Sunset on the Homathko Icefield

Sunset on the Homathko Icefield; Melting snow as the sun goes down http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/uhMhN7

Glacier Camp

Glacier Camp; Resting at the end of a hot day on the Homathko Icefield http://flic.kr/p/uznFN8

Expedition Journal Notes from the field, written by torchlight...

Expedition Journal

Notes from the field, written by torchlight in icy tents with a soundtrack of wind and spindrift against the nylon.

Glacier camp

Glacier camp; Melting water looking back towards Klattersine Glacier http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/udAMZF

Homathko Icefield

Homathko Icefield; Drying our gear during a lunchtime pause overlooking the icefield http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/txvFRB

Glacier Camp

Glacier Camp; Camped at the base of Klattersine Glacier, gaining the icefield tomorrow. http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/upYdnN

Descending through crevasses

Descending through crevasses; Working our way down towards the icefield http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/u9Z3pS

First View of the Icefield

First View of the Icefield; Paused on the col at the top of Klattersine Glacier http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/umRcyW

Klattersine Glacier

Klattersine Glacier; Making great progress near the top of Klattersine Glacier. coldwilderness.tumblr.com http://flic.kr/p/uoBdHF

Camp on Klattersine Glacier

Camp on Klattersine Glacier; Enjoying the first blue sky of the trip from snow-covered tents. coldwilderness.tumblr.com http://flic.kr/p/uiuomC

Klattersine Avalanche

Klattersine Avalanche; As soon as the sun came out the south-facing slopes of Klattersine Ridge began to avalanche almost continuously. coldwilderness.tumblr.com http://flic.kr/p/u3pxnW

Camped on Klattersine Glacier

Camped on Klattersine Glacier; After the snow stops and the weather clears we get lovely views of the Waddington Range. coldwilderness.tumblr.com http://flic.kr/p/uhiYb8

Mt Waddington Range

Mt Waddington Range; After we give up trying to find a way through the crevasses in such bad light, the weather clears and we get a great sunset view of the Waddington Range. coldwilderness.tumblr.com http://flic.kr/p/tjCmYk

Klattersine Glacier

Klattersine Glacier; Still thick mist and lots of snow but we're on the ice at last. Navigation is tricky weaving through crevasses in a whiteout. http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/tWvr4i

Top of Klattersine Creek

Top of Klattersine Creek; Approaching the snout of Klattersine Glacier in cloud and mist as snow falls heavily. http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/ud8ZVS

Klattersine Creek Camp

Klattersine Creek Camp; Our first camp at the helicopter landing site, high on a moraine ridge in Klattersine Creek. http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/tTzvHt

Helicopter Landing

Helicopter Landing; Getting dropped off in Klattersine Creek by Mike King's White Saddle Air. For the next two weeks we are on our own. http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/u7QVNG

Packing the helicopter

Packing the helicopter; Hurriedly packing our gear before the flight into the Homathko Icefield, British Columbia. More on http://ift.tt/1KPnssN http://flic.kr/p/tRoRm9

Homathko Part Five – Nine Mile Creek

Homathko Part Five – Nine Mile Creek
Being just nine miles long, we felt that however bad the vegetation was in Nine Mile Creek, a day would be enough time. We were in no way prepared for it taking two entire days.
The first day and a half we had to keep skis on the majority of the time, making the steep and convoluted ground between the trees extremely difficult and very slow. At one point the ground suddenly opened up and the snow disappeared, allowing us to make very rapid progress on foot but within a few hours we were bogged down in incredibly heavy deadfall and Alder from hell.
We made an unplanned open bivouac in the woods, unable to get the tents up, but a fire allowed us to dry out from the rain and wet snow that had soaked us during the afternoon. At this point we were just 2-3 km from the beach and so we rang Roland Class, telling him we would be at the beach at 15:00 the next day (we thought we should add plenty of hours to allow for complications). In the morning the vegetation, amazingly, got significantly worse. We were climbing deadfall six feet high and dragging our packs through Alder so thick that during the first two hours we gained only 300m of distance towards the beach. We wove back and forth across the ridge with increasing desperation and under the strain our gear finally began to break up; ski boots were disintegrating and my pack began to shed one of its shoulder straps.
Finally, at long last we began to make progress. Game trails allowed to to move steadily and we navigated towards an area of braided river where we hoped we would really make progress; this worked out at first, but soon we were backtracking and struggling to cross the many streams. In the end, with time pressing, we started to just walk across and down the streams, struggling to stay upright in the knee deep glacial meltwater.
We emerged onto the beach at 15:40 and to our relief there was Roland with his boat. We were exhausted and collapsing under the weight of our packs, but it had been an incredible trip. Ironically, the best adventure was had in the final nine miles, with no skis on our feet, but that’s exactly why we came to Canada. It provided almost everything we came for and I will be back for sure.

Homathko Part 4 – Leaving the Icefield

Homathko Part 4 – Leaving the Icefield

Given the sustained bad weather we’d been sitting through, we were surprised when the forecast came true and blue skies appeared. It took a long time to dig everything out of the snow, but eventually we were packed and bid farewell to the igloo. The 2-3′ high ridges of snow that had built up between the tents were impressive and showed a fair amount of snow had been moved around during the storm.

We were starting from Sasquatch Pass, where we had left our food cache on the flight in, and figured three days to be a reasonably generous amount of time to get to the Franklin Arm of Chilko Lake, where Roland Class was going to pick us up with his boat.
Immediately after cresting the pass our first obstacle was the Alph Glacier, which passed surprisingly easily despite a steep serac band. Ahead lay the final hanging valley, guarded by very steep slopes. We stopped early in the day so that we could tackle these slopes in the cold of the morning when avalanche risk is much lower.

The second morning we climbed into the hanging valley that would give access to our exit route, swapping skis for crampons on the steep and hard snow. By late morning we found ourselves looking along the long ridge leading to Snowsquall Pass. Our plan was to reach the pass and drop onto the Stilly Glacier by the evening, but below us a series of ramps beckoned invitingly.

We made the decision to get onto the ramps an into the final valley floor as quickly as possible before the sun made the slopes too soft. What followed started as a worrying crossing of big, steep and heavily loaded slopes  but ended as the only good downhill skiing of the trip; good soft spring ego snow allowing long lazy turns despite the steepness of the slope. We then had some fantastic easy angled tree skiing into the head of Nine Mile Creek and, we thought, the trip was pretty much done. Turns out those final nine miles would be the longest of the trip! More in Part Five…