Cayoosh Mountain

On January 14th 2019, I was able to stand on top of a mountain that I have wanted to for a long time. Cayoosh mountain. It was on the list of things I wanted to do before Logan and I tried to summit it once before, read about it here https://www.naomiprohaska.com/2017/03/25/cayoosh-cols/ I have been tobogganing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and cross country skiing around Cayoosh since I was a baby. In recent years I have started ski touring there, but I had never been to it’s top. Last night we decided to go for it because the avalanche hazard fit and it was on the top of our list. Finding a partner in a family friend, my dad and I met up with Blythe at 7:40am at the turn off for the duffy in Mt. Currie. At the highways weather plot parking lot, we saw another group preparing to go ski touring. We later saw them going up the bowl to the south of Cayoosh mountain. Having brought one snowmobile, my dad and I rode tandem and we towed Blythe as if she was water skiing. After becoming stuck for a short period of time, we left the sled on the lower road of the logging slash.

Getting ready to go I noticed that a string on the opening of mine had broken. It wasn’t a big deal though because it had another function that could mostly close it. Starting up the skin track was very hard which made for fast travel, but at some points it was too steep and covered in fresh surface hoar, resulting in me sliding backwards a metre or two. As we came to the small pond and continued to ascend into the trees, we observed the many ski tracks around us. There were tracks going along ridges, in gullies and across the face opposite to us.

Wrapping around and nearing the treeline, we came into the sun. Soon after that we took a break and took off our sweaters, I also took my sunglasses out. When we looked down, we saw people coming up near our sleds. Since we had been going for an hour, we figured that bringing the snowmobile had saved that much time. I was super happy by how nice the weather was, but it was a little strange how warm it was.

Usually, clear days in January meant cold temperatures, but it was above zero. Looking up, we could see the col where we would need to cross between the east glacier, which we would ascend, and the north glacier. This would lead us to the face and then the summit. It seemed like a very long way, but I knew from last time that it wasn’t as long as it looked. If we stared hard we could see a track on the face, which we hoped would make the last bit of the ascent easier.

Making our way up the slope we reached the glacier and started to go straight up the slope. I was very glad that we were in the shade for most of this section.

The wind and the sun had hardened the snow, making it impossible to get an edge. This was why we ascended straight up. Once we were close to the top of the glacier I looked up, the cornices were not very big and wouldn’t be a concern. The slope flattened out quite a bit and then we spread out as we traversed to the col. We were spread out because it it became exposed and steep just before the col. Slowly going across this I was a bit nervous, but the track was firm and I felt stable.

At the col we could see a boot pack track going up the face and a ski track coming down. My dad and I put on our Gortex pants and then we skinned for a short bit more. When it became too steep to comfortably skin, we took our skis off and started to walk straight up. This took quite a while and I felt slightly off balance every time I moved the ski in my right hand, which was strange because I am right handed.

I was nervous, but could keep my focus almost the whole time. The face became gradually steeper, reaching 40°. We gained the South ridge and there was a flat section where Blythe and I left our skis.

From there the snow covered in rime and it looked quite cool. Being up high and being able to see, unlike last week, I was psyched. It is so pretty up there, and it was empowering. We were on the summit at 12:30, four hours after leaving the car. Looking around at all of the peaks, I could see eight mountains that I had summitted. They were Marriott, Rohr, Joffre, Mattier, Slalok, Wedge, Currie and Sloan. That was an awesome thing to see, but it is insane how many mountains there are so close to us, I could see over fifty peaks!

There was a bit of wind and we put our shells on and had a snack. I was scared to ski the face, my dad said I didn’t actually have to ski it, I could just traverse and side slip. Walking down to where my skis were, I tried not to think about it. After taking our skins off I watched Blythe drop in and traverse the slope, it didn’t look as bad on skis as it had felt coming up. But I still knew I had to go quickly or I would psych myself out. I dropped over the small lip and followed Blythe’s way down. Traversing past her tracks, I know that it would be easier after I turned. I made a few turns, but mostly I was just happy it hadn’t been as scary as I had imagined. After the face, we skied on the glacier, and it was much better than it looked.

Though the angle was gentle, the snow felt a lot like a fresh groomed run. The lighting was beautiful and I wanted to get a nice shot of my dad and Blythe skiing, but it would take too long to get my camera out. Once they stopped I did take some.

The glacier became steeper and my dad looked at a photo of where we were to see the best descent route. Shortly thereafter, we skied to the side of some seracs that were magnificent.

We took some photos and continued down. At one point we were sliding down actual ice, but just small pieces.

Once we were very close to treeline was where the skiing was the best. The snow was soft and the skiing was fun.

We came to the trees and then it turned to horrible skiing. The snow was just a mess of tree bombs and the snow was rock solid. It took us a while of side slipping and navigating across the creek, but we made to the sled with only a short boot pack. It was really cool to see how far we could go and what we could do in the same time as a school day, six hours. It was an amazing day and I can’t wait to go climb to the top of more of those peaks.