Homathko Icefield Part 1

Homathko Icefield Part 1

Flying into Anahim Lake, we were picked up by helicopter pilot Mike King, who drove us to White Saddle, informing us that with the weather forecast he wanted to leave for the mountains immediately. Cue rushed unpacking of freeze dried dinner from cardboard boxes and rushed stuffing of tents, crampons, axes, harnesses, ice screws, food, gasoline, stoves, pans etc etc…

The flight in was stunning, but unexpectedly heavy cloud made finding his way hard for the pilot, Les. But we found a great spot to stash half of our food and fuel in the middle of the icefield and finally managed to find Klattersine Creek. As we flew down Klattersine Glacier we were happy to see it looked passable, with not too much crevassing. Cruising up and down Klattersine Creek we found a high, flat clearing perched on a medial moraine, with what looked like a reasonable descent to the valley floor which we could then follow uphill to the glacier. Thick, wet snow fell on us through the night and the next day but we found a route up onto the glacier.

The second morning we awoke to perfect blue skies and bright sun which set off an almost continuous stream of avalanches from the south-facing side of Klattersine Ridge. We wove between crevasses and continued to climb to the col topping the glacier; here we expected an easy ski down to the base of the Homathko icefield, which stretched away ahead of us. 30 minutes later we were bogged down in a complex crevasse field, and ended up escaping onto the left bank where a gully appeared passable and uncrevassed.

We unroped and packed our sleds onto our packs (shockingly heavy!); Jonty fell into a crevasse and we all struggled with deep, wet afternoon slop and our progress slowed to a crawl. We began triggering small avalanches and so immediately exited the gully and followed a set of snow bridges back onto the glacier. Exhausted, we stopped and camped.

The next morning we finally managed to leave the glacier, at least 18 hours later than we thought the previous afternoon(!) and made it onto the icefield. Ahead lay a complex crevasse field at the top of the Jewakway glacier, barring our way. More in Part 2.