[click on photos for larger view]

Things started out easy enough with a straight and flat 4 km ski across the still frozen Upper Kananaskis Lake. A thick morning fog added some challenge—five minutes into the trip and we were already in a whiteout:



We used the shore as a handrail and easily found the valley leading to Hidden Lake. Beyond that was the crux of the approach to the alpine, a steep bushwhack to get above Fossil Falls—not much fun with big packs. Once this unpleasantness was behind us the stoke started to build as we were now in the awesome environs of Aster Lake:



We set up camp and then toured up the ridge north of Aster Lake to get some turns and do some recon of the route to Joffre. In the picture below it is the highest peak on the left (partially obscured by cloud):



The sky had cleared nicely by the next morning and we set out across Aster Lake with a leisurely 8 AM start:



It’s a mellow but long slog across the Mangin Glacier to get to the north face. As we got closer the visual deception of foreshortening had us feeling confident. Coincidently, our line of ascent more or less followed the well defined shadow seen on the face in this picture:



As the pitch began to get steeper we encountered a stiff crust under the new snow so skis and skins were traded for boots and crampons. About half way up the face the step kicking was still good but the size of the mountain was becoming apparent and we were feeling somewhat more humble. When I took this picture I measured the slope angle at 40 degrees:



I didn’t take anymore climbing pictures after this because our attention was elsewhere. The slope got a tad steeper and the stiff crust became blue ice in places. With calves burning and sewing machine leg setting in I scratched away at the ice with my lightweight aluminium axe (it seemed like a good idea when I bought it). Meanwhile, a little voice inside my head was saying, “Hey Reinhold, are you actually planning to ski this?”

We did what all good amateur mountaineers do when faced with a situation like this—keep going up and hope it gets easier.

Everything worked out and we made it off the face and on to the summit ridge for an easy stroll to the top (2 PM). Here’s the mandatory summit photo—this is on the ridge, a few feet from the top (the precise summit is a precariously corniced piece of real estate so posing there for snapshots is not recommended):



From the top looking north—a sea of peaks:



From the top looking south—another sea of peaks:



We debated the wisdom of attempting to ski down and decided to give it a shot. The only reasonably sane line was skiers left of the way we came up—perhaps the ice would have better coverage. It would probably have been possible to ski through the rockband directly below the summit but that would lead to a lot of steep (approx. 45 degree) ice with a sciff of snow. That’s one for the super heroes.

The upper section of the summit ridge was quite rocky and windswept. We weren’t keen on sacrificing our bases to further the cause of ski-from-the-summit purity so we walked down to where the snow got better.

This shot of our tracks shows that we didn’t exactly flash it—but we did get down with an acceptable modicum of style:



The skiing on the lower half of the face was incredible!



On the way back to camp we did a gradual climbing contour around Mount Cordonnier and up the south ridge of Warrior Mountain:



That set us up for abundant sweet and easy turns down to Aster Lake. Chris’s CMH garage sale Volkls must have felt right at home in this terrain:



Unfortunately, there was no heli pickup to take us back to the lodge and a gourmet dinner—so we settled for
skiing to our camp and a batch of instant mashed potatoes. The next morning we skied out fairly early to avoid getting caught in isothermal hell in the trees.

Tim


For information on camping at Aster Lake contact the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Visitor Centre (403) 591-6345.