Once we put our skis back on we could see the summit. It was 200 meters away and visibility was good. Shortly after this we saw the tracks we had been following dropped onto the face. Because we wanted to make the summit and hopefully ski from the top we kept going. As soon as the sun had came, it left. We were now encased in the clouds again. We continued because we had seen our route and knew where we would need to go. Since we had started ascending the ridge we were about 20 meters apart. This was due to the possibility of a cornice fall. If the drifts of snow fall they can kill and can cause avalanches as they land below. Cornices are dangerous to travel under and beside. They are also very hard to see in a whiteout. In the Spring, as the days warm, they are a big concern for backcountry skiers. The clouds became thicker and it was soon hard to tell what was snow and what was air. Progress was slow but we kept moving. At one point we came up a small bump and I thought we had reached the summit. However we continued to climb until we were 70 meters higher. For the last 10 meters of the ascent we took off our skis because it was too steep. As we stood at 2650 meters we were on the summit. This was the worst view I had ever had on top of a mountain. We could barely see 20 meters in front of us. We walked down to our skis and had a snack. We planned to wait 30 minutes, until 5, to see if the clouds would lift. If they did we could ski the steeper upper face. At 5 to 5 I said that we should start down. If the visibility improved there were many places we could cut into the better skiing. We started following our tracks down.

After about 100 meters we were out of the clouds. We skied off the ridge and onto the stonecrop face. Looking down I was excited for the long run. I was very happy that we would actually be skiing. The whole day I had been tired and not very happy. When we were on the face my dad told me to wait. He skied down 50 meters and took out his camera. I followed and was amazed at how good the snow was. I had been expecting hard, crusty snow, but this was just like mid-Winter skiing. While I was skiing down some small sluffs(loose snow) followed me. I reached my dad and he skied down again as I waited. We did this 3 more times and I was on Cloud 9. After that we briefly discussed which gulley we would go through. There are 2 and we decided to take the skiers right route. While skiing this the sun was warming our backs.

While on side of the gulley I set off a very small avalanche, but there was a fracture line. It was cool to see that happen while in no real danger. After skiing the gulley we skied down to a couloir. My dad asked me if I wanted to ski and I said that if he wanted to he could, but he said I should. So he skied around it and took out his camera. I skied down it and enjoyed it. I went slow, but I felt safe. Couloirs are something that I want to improve my skiing ability on. After this we were almost at the lake. While skiing the couloir I had seen 3 skiers go onto the lake coming from T’zil. We skate skied across the lake and admired our tracks. It was funny to see our dogs tracks going straight down.

We talked to the 3 skiers about the snow conditions. They said they had previously seen an avalanche as we continued in front of them down the trail. It was very fast, but I liked it better than the Singing Pass trail. When we reached the bottom lake we looked up and could still see our tracks. I was happy with the day, even though it had been slow. I also did not get any blisters, although I had 2 hotspots(the beginning of blisters). This was a big improvement form previous days and trips. My feet are getting tougher, that’s something for me to celebrate.