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HOMATHKO ICEFIELD SKI TRAVERSE
| Trip Length: |
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2 Weeks |
| Trip Dates: |
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April 1 - April 14, 2002 |
| Report Submitted By: |
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Cam Shute |
| Participants Names: |
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Cam Shute, Mark Tinholt, Mark Parminter, Steve Ogle |
| Sponsors Names: |
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G3, Intuition Sports |
| Route Followed: |
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Flew by ski plane from Pemberton, British Columbia to the centre of the Homathko Icefield, located in the Coastal Mountain Range of BC. Ascents and descents included Mt. Grenville, Mist Peak and Mt. Queen Bess, finishing traverse with a ski out to Tatlayoko Lake via the Nostetuko River. |
G3 Equipment Used:
G3 High Performance Climbing Skins, G3 Targa and Targa T9 Bindings |
Comments on Gear Performance:
Overall a big thumbs up, one binding pulled out of a ski, but we were able to do a field repair. |
Trip Description:
We hatched our decision to land midway through the flight. We (Mark Tinholt, Mark Parminter, Steve Ogle and Cam Shute) had decided that we would head out to the Homathko in early April this 2002, but were slightly divided in what we wanted to climb and ski. So in midair we decided to split the difference, and land in the middle of the Homathko Icefield and become our own (much more affordable) food drop. Dale from Tyax air was our pilot for the trip, and he gave us a special rate since he had to pick up another party on the Compton Neve. He was an excellent pilot, and very knowledgeable about the area (www.tyaxair.com).
We landed at 51:05.3-124:29.7 just south of Cambridge Peak and dropped off nine days of food. From there we skied 8km south along the very gentle rolling terrain in the centre region of the Homathko towards Plateau Peak. From the ridgeline that eventually joins Plateau Peak we continued south to set up Camp 1 (51:01.4-124:32.1) in preparation of our climb of Mt. Grenville the next day. We woke to perfect weather, and started our 6 km approach to Mt. Grenville wrapping around the southwest side of Peak 2544.
The good weather continued to hold, and so we headed north again to collect our food and push further north towards Queen Bess. We set up Camp 2 just west of the midpoint between Cambridge Peak and Mist Peak, and decided that we would ski Mist Peak the following morning.
We again awoke to beautiful sunny skies, and easily skinned most of the way up the southwest face of Mist Peak. The snow was softening and getting a little wet, but we enjoyed the skiing none the less. That night the winds started, and we could tell that a system was approaching. Our position on the glacier was beautiful with Mt. Waddington and Mt. Tiedeman in the background.
The next two days were spent waiting out the weather as the storm pounded us. Our 1.5 m walls dissappeared, and constant digging out of the tent was required. On April 7th we awoke to a break in the storm, and decided to start pushing north again. We skied north to the col between Howard Peak and Burghley Peak. The east face of Howard, and north face of Burghley just begged to be skied, but we wanted to climb Mt. Queen Bess, so we continued on. I would recommend to anyone interested in doing more skiing than slogging to set up a camp somewhere in the vicinity of Sasquatch Pass. Easily a week worth of skiable peaks about.
We camped that night at Camp 3, a lake at 1960m just north of the Queen Bess Glacier. We awoke the next morning to see that an avalanche had swept away our previous day's tracks underneath a minor icefall on the north side of Burghley.
We moved camp again that morning to the next valley north, and skied a beautiful chute on the north face of a minor peak at 51:13.8-124:29.3.
Since we had arranged a boat pick up from the south end of Tatlayoko Lake at 5am on April 12th, and we had allotted 2 days (the 10th and 11th) to slogging out, it meant that the next day, April 9th, was our only chance to climb Mt. Queen Bess. So we woke that morning at 4am, and reached 9200 ft by 8am. We were aiming at trying to get to the west face and see if we could find a couloir that would take us up further. But visability was the tricky part. Weather wasn't co-operating, and so 'Team Sausage' stuck our tails between our legs and headed for home.
The next two days we hiked out the Nostetuko River Valley. We had heard rumours that a party had apparently skied up to the Queen Bess area that way before, and so we figured we could get down it. It proved to be the most brutal part of the trip negotiating canyon after canyon after canyon, and many crossings of the river. We set up Camp 5 just west and upstream of the Nostetuko Delta, Mt. Moore was impressive to the east.
The last day we managed to find our way down much of the same river valley, with much less gradient, but still many canyons, which had to be negotiated. We eventually found the end of an old mining road on the east side of the river which led us up to Lot 846 as is shown on the map where there were a bunch of derelict cabins and vehicles. Many whiskey bottles (empty) showed some signs of life in years past.
We continued heading north down a path down to south end of Tatlayoko Lake which marks the headwaters of the Homathko River. Alex Bracewell of Bracewell's Alpine Wilderness Adventures in Tatlayoko Lake picked us up from our camp on time, and provided us with a much needed hot breakfast. He's a handy guy to know if you're in the area.
Just a note that the Nostetuko was not really recommended as an access route, but it did provide an decent exit, and perhaps with more snow it would have been better. Be ready for some full pack boulder traverses with tele boots as pictured below if you're heading there.
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