Our little party of five (three from Edmonton and two from Calgary) booked the Hilda Creek Hostel and planned to spend the weekend yo-yo skiing on Parker Ridge. Avalanche conditions were moderating, and that area missed the strong wind storm cycle that hit from Roger's Pass east.
We arrive late Friday evening and warmed the hostel. It's more akin to a back-country hut that is 300M from the road than a typical hostel. But, it has propane heat now, so at least it is warm. Speaking of warm, the temps for the weekend were around -3C all day, so the skiing was terrific.
We found a 30 degree slope near treeline and went into the snow to see what the heck was going on. There is lots of wind transport at Parkers, and the snow can be pretty reactive there. There was 220-300+cm of snow at treeline, more lower, and much less in some spots up high. Also, in the alpine there, the snow is variable and lots of wind crust to deal with. At treeline, we found some pretty pronounced slabs that took some effort to sheer, and then sugar about 150cm from the top. We decided to play it safe and avoid pronounced convex rolls and stay near treeline.
Our first run of the day was on a moderate (<30d) slope that blasted through the trees right back down to the hostel. The lower we went, the better the snow got. We then moved skier's right and began to decimate the slope above/beside the pits we dug. It was fun and over the day and a half we were there, we began most runs from it, and finished through the trees to the road or to the hostel.
There was a party of two on Hilda Ridge (where we're going next time), but otherwise, we had the area to ourselves. Sweet.
At one point, Dave and I were stopped together and spied this open roll of virgin snow that lead into some sweet looking trees, and we knew instantly "it's only your line if you're looking up at it." He had to veer left to avoid a small stand of trees, so I decided to blast through them to score the line. The branches were way harder than I thought, and I have some nice scrapes on my face as a result. TOTALLY worth it as I scored the run.
Tomoko (front), me (blue hat, yellow jacket), and Mark scoping some new lines (Robyn snapping pics)
Digging. I'm on the right, and I still have close to a meter of snow under my feet.
Best buds! Dave (L) and me grinning like mad as we get ready to ski!
Dave and I again as we skin up from the treeline. I loved skiing the trees, the snow was perfect.
About to ski more sweet virgin snow in the trees!
I think Robyn's crushing on me, taking all these pics of my rear...
Dave scored first turns in this little gully we found...
Some of our damage...
To get there, head south of Jasper on highway 93 (Icefields Parkway) and drive 109km south to just past the Columbia Icefields. Parker Ridge is on the west side of the highway.
