Icefall Ski Traverse, Golden, British Columbia, Canada
Overview
Last week, Mike and I went on a 6 night/7 day ski traverse in Golden, British Columbia called the Icefall Traverse. On this traverse we traveled on our skis from one hut to another hut nearly every day (total of 5 huts). Each day a new group would start the traverse so you would have a group one day ahead of you and another group one day behind you. We did this trip with our friends, Kate and Matt, as well as four strangers and two guides. The traverse traveled through some of the most beautiful ski terrain I have been in, however, I would not recommend this traverse to anyone I know or anyone reading this blog. What makes me say that? There were many failures from management that really were inexcusable, the most concerning of which was a lack of focus on client safety. I’d like to start this post going over the issues we had, and then I will jump into the details of each day.
To start, as I had mentioned, we were in a group with four other strangers. It turned out that one person had literally never been on a split board before. This individual showed up with a broken split board that the guides had to try to fix before even leaving the first hut and within moments of finally leaving the hut, he fell and broke his pole. This person had zero avalanche safety experience and had no business being on a backcountry ski traverse such as this one. This led to several issues. The first was that because of his lack of experience and fitness, he tremendously slowed the group down that first day, forcing us to wait in cold, windy, white out conditions for him. The information packet that the management of Icefall sent us prior to the trip said to pack light and that we would always be moving, but here we were on the first day waiting for close to an hour for the inexperienced individual to catch up. After this day, the guides addressed this problem by splitting the group up, but this now led to each part of the group only having one guide with them which is less safe than having two experienced ski professionals with you at all times. The guides were the only people with radios (another issue in my opinion) so if something happened to one of them while split up, how would the clients be able to call for help? This whole situation with the first-time split boarder could have been avoided if management had given any effort to make sure that the people signing up for this trip have the proper qualifications to do so. This lack of attention led to a poor group dynamic and would impact the terrain we were able to access because the group is ultimately making decisions for the least experienced person. To make this situation even more frustrating, when Mike, Kate, Matt, and I were looking to sign up for the traverse, we mentioned that we were looking to ski 5000 vertical feet per day and had a fair amount of backcountry experience. We asked which group would be the best for us to join and this is the group the owner of the company advised us to join - the one with a first-time split boarder. I’ll let you be the judge about what this says about management’s desire to create groups that will work well together and give you the best experience possible.
The bigger issue I had with how management managed the traverse was a lack of focus on safety. Communication was extremely poor between the guides of different groups doing the traverse and between the guides and management at Icefall Lodge. This ultimately played a big part in my husband, Mike, getting caught in a sizable avalanche on the 4th day of the traverse. Thankfully, he survived the avalanche with only a dislocated shoulder and a lost ski pole, but there could have been a much worse outcome. On this day, our guides had remotely triggered several avalanches before Mike ultimately got caught in one, and conditions were rather unstable. The thing about the Icefall Traverse is that on some of the days there is no choice but to go through extreme avalanche terrain regardless of conditions, which was something we did not appreciate before the trip and only realized it while we were in it. This caused us to ski down a slope that ultimately caught Mike in an avalanche - we had no choice but to go down that slope. When we got to the Icefall Lodge later that day after the avalanche, we found out from the group one day in front of us that their guide had also caused an avalanche on that same slope (farther to the left of where we skied it) and that they then side stepped the avalanche path that had already slid to get down it safely. When we asked our guide why we would ski the same face 50 ft from where an avalanche occurred the previous day, he said that he had no idea the slope had slid. To us, this signaled a complete lack of concern from management for client safety. Why on earth would this information not have been communicated to our guide who then would have made very different decisions about how to approach the slope? Had we had this information, there’s a high probability Mike would not have been caught in an avalanche that day - at least not on that slope. To be clear, Mike and I certainly understood that we would be traveling through avalanche terrain on this trip and understood those risks. We have taken AIARE 1, AIARE 2, and Avalanche Rescue classes. However, one of the benefits that should come from doing a traverse such as this one, where there is a group one day in front of you that can give you information on conditions and incidents, is improved decision making. The guides should be equipped with a wealth of information from the guides that went through the terrain the day before. Why wasn’t this happening? To us, this reflects management’s lack of concern about safety. When we arrived at Icefall Lodge after the avalanche, the owner of the lodge was there and did not once ask Mike how he was doing or if there was anything he could do for him. He did not offer to have someone take a look at his shoulder. He wouldn’t even let Mike borrow a ski pole for the rest of the trip. While I don’t take joy talking negatively about someone on this blog, I would not feel comfortable posting about our experience on this traverse and potentially having a reader sign up for the traverse because the pictures are pretty and the experience looks great without sharing the entire experience. Safety should really be any ski lodge’s #1 priority, and it did not seem like that was the case at Icefall Lodge. We learned a lot from this experience, and it will likely lead us to be much, much more selective about what companies we would trust with our lives going forward.
Day 1: From the Staging Area to Mons Hut
On the first day, we met the rest of the group and the guides at the staging area in Donald, British Columbia. We were advised to pack as lightly as possible so Mike and I showed up with a ~40L pack each and our ski gear. We met the rest of the group, made our lunches for the next few days, and loaded up into the helicopter to be flown to the Mons Hut. This hut is about the size of a shipping container and is where our group would spend the first night. Once everyone arrived at the hut and we settled in, the guides went over some avalanche safety instruction with us. Afterwards, they asked if we wanted to go out for a group ski tour to which of course we said yes. Before even making it out of the hut, the first-time split boarder (we didn’t know it was his first time quite yet) discovered that his rental board had a broken binding. This led to the guides spending the next 20 minutes trying to make it useable. Once they determined it was, we headed outside, put on our gear, and skied down a 10 ft slope with our skins on, which is where the first-time split boarder fell and broke his pole. The guides were once again inside the hut fixing the pole. Once that was fixed, we set off towards Mons Peak. Conditions on this day were quite cloudy and we quickly found ourselves in white out conditions. After only gaining 600 ft of vert, we decided to stop and transition to go down because visibility was so poor. At this transition spot, we waited an hour for the first-time split boarder that ultimately never even made it to us before we finally descended. Conditions were variable but it was nice to get some exercise and fresh air. When we got back to the hut, visibility was still pretty poor so we decided to call it a day. As I mentioned, this hut was about the size of a shipping container. Sleeping arrangements were cozy and required climbing a ladder to a loft that was a few feet high with several mattresses laid out next to each other for the 10 of us to sleep on. After a spaghetti dinner, we headed to bed pretty early. We learned at some point that night that the first-time split boarder had never been in the backcountry before which made us a little uneasy for the rest of the trip.
Day 2: Mons Hut to Lyell Hut
The second day we woke up to mixed visibility conditions. Our objective for the day was to make it to the Lyell Hut, which is the second highest building in Canada at an elevation of 9300 ft. Our day began in a skin track where we climbed to a saddle from which we would descend on the other side. We got a 1500 vertical feet ski run in where we found quite good conditions. We wanted to keep skiing down and make the run longer, but were unable to because of concern from our guide that the first-time split boarder would not be able to handle the additional vert. While our guide was likely right, it made for another day that was dictated by what the split boarder could do. After our ski descent, we put our skins back on as the rest of the day would entail what felt like a never ending ascent to the hut. The sun did end up poking out quite a bit, which made for a great day on the glacier. The travel from one hut to the other consisted of 5.5 miles with 3400 vert. Later that afternoon, part of the group went back out for a run on the Lyell Icefield, but we were once again met with whiteout conditions so we didn’t make it too far before transitioning and skiing back down. The Lyell Hut was slightly smaller than the Mons Hut, and it was certainly a tight squeeze for 10 people and gear. That afternoon a weather system with some very high winds blew in. We could hear the winds howling all night. This weather system lingered for the next 24 hours and it sounds like the winds got even worse for the group at the hut the night after us because the winds removed some of the hut’s siding that night. With little space to do much other than sleep, we headed to bed early again.
Day 3: Lyell Hut to Alexandra Cabin
Day 3 is one of the most anticipated days of the traverse because we would get a 5000 vertical ft ski descent down to Alexandra Cabin. Our group actually made it a 6000 vert day because of a decision made to send the first-time split boarder and his friend to Icefall Lodge a day early. Our day started in a complete white out on the Lyell Icefield and our guide made the decision to have us rope up to cross the glacier. I think it was the right one because there was no way to have any sense of direction or even understand what you were really skiing on. We skied over to Crampon Col where we all boot packed to the top of the line. Here, the first-time split boarder and his friend met some folks from Icefall Lodge that would take them back to the lodge with them while the rest of us skied down the line we just boot packed. The snow was quite good. We then transitioned and headed over to a line called the Deep End that would bring us down to Alexandra Cabin. The Deep End was probably the most exposed line I have skied in the backcountry. There were plenty of “no fall zones” and areas where we were skiing and traversing with several hundred foot cliffs below us. As we descended, we could literally hear and see the icefall coming down from the mountains around us. To end the run, we skied down a canyon called “Fireball Canyon” that took adventure skiing to a whole new level. At the end of the day, the cabin was a welcome sight. It came with a chef and individual beds, which felt like true luxury after the Lyell and Mons Huts. There was also a sauna and a proper outhouse. This was definitely my favorite hut of the trip. Our day involved 1100 vertical ft of ascent and 6100 vertical ft of descent. If you do the math, this meant we had quite a bit of vertical to make up for the next day, which was going to be the most physically demanding of the trip.
Day 4: Alexandra Cabin to Icefall Lodge
We woke up on Day 4 to a solid freeze overnight, which was extremely welcome. Our day started out with 3 miles of adventure skiing next to a river. This was more tiring than the 4800 vert ahead of us. There was a lot of side stepping and very awkward skinning on steep banks. When we finally made it to the slope we would start ascending, it was welcome because we would be able to skin more normally for the rest of the day. We began our ascent up what seemed to be a frozen over creek.
Eventually it opened up and we had some of the prettiest views of the trip. We headed up what is called the Portal Glacier. At an elevation of about 7200 ft, one of our guides triggered the first two remote avalanches of the day. These slides happened on a slope above him. We needed to go up this slope, but there was still some hang fire above us. So the guides had us wait in a safe spot while they continued on to see what the next slope looked like. Our guide ski cut a different slope and caused another slide, but it didn’t get the whole slope to go so he didn’t feel good about having us ski that slope. Instead, he was forced to put in a 100 ft bootpack on a ridge that was 100% facets. It felt like trying to hike in quicksand. Once we made it up the bootpack, we could see the saddle we were targeting that was certainly steep enough to slide and facing a similar aspect to the first avalanche we remote triggered. Our guide took off first and put in another bootpack without any incident. Eventually, the remaining 7 of us made it to the top of the saddle.
We were pretty excited at this point as we had just toured up almost 4800 ft after the 3 miles of creekside adventure skiing and all we had was a ski descent in front of us that would take us about 10 minutes to get to the Icefall Lodge. Ever heard of the phrase “it ain’t over til it’s over?” We were about to learn that lesson. Our lead guide made one turn in the middle of the slope and it was rock hard snow under an inch of softer snow so he traversed over 100 ft to the right to ski down a slope that had much better conditions. Towards the bottom, he triggered and skied out of a very small avalanche. Once he was safely down, he radioed up to have everyone else go one at a time. Mike offered to go next. He traversed over to the same spot the guide went to and made two turns next to the guide’s tracks when the whole slope let out and avalanched. Mike quickly realized what was happening and started to fight his way at an angle towards the right side of the avalanche. This turned out to be a great decision because he avoided getting stuck in the area where most of the snow went, and he was able to stay on the surface. When the snow stopped moving, the happiest sight of my life was seeing his red helmet still above the snow. He had a dislocated shoulder that he was able to get back in after a few moments. He lost a ski and a pole so we set out looking for those. Ultimately I was able to find his ski 25 ft above where he stopped. The joke was that I found his ski because I didn’t want to have to buy new ones for him. I can’t express how relieved I was that the consequences weren’t any worse. After we found the ski and made sure Mike would be OK to ski, we headed down to the lodge.
We learned a lot that day. If you read my remarks under the overview, you know how I feel about he situation. I know avalanche risk could not be eliminated that day, but I think our guide could have been operating on a lot better information than he was. He was dealt a day with extremely difficult snowpack conditions and received no support from management to navigate it as safely as he in hindsight could have. We realize that the first turn the guide took on the slope down to the lodge that was rock hard was the surface that had avalanched the day before. If we had known that at the time, we could have also side stepped down the same surface that the group did the day before. All that was on this bed surface was an inch of wind blown snow. Chances are Mike would not have been skiing the slope where he did if we had information that should have been shared.
When we arrived at the lodge, our adrenaline started to wear off and Mike and I turned in for an early night. We ended up ascending 4800 vertical feet and descending 2700 vertical feet this day over 9 miles.
Day 5: Icefall Lodge
The Icefall Lodge is the one hut where each group stays 2 nights. It gives people an opportunity to take a day off if desired or you are welcome to go touring around the hut for the day. After waking up, Mike and I decided to take the day off and rest. Mike’s shoulder was hurting quite a bit, and we were both exhausted from the previous day’s events. We hung out at the lodge for the day and took a nice sauna and shower. It gave us some time to process the previous day and determine that we were going to continue and complete the traverse.
Day 6: Icefall Lodge to Rostrum Cabin
The Rostrum Cabin would be the final hut of the trip. We set out up the big drainage that the Icefall Lodge is in. The sun was out this day and the views were spectacular. It certainly helped my morale that day. We headed up behind another group to Ice Pass where the other group’s guide inadvertently set off an avalanche on a very small slope with little consequence. This showed that the snowpack was touchy in this area as well. We voiced our desire to keep terrain choices conservative. From the top of the pass, we took the middle of the mellow valley down to the hut. We dropped off some gear and then went out for another tour. The snow was warming up quite a bit so we called it once it started getting too soft. The tour from Icefall Lodge to Rostrum cabin was 4.75 miles and 2000 vert. We added on another 3 miles and 1400 vert that afternoon. This hut reminded us a lot of the Alexandra Cabin (although there was no chef) and it was nice to be in a hut with just our group again, instead of numerous groups at the Icefall Lodge.
Day 7: Rostrum Cabin to Staging Area
We woke up on our last day with the plan to skin up Diamond Glacier to Porcupine Saddle and then potentially ski all the way down to the valley bottom. After touring up to Porcupine Saddle (2000 vert in 1.6 miles), we decided to ski back down the way we came up. The snow was quite good in spots, but extremely variable in others. The snow was also starting to heat up quickly and was quite sticky by the bottom of the run. When we got back to the cabin to pack up for the day, our decision was to either get picked up by the helicopter at the cabin or to ski to valley bottom and get picked up there. After feeling conditions around the cabin and how sticky the snow was, we ultimately decided to get picked up at the cabin. I think this was the right decision as I believe conditions would have gotten even stickier as we descended and those can be dangerous conditions to ski in for your ligaments. The helicopter came and picked us up, flew us to the staging area, and we were quickly on our way to get a real meal and take a real shower. This trip was one of the wildest trips of my life. It came with many lessons that will hopefully translate into improved backcountry decision making for the rest of my life.
If you are considering signing up for this traverse and have any questions about our experience, please feel free to reach out.
