Selkirk Mountain Experience, March 2020 (Part 2)

March 9th, 2020

Woke up this morning at 6 feeling well rested and ready for the long day ahead. I slept decently, but woke multiple times throughout the night due to other people getting up to go out to the outhouse. Absolutely clear morning, but very very cold with some wind. We ate granola and warm milk for breakfast and were out the door by 7:30, with another heavy day of 1300m vertical waiting for us. Again, I managed to get ready quickly enough so that I could take more photos, now with a clear sky and warm sun colors lighting up the slopes.

The Philharmonic Glacier, painted by early morning sunlight.

After leaving, we toured up from the chalet for a couple hours on a different slope to the north of the run that we skied in to the chalet on. As we got higher and higher, the chalet got smaller and smaller against the distant peaks that we were seeing for the first time with clear conditions.

Apparently, today was the 6th day since Christmas that they haven’t had any precipitation, and the first day of the season that we would be able to make it out to the Mt. Moloch Chalet.

Touring up away from Emerald Lake, I eventually realized that we had made our way onto the Philharmonic Glacier and we were on a very specific part of the slope that I had been taking pictures of earlier on from the chalet. It was such a sobering moment realizing how small I was from where I was, now looking down at the empty chalet, waiting for the next group of guests that will arrive today.

Trekking up the Philharmonic Glacier, we were rewarded with familiar, yet different views from the day before. Our tracks down to the Empire Lake Chalet were perfectly preserved, and Symphony Peak standing tall in the upper right corner.

Today's plan was to cross two more ridges in order to make it to the next chalet, the Moloch chalet. Mt. Moloch is the tallest peak of the SME tenure at more than 3000m at its peak. Both ridge crossings were absolutely epic. There were a few tense moments where Ruedi had us doing some very technically advanced touring, such as touring up to and climbing a cornice, as well as side sliding our way around a cliff on the final descent.

Ruedi leading the way down the Juliana Glacier. Mt. Moloch Chalet can be seen just left of center.

The run down Juliana Glacier (our tracks pictured) was one of my favorite ski runs of the week.

Before the final descent, Ruedi and another guide had to go dig out an 80 foot ladder that is likely doing to be used as we make our way out from the chalet tomorrow. That's a challenge that I'll prepare for tomorrow. While they dug out the ladder, the other guide offered to take the some of us up the shoulder of Empress Peak a quick lap just to pass the time. I was tempted to stay back but I’m sure glad I didn’t. Shep, the junior guide on our trip, is a Revelstoke native who is working towards his guiding certification as an apprentice under Ruedi, took us up about another 200m and the views were incredible.

At the top of the Empress Shoulder. The Moloch Chalet to the bottom right, at the crest of the knoll.

Unreal. The rockiest of peaks, endless in the distance, and the tiniest of outlines of a chalet off to the right. It’s beautiful seeing these slopes with untouched snow and no people besides the nine of us in our group. We had a snack break at the top, snapped a few photos of the view, then made our way back down. Then we made our way down the cliff into the valley below the chalet and had a leisurely walk up our to home for the night. This was the first time all winter that the guides have been able to get a group out to this chalet, so there was lots of digging and setup they all had to do before we could get inside.  Mt. Moloch and Mt. Baal right next to to chalet, as well as the ridges across from them were showing off their true features in the afternoon sun. Going camera crazy, I attempted to capture the views as best as I could, but nothing will ever truly captures the size and vastness of these views.

Mount Moloch is the Highest Peak on the SME Tenure, seen from the front steps to the Moloch Chalet

Eldorado face of Innominata Ridge, directly across Dismal Glacier from Moloch Chalet.

We feasted with more nachos, stretched, talked around the table and ate dinner at 6:30. I was seated across from this window that looks right out North to Mt. Baal and Mt. Moloch, with the windowsill framing them perfectly. The vivid sunset colors painted pink across the bony ridges of Mt. Baal and I ate in utter content, thankful for these moments.

Dinner with a view.

Mt. Baal highlighted by the sun. Mt. Moloch to the right.

The high cirrus clouds today were not kidding around, as the sky was full of heavy clouds as soon as the sun set. Ruedi was definitely aware of incoming weather which will make for an interesting day tomorrow. My nose got burnt today so I won’t make that same mistake tomorrow as we make our way back to the Durrand Glacier chalet, where a warm shower and clean clothes await me.

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March 10th, 2020

Wow. What a ride of a day. We woke up to full cloud coverage and light precipitation so we decided against an extra lap up the pass on Mt. Moloch where the chalet was so that we could get out of the area before the weather got much worse. We had to tour our way up to the Mt. Fang Col to the ladder so that we could climb our way out of the Dismal glacier. In years past, it’s been an easy skin out of that area, but due to climate change and shrinking glaciers, Ruedi had to install a 60+ foot ladder back in 2010 in order to get guests out of that area safely. We made a steep tour track up to the base of the ladder and then had to strap our skis A-frame style to our packs in order to safely carry our skis up the ladder. Climbing that ladder was easily one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. I didn’t take any pictures of the ordeal because we were in near whiteout conditions and Ruedi wanted us moving as cautiously and as quickly as possible, because the glacier we were climbing out of was a fairly exposed face. After climbing the ladder, we had to walk along a rock face for 160 feet with only a rope to hold onto that guided us through the rest of the col. From there, we made our way back to the Durrand Glacier via the Juliana glacier on Mt. Fang. During this time, the weather quickly turned south and we found ourselves in one of the most intense whiteouts that I have ever been in. The endlessly dramatic landscape that we had enjoyed the previous day had been completely erased from our view. We were touring up Juliana ridge, a slope we had skied down the day before in bluebird conditions, unable to find yesterday’s tracks. Ruedi was having issues with his GPS device which led to a few tense moments and Shep had to guide us back to the Durrand Glacier, which was one of the most stressful parts of this trip. Once we found ourselves in familiar territory, everyone was able to relax a little bit. We eventually found a glacial ice cave that was wind protected so we took our first break of the day there and actually wandered down to inside the cave.

Everyone was relieved that we were able to look at something cool after not being able to see anything more than 50m ahead of us on the glacier that we had been cautiously making our slow descent on. After continuing on from the cave, it wasn’t long before we could see treeline, the gateway to lower mountain out of the alpine. We had been in the alpine above treeline for the last 48 hours and hadn’t seen many trees at Moloch nor Emerald Lake. Nestled in the familiar trees was our end in sight, the Durrand Glacier Chalet. A couple people in our group actually started cheering at the sight. We continued down and actually continued to ski a short run in the familiar trees below the chalet before an impatient yet leisurely skin back up to the chalet. I took a shower, did a long roll out while I looked at all the pictures and took a few minutes to reflect on the past three days which have been the most intense skiing and backpacking that I have ever done. Three days ago, I was worried and anxious for the trip ahead but now I was on the other end of it, feeling accomplished and ready for more. The Chef welcomed us back with a European cake and a delicious flatbread for snacks. Even though we had spent the last three days together, all of us from the hut trip group came to the tables just to chat more while we snacked. Ruedi seems to have really warmed up to us and chose to stay with us for dinner and we had an awesome time talking with him more. Since it’s been snowing heavily since we got back, our plan for tomorrow is to ski lots of trees below the chalet away from the alpine. I’m sure we’ll tour up onto Moon Hill, slightly in the alpine, In order to have a long run down to and through the trees. Finally able to relax in warmth of the home base, my exhaustion finally caught up with me and knocked me out as soon as my head hit the pillow.