[TR] Pemberton to Hurley River- Ski Traverse 3/30/2006

[AlpineK]

Climb: Pemberton to Hurley River-Ski Traverse

 

Date of Climb: 3/30/2006

 

Trip Report:

Over the past few years I’ve been ski traversing the coast range in segments. Two years ago Jeff Hansel and I skied from Blackcomb to the Pemberton airfield. The next obvious trip was to follow the mountains north of Pemberton just to the east of the Lillooet River.

 

Jeff and I left Seattle on the 29th and headed up to Pemberton. We got up there late and spent a night in the hotel listening to the rain come down. The next morning we were up early since we had to meet the helicopter at 7:30AM. We spent more time filling out forms and paying for the flight than the actual flight time. I remember the pilot putting on a Fleetwood Mac song and flying off towards the mountains. The next thing I know he says, “It’s too cloudy to drop you where you want, so I’ll set you here.” We land with the song not even half over; the pilot says, “there are your three lakes; you know where you are?” I wasn’t totally sure, but I said yes anyway. Jeff and I jumped out got our gear and the helicopter was gone. After it got quiet Jeff started laughing and says, “Where the hell are we?” We looked at the map and pieced things together. It really didn’t help that the clouds were rolling in and out rapidly. But that was to become the theme of this trip.

 

Heli flight in

 

Low clowds at the start of the trip

 

 

After getting our shit together we started skiing. After 5 minutes we were in a white out; we kept skiing until we were suddenly at the top of a big hill that wasn’t suppose to be on our route. I got out the compass and discovered that we were now headed SW instead of NW. We backtracked and got more or less on route. The clouds also lifted for a time and we moved along until they came down on us while we were traversing a plateau on Mt Ronayne at about 7000’. Suddenly we were at the top of cornices and a huge drop. We consulted the map and dumped our packs and walked back and forth trying to get some depth perception and figure out where the hell we were. After a bunch of swearing Jeff and I went exploring separate ways I finally figured that we either had to backtrack a long way or try and rap off one edge of the cornice. Jeff returned and we talked it over. We hauled our packs to the edge of the cornice and started poking around. I shoveled out a bollard and a trough on the top of the cornice and then rapped down about 30’ onto a steep slope. Jeff lowered my skis then his skis and my pack and his pack and finally he rappelled down. The slope below looked sweet but way too steep to ski with huge packs on, so we decided to let the packs slide. Mine slid down neatly, but Jeff’s started to tumble and we watched the tent poles and a couple other things go flying. We eventually got things together and had a nice ski in great powder down to a little lake.

 

 

Looking back at the cornice on Ronayne

 

3/31

 

We had a bunch more travel in near and white out conditions this day. I had the compass in my pocket and checked it regularly. We traveled over the rest of the Ronayne massive and skied to Ogre Lake. There were a bunch of snowmobile tracks on ths stretch of the trip, but we never saw any. From the lake we climbed over the west shoulder of Seven O Clock Mountain. Things got a bit ugly as we climbed back into the full white out. We reached a high point near Mt Barbour and started skiing down. I thought we were going north, but we ended up going west and ended up at a lake. We skied to the edge of the lake and we were staring down into the Lillooet Valley instead of Tenquille Creek which I had been expecting. Despite this we weren’t too far off the plan though, so we set up the tent and crashed for the evening.

 

4/1

 

Seven O Clock Mtn

 

South of Tenquille Lake

 

In the morning we did a nice traverse across a high ridge to Mount McLeod and skied down to Tenquille Lake. There were a bunch more snowmobile tracks at the lake. We skied to the NW corner of the lake and checked out the gauging station and hut. The weather looked good so we decided to climb over Tenquille Mountain. We climbed up the long south slopes of Finch Ridge on Tenquille in the sun until we got near the ridge crest; then the clouds rolled back in and once again we were at the top of a cornice with a steep drop and virtually no visibility. After fucking around for a bit we decided that we’d pushed things far enough for the past couple days and we should just ski back to the lake.

 

Tenquille and Goat Mountain

 

We had a nice ski down from Finch Ridge and ended up back at the hut. Nobody had been in it for a while, so we dug our way down to the door. The hut has seen better days, but it was alright if you don’t mind a Grizzly Adams mixed with white trash theme to your stay. We found a wood stove, some chopped firewood but no axe. The hut was buried in snow so it took us at least an hour to dig out the top of the chimney. In the end we had to dig a hole over 6’ down through snow. Anyway we got the fireplace going and I used my light weight ice axe to chop a couple more pieces of wood. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out. At one point a couple snowmobilers showed up and we talked to them for a bit. They seemed concerned about us, and told us they’d help out if we needed. If we’d been smarter we would have ask for beer.

 

A hole in the snow for the chimney

 

4/2

 

The 2nd was much nicer. Instead of heading back to Finch Ridge we climbed up a gully in between Tenquille and Goat Peak. This ended up nicely. We got right to the head of the Tenquille Glacier and had one of the best skis on the whole trip. From this point the skiing got sucky. We spent the rest of the day skiing through clearcuts and eventually to the ridge to the south of Railroad Pass. Now we were at about the lowest elevation of the trip and the ski to Railroad pass was pretty sloppy. We skied onto the road and sat there for a time and ate. Then the best thing on the whole trip happened. A snowmobile came around the corner. The mobile was pulling a huge sled loaded down with empty water jugs and such. The driver stopped and we talked for a bit. The driver has some backcountry ski operation on Grouty Peak and he was resupplying stuff for the next week. As it happened he had a beer with him and he gave it to us. Jeff and I split it. I don’t know when I was drunk on half a beer, but it was great. We ended up camping about a 100 yards from the road.

 

Skiing on the Tenquille Glacier

 

 

 

 

 

 

4/3

 

The snowmobile dude had told us that there was a ridge of high pressure building, so we were pretty hopeful this day. Things looked sort of good as we climbed up around the side of Face Peak, but as per usual when we got up high we entered white out city. We got to the col bellow Handcar peak and we could see nothing except a cornice of undetermined size blocking our way. After we dropped our packs we started poking around. You could only see the edge of the cornice when you were about 4’ from it, so Jeff and I walked back a forth trying to find the edge or figure out just how big it was. At one point I started chopping at it with my ski pole and then booted down; I got about 6’ down and when I tried to kick the next step down all I hit was air. After that I quickly scrambled back up. Jeff had better luck he found that if you climbed up to this point at one side of the gap the cornice ended but when I booted down a bit there was a lot of pillowed up snow that smelled of avy. After some more talk the clouds lifted a bit and I chucked a few snowballs off the top of the cornice and determined that the point which I tried to boot down was about a 30’ drop. As on the first day’s cornice this was something that you could huck with no pack, but life is a little different with a big pack. Anyway we decided on Jeff’s side route. I booted straight down to get off the pillow of snow; Jeff walked down and then we skied. This was another nice run with some traversing down low.

 

 

The second big cornice

 

In the valley we checked the time and looked at the weather. We still had a couple hours of travel time, but the weather wasn’t looking too good, we were burned out from a lot of travel and we were at a natural point at which we could bail from the whole traverse. We spent the night right there at the pass while it snowed another couple inches.

 

 

 

4/4

 

A distant view looking south at the 2nd cornice

 

 

Mt Samson

 

We woke up in a cloud with new snow falling, so neither of us moved very quickly. I eventually got up and the weather looked really bad for any kind of routfinding. After a couple more hours rest I could start to see the sun burning through the clouds, and sure enough as we made coffee it cleared up from full on white to a swirling coming and going. That was good enough for us and we headed up a long hill towards Mount Samson. The thin cloud cover seemed to amplify the heat of the sun and we were both baking in the heat despite our limited visibility. At the top of the slope we did a falling traverse and ended up with a short climb onto the Boomerang Glacier. Things were getting hot, and the new snow triggered a bunch of big avalanches onto the glacier. Despite this it was nice skiing and we were soon at the top of North Creek. I didn’t know where the North Creek hut was exactly, and I didn’t want to drop down too far, so after a half hour of searching we gave up. From the basin we climbed up a hill and camped just west of the divide between North Creek and the Hurley River. At this point we were a day and a half behind my original idea of getting to Salal Creek and after talking things over with Jeff for a bit I got on the sat phone and called up this guy in Pemberton with a snow cat and told him we wanted a ride out the next day from Donelly Creek camp ground.

 

South towards Handcar (with cornice)

 

Boomerang Glacier

 

Delilah

 

4/5

 

North Creek Hurley Divide

 

 

This was the first day of clear weather on our trip. We got going late, hiked over the divide, and skied the gentle slopes of the upper Hurley River. The clear skies made the snow icy and fast, so we made good time heading down the river. We saw a bunch of tracks including a set left by a cougar and her cub. We followed them all the way to the road head then lost them. The rest of the ski out was kick and glide on a logging road. Jeff and I got to Donelly Creek at about 3PM and spent the rest of the day hanging out waiting for the snowcat. Finally at about 8:30 our man with the cat showed up. It was dark so I didn’t get a picture, but the machine was just about the coolest thing I’ve ever ridden in. The driver handed us a couple beers apiece then drove the cat on snow then on the dirt road, and then to our surprise on the paved road almost all the way into Pemberton. From there He drove us to the airport and our car. The rest of the evening involved eating drinking and watching that White Castle movie on the TV at the Pemberton Hotel.

 

End of the ski

 

Bad ass snowcat

 

 

Gear Notes:

The usual things. We did use a rope once, and ski crampons helped. I recommend taking a Sat phone on a trip like this.

 

Approach Notes:

Heli to the start of the route and a snowcat on the way out

 

There are 3 maps in my photo galery with our route marked out.

Edited April 9, 2006 by AlpineK

[chesterboo]

way to go guys! sounds like allot of effort but one to put in the memory banks for some time to come.

[PaulB]

... I got on the sat phone and called up this guy in Pemberton with a snow cat and told him we wanted a ride out the next day from Donelly Creek camp ground.

Why didn't we do that coming out from Pebble Creek????

 

Sounds like a good trip, despite the weather!

[jordop]

Sounds like you guys got the hookups all round on that trip

[AlpineK]

... I got on the sat phone and called up this guy in Pemberton with a snow cat and told him we wanted a ride out the next day from Donelly Creek camp ground.

Why didn't we do that coming out from Pebble Creek????

 

Sounds like a good trip, despite the weather!

 

Our original plan was to come out either Salal Creek or over Mt. Athelstan to Pebble Creek. The weather put an end to that idea, but the whole time I was trying to figure out how to keep the heli cost down but still get back to our truck.

 

I'd like to go into Icemaker next, and the snowcat is only $125.00 CDN/hr though it does have it's limitations.

[G-spotter]

Ya but you can haul way more beer with a cat than with a chopper.

[thelawgoddess]

nice work, boys!

[DirtyHarry]

Cool.

[Weekend_Climberz]

I really love that area and can't wait to return. It's nice to hear of some other possiblities of tours, which I'm sure must be endless up there. Nice trip guys!!

[jmace]

Cool Adventure!!

[AllYouCanEat]

Awesome stuff. I love the shot that shows all of your turns down the Tenquille Glacier.

[BackCountryPunk]

Awesome trip. The snow cat sounds like a laff riot.