Thread: Mermaids and Ice! A traverse from Icefall Lodge (TR).

Given the horrible spring ski season here in Colorado, we were looking forward to our ski week out of Icefall Lodge NW of Golden, B.C., last week. It turned out very well even though we could not get into the Mons Hut to start the trip. So we did the traverse in reverse: 3 nights at Icefall Lodge, 2 at Lyell Hut, and 2 at Mons Hut. That worked out very well. Here is a brief report. A fuller TR is at http://stanwagon.com/wagon/canskiing...verse2012.html

Our group consisted of four of us from Colorado, a father and son team from Edmonton, two guys from Washington, and guide Pierre Hungr.

The high point of the drive up was the Mermaids at the Sip n Dip Lounge in Great Falls, Montana. If you are in GF check them out!


Sunday: Icefall Lodge.


Elke after the steep descent off Kefi Col.


Monday: Elke passes through the neat crevasse on the Diamond Glacier below Icefall Peak.


And Ben, who got going too fast at bottom!



Tuesday: We skied into Crampon Col, which is very rare as it typically requires booting.


Looking back at the other side of the col.


Wednesday: A storm day. The Lyell Hut is perched on a high plateau just south of all the Lyell peaks. I think it is the third-highest hut in Canada, behind Neil Colgan and Abbott. I imagine we were the highest (!) people in Canada on our nights here.


Thursday: A great dawn so our guide, Pierre Hungr, led us first up Lyell 5 (aka Christian). Then we had a great 5000-foot descent to the rim of Icefall Canyon.

An unnamed peak between Tivoli and Lens.


Crampon Col in center; Icefall Peak behind.


Approaching the top of Lyell 5 (11120 ft., aka Christian Peak after Christian Hasler). A pretty focusing few steps to the summit.


Halfway down the 5000-foot run to the canyon rim.


Looking back at the icefall after which Icefall Brook, Peak, and Lodge are named. So I guess this is Icefall Icefall.
Elke and Kim, thrilled to have a nice day on great slopes.


Mons Peak:


And again:


Friday: Another day of low visibility. We spent some time in an amazing ice cave, which we had also seen in a 2003, when we stumbled across it on the Mons to Mummery traverse.


The feeling of the ice is hard to describe: like polished stone. And it feels warm to the touch. A sensory illusion?


The Mons Hut:


Division Peak. Spider Glacier is the bowl on the left and we skied the shaded line through the cliff band. The lower snow peak on the left is what we climbed the previous day, skiing the far left line (hidden).


Saturday. We had a noon pickup so we rose early and headed to Mons Peak, stopping just below the summit. The ski down was superb wind-buffed snow and powder sections.

After the first part of the run down from Mons summit area.


I had hoped for a better picture of the north face of Forbes (which I climbed in 1999) but this will have to do.


I like this view of La Clytte (left) showing the fine ski run down the face.


And while nobody cares, I have given up telemarking -- at age 60 it was time to try locking the heels down. It worked out. On Sunday we skied to near the summit of Mt Field, had a pleasant visit with Chic Scott on the way home, and drove nonstop to Summit County, Colorado.

Beyond awesome.

Many thanks.

great stuff Stan

Already miss winter Stan and your pictures are making it seem so far away

Thanks for that. That shot of the cave looks particularly awesome.

Kick assedeness.

Thanks

Wow. Beautiful TR and trip. Looks like you scored some great weather and snow. Thanks for sharing that.

Never spending any time up there what are the huts like? The first one looked posh. The others no frills?

Just amazing.

Looks like a good time, thanks

wow, if I didn't just hit 7 Springs for the HUDGE storm I'd be so jealous.

Well, the pics are on the good weather days! We had roughly 2.5 days out of 7 that were fine. Others were murky, but often with acceptable visibility for skiing.

Icefall Lodge (the large building) was put up several years ago (2009 or 10) I think. It is quite comfortable. And there is a second building (the original hut, put in in 2006 I think) which is used for sleeping quarters.

The first satellite hut was the Lyell, and the second the Mons. There are just basic huts -- as you say, no frills. Our party of 9 was very comfortable at each. The Mons is just a little larger, and that makes a difference. The ski terrain around all three buildings is phenomenal.

But the weather doesn't always cooperate with one's plans. This is my third winter visit to Icefall (other trips described at stanwagon.com). On the other two trips we had hoped to get over Crampon Col, but did not.

Sip and Dip FTW!!!!!!!! play it again Piano Pat

Yeah, Piano Pat -- somewhat incongruous with the mermaids! If you want to see Pat in action, try:

http://www.tikiroom.com/img/1186x46b3abbf.jpg

But I am learning that lots of Montanans know all about this funny little place off the beaten track in Great Falls.

hmmmm... looks like next year the satellite huts will have to be on the menu. Sweet TR.

Great Cnd Rockies' stoke by a CO Rockies' maggot!

What an amazing trip, thanks for that. These keep me dreaming...

Stan, it's been a long time but I'm glad to see you're still getting out

Nice trip thank's for posting. Had heard of icefall but didn't know about those other huts. Probably wondering why you took so long to give up the telemark.

I won't post them here, but more photos from another team member just arrived and they are visible at

http://stanwagon.com/wagon/canskiing...verse2012.html

He also posted some short video. On their heli ride out they took a direct line not often taken from Mons to staging area allowing great views of Freshfield Icefield, etc. For that see the last 4 entries at the following site: those are the vids:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1054010...P6xnKDsnLW4_AE

Originally Posted by Moose Pit

hmmmm... looks like next year the satellite huts will have to be on the menu. Sweet TR.

is possible but needs planning. Stan did elkes boots fail?

Nope. She has some foot issues and says that icing her foot once in the middle of the day helps. So she was in the middle of that when I decided to take the pic.

By the way, Ben's beacon failed at Lyell Hut... so he skied beaconless that day but Pierre was able to repair it that evening at Mons Hut.

Still decompressing: I hardly ski on the big skis all winter, and it was such a great trip up there.

There was a very strange heli incident: On the way in, Lisa of the group staying at the Lodge had her ski pants ruined by something on the seat. And Ben of our group, same seat, had some small damage. Lisa had to scrounge around for ski pants. On the way out 7 days later our Kim sat in the same seat. Big mistake. Her pants too were ruined. There was no smell of fuel or chemicals. And the seat itself was not damaged. If it was very warm, surely the wearer would have noticed. Coldstream Helis, naturally, says that it does not carry toxic materials. But the rear ends of Kim and Lisa seem to indicate otherwise. Anyone have any idea what this could be?

Originally Posted by StanWagon

Nope. She has some foot issues and says that icing her foot once in the middle of the day helps. So she was in the middle of that when I decided to take the pic.

By the way, Ben's beacon failed at Lyell Hut... so he skied beaconless that day but Pierre was able to repair it that evening at Mons Hut.

Still decompressing: I hardly ski on the big skis all winter, and it was such a great trip up there.

There was a very strange heli incident: On the way in, Lisa of the group staying at the Lodge had her ski pants ruined by something on the seat. And Ben of our group, same seat, had some small damage. Lisa had to scrounge around for ski pants. On the way out 7 days later our Kim sat in the same seat. Big mistake. Her pants too were ruined. There was no smell of fuel or chemicals. And the seat itself was not damaged. If it was very warm, surely the wearer would have noticed. Coldstream Helis, naturally, says that it does not carry toxic materials. But the rear ends of Kim and Lisa seem to indicate otherwise. Anyone have any idea what this could be?

Hydrolic fluid?
Great pic's, I bet this trip made up for our wonderful season in CO.

Looks beautiful, Stan. I am quite envious.

Originally Posted by StanWagon

the horrible spring ski season here in Colorado

I haven't given up yet. Looks like the work-to-turns ratio will be high.

I am having a hard time imagining an odorless chemical that destroys pants while not harming a seat.

bumping this! Are the Mons and Lyell hut open or do you need to make reservations? Do not see them on the ACC site?

I missed this the first time around! great stuff stan!

Thanks SUMMIT. Back to Canada this April....

Finally some decent snow here in Somewhat County. BFD: The huts are not ACC huts. They are owned, managed, and supplied by Larry Dolecki of Icefall Lodge. icefall.ca. Nice short URL. TinyURL makes this twice as long! Larry does allow others to reserve them.

Misc. off-topic news: Got my first look at some Rando Racing skis when I went up Homestake Peak (Leadville) with a friend a couple weeks ago. Impressively light, though a bit useless when breaking in deep snow. Coming down a trail with some rolling terrain though is a real pain in AT gear, which I had as well. Couple days later I went back with light, waxed touring skis. Hugely faster all around, though the first thou. of the summit were a bit ugly.