With the recent death of five more in Colorado the interweb is all a buzz with discussion, discourse and speculation.

One of the top ski mountaineer bloggers has a discussion going on about being experienced and being an expert and he has put together a list of qualifications for being considered an “expert” ski mountaineer. Since I am nowhere even close to meeting his requirements for being an expert (nor have I ever considered myself one) I have concluded that I would really rather be competent than be an expert any day of the week.

Think about it. Would you want to be with some one with a huge amount of experience but was basically incompetent (not too likely in reality, but the truth is luck does play a part and some people get away with doing dumb things for a very long time) or someone that is new to the game but understands and demonstrates “proper” behaviour for the given conditions. Like I say I am no expert, but if I can manage my own actions in a way that maximizes my survival potential then I am content to know that if I do die in the mountains it is (hopefully) not because I was incompetent, but rather my exposure to danger finally caught up with me (think of guys like Karl Nagy). This just means a lot of days in the mountains and I’m all right with that. Every time you venture out the probability of something going wrong does not change, however the more you are out the more you are subject to sheer happenstance. So it is important to remember that some will die while still doing everything right and some will live even though they do it all wrong.

Living in Alberta, I am used to being very suspicious of the snowpack and when someone relates to me the “surprise” that was felt when the avalanche occurred I ask my self “how is this possible?” Just by being in avalanche terrain you should be expecting avalanches to occur. It is the fact that things aren’t falling apart around you is what should surprise you when you think about how weak the pack can be in the Canadian Rockies.

This is also true for crevasse falls. There should be no surprise at falling in a crevasse when you are a glacier. This is, after all, the only place crevasses occur.

It is also interesting that while the snowpack in the Colorado Rockies is deadly, here in the Canadian Rockies we are enjoying some excellent conditions. April really is the best time for skiing in places like the Kananaskis. I was up the Smith-Dorian the other day just after the recent storm. With no real problem deep-persistent layers and the melt-freeze cycle of the past few weeks, the snowpack is generally very good for Rockies standards. We get this some years and you can safely ski some fantastic lines with really low risk.

I am thinking of some north facing slopes (chutes?) that start at cols and fan down into broad run outs. These are concave slopes that have great support with no trees or terrain traps below. Steep rocky cliffs that end in summits that hold no snow means that these slopes have been filling in with sluff all season. This helps to increase the snow depth and make it more probable for a equa-tempature gradient in our cold climate. Sluffing not only smashes any surface faceting, the constant shock loading will also test the slope for you.

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Blue line: Uptrack
Red Line: Descent
Black Area: Slide

We put a ski track up the face in a way that would allow us to use the same bottom portion of the skin track to access both slopes (chutes). I put in a long traverse under the length of the lower bowl to minimize my kick turns, but more importantly to check out all aspects of the cirque. Rating was Moderate Low Low and it has been Low Low Low for some time due to melt freeze. As I was traversing I came to an area where a small section of the slope had pulled away and ran perhaps 7 meters. About 35 degrees, soft slab, not even class .5 with a 35 cm crown of new snow sliding on a crust. I put in a switch back and got another small section to pull out where my skin track under-cut the slope. I could now see that the weak layer was due to, most likely, a sun crust. This was only occurring at the most extreme western edge of the bowl where the early morning sun could peek over the summits to the east and hit the slope. A sun crust that was frozen when the new snow fell was the result. Out in the more sun sheltered main slope the bond was good between the old and new snow as the interface was not sun melted and refrozen. This snow was obviously warm but most likely had not become totally saturated and therefore was not a slick frozen surface. We did not top out on the col on the first shot (chute) because the upper portion looked a bit wind loaded, but we still has fantastic turns from where we dropped into the main slope (I did a ski cut to further check stability).

So even though we had some sliding activity I felt that this was a super good place to be a bit risky and we went up did the other shot (chute), this time topping out on the col as it was not wind affected. Only the new snow was going to slide (sluff) with the rest of the pack being pretty bomb-proof from the melt-freeze. The sluffs coming off the cliffs were running for many meters but not really running that far down the slope. The concavity of the slope combined with the clean run-out and only the new snow sliding meant that even in the event of an avalanche the debris would be soft and spread out (like the sluffs we were skinning over). You may go for a bit of a ride but most likely you would be on or close to the surface, especially if you ski with a large pack and know what to do if you do go for a ride (get rid of skis and poles and swim / clear your airway).

Safe winter snow in April.
Kananaskis delivers.

There are things that make me think these are pretty safe slopes. One is that there are no propagating layers present this season. Propagation is huge for me in decision making as this is when avalanches become a total gamble. Even with all the support this slope has with the concavity there is no way I would ever approach it if there was even a hint of a propagating layer, particularly a persistent propagating layer deep in the snowpack. This is very easy information to obtain and is probably why these slopes are not skied often (last time I did them was in 2004) as we often have suspect layers where step-down is a real concern. The other big thing is that they are no physical objects like trees or cliffs to traumatize you even in a small slide. These are slopes that have very good survival potential and they are the kind of slopes that the airbag makers want you to ski as you will probably make it out alive and OK in a upper-pack avalanche (as you would even without an airbag, but why not spend the money and turn your brain off).

Anyway, the day was great, but we need more discussion on the crevasse fall deaths as this seems to be the problem this season.

With the amazing weather window during the week of the full moon we returned to Mount Robson Provincial Park to attempt Mount Resplendent for the second time in five years. This is by far the best bang for your buck when it comes to local ski mountaineering. Cost was fuel to and from Calgary and that’s about it.

Mountaineering is like many things in that it is best to choose an objective (summit of Mount Resplendent in this case), determine the basic strategy (winter ascent on skis) and plan tactics before you embark. Our first unsuccessful attempt in 2008 taught us a lot about how to approach this mountain and while our objective and basic strategy remained the same we developed a different approach and changed tactics on this successful attempt. This will be the theme of this post. (Update: with news of another crevasse death, this time on Mount Hector, the theme of Glacier Tactics seems appropriate.)

In 2008 (March 20 – 26, full moon on the 21) we decided to put a camp below the Extinguisher Tower as that is the typical approach to this summit. It’s either 21.5 km from the trail head to the Hargreaves Shelter on Berg Lake, according to Provincial Park Info, or 17.5 km, according to Chic Scott. A long way with big packs and still a ways away from the Extinguisher Tower. Winter camping on the side of a mountain may bring you closer to your objective but it is a lot of hard work and this time we decided against camping and stayed at the Hargreaves shelter.

This is an easy decision when you see the views of the North Face of Robson from the Shelter (no need to go to Alaska with about 2,555 metres or 8,383 feet of relief), but living is also so much easier when you have the wood stove to heat the place and water from the creek nearby. Melting snow takes a great deal of effort and I will easily spend some time witching for liquid water if it means not having to drink snowmelt (I love fresh snow but this stuff is far from pristine, just think about vapours condensing around a particle and then think of all the disgusting particles there are in the atmosphere).

Anyway I use my probe pole (another good reason to have one) to look for water in creeks. The first time in 2008 I was able to find liquid water that froze to the end of the probe pole. However this year it was very cold before the first snow and the creek froze. Later when the snow pack was deeper the creek started to run again, but now it was beneath the ice. It took a bit more work to hunt it down, but once we found the flow proper it made life so much easier to get water already in liquid form. Once the snow turns to a liquid the particle it condensed around can drop out of suspension and the water winds up being excellent. We drink right out of the river that drains Berg Lake on the way up to Hargreaves and drink right out of the creek without treatment.

This time, instead of showing up late at the hut and moving on the next day to set up a winter camp, we used the shelter as our base. Not only did we have the weather and the moon we also had the shelter to ourselves for the whole time we were there. This is in contrast to 2008 when we shared the shelter on our way in and out with three other parties (not all at the same time). When we did not get our chance at the summit from our camp in 2008 we did a last ditch attempt from the shelter when the day we planned to go out dawned clear and we scavenged enough food for one more try. With a party of three young guys ahead and breaking trail we made it to the Resplendent – Robson Col before the weather closed in and we turned back. This is when we decided to return and make attempts from the hut. I figured its probably about 28 km return to the summit and back to the shelter and about 1800 metres in elevation gain. A long day, but with day packs it was a better choice.This time we made our way to Berg Lake on day one and stayed there for a rest day where we found and chopped enough wood to last for a few days and built a efficient water hole.

Extinguisher Tower (left), Mount Resplendent in the Sun (behind and just to the right) and the Resplendent – Robson Col

The weather was bluebird on those first two days and would have been excellent summit days. It was clear and still very cold over night (-20 c or so) and on our summit day (day three) we saw that the high pressure was weakening a bit (contrails were forming behind the very few planes that are overhead in this area), but it was still good enough to summit.

Turns from just below the summit.

The last time we were up on the glacier we were (or course) roped and we placed wands to help us on the descent. There are pretty big crevasses and although I hate the idea, we also descended on the rope. The team of three ahead of us was comprised of three younger guys, two on AT gear and one on telemark. We stopped at the Hargreaves shelter for a comfortable night before we left the area and I talked tactics with these guys.

(Although we were on our way out, we made the last minute decision to try one more time if the weather looked clear in the morning. I set my alarm for 4 am and got up to see plenty of stars along with the huge plume of cloud that often hangs on the summit of Robson. We decided with another team helping to break trail that we should give it another go. These guys also helped us out with some extra food as we were getting down to the crumbs by then. Thanks, by the way.)

Anyway, I was talking with this other team about skiing down on a rope and mentioned the times I had done this and what a disaster it was. I had thought about doing it another way and mentioned it to this group. In this method I suggest to put the slowest skier in the middle. In this case it was the telemarker that was slowest, but only because of the gear he was on. He was a very good skier who could do consistent turns and I suggested that he go in the middle and set the pace while the other two (on AT gear) flanked him left and right and sort of water ski behind, keeping the rope taught by swinging out wide or coming back in close. This worked out very well for them and three sets of sweet turns could be seen when we later looked back up the slope. Nicely done.
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Another tactic that was changed this time was how we wanded the slope. It is typical to use wands to mark your up track and to place crossed wands around crevasses. If you wand at the end of each kick turn you wind up having to go back and retrieve the wands from each end of the slope. The gut of the slope is usually filled in the best with the snowpack thinning as it moves towards the sides where the crevasses are. This time I decided to wand the slope in the middle of our uptrack where I thought the slope was safest. I tried to place as few as possible but still be able to see the next one from the previous one and I did not place any around crevasses. My thinking was why force someone close to a dangerous area just to retrieve the wands. With the flags running up the gut of the slope we were able to safely ski it unroped as we would only stop on our uptrack or where the wands were placed. This worked out great and I will do this again next time I wand a slope.

Wands on the descent.
Photo: Xavier Favry

The other tactics we changed were our rope and rescue systems. I like taking as little gear as possible as the weight penalty on a big mountain can really drag you down. I like a 30 metre rope for three, but this doesn’t leave a lot of extra rope for traditional crevasse rescue techniques. The notion of having enough rope left to drop a loop to the victim in the slot is a good idea, but my thinking is if the person can clip a loop into their harness they might be able to prussik out themselves as well. This is the best way as the person in the hole can climb out on their own accord and it takes very little gear. It is not a good idea to set up a haul system and just start yarding the person up as you can do a lot of damage ripping someone through an overhang if the rope cuts through the crevasse lip. Never start to pull if you don’t have communication with the person in the hole. So if you can talk with the victim and they tell you they cannot prussik (or you go down to them because they are unconscious and you obviously really screwed up bad and it’s going to be an epic period) then, with this system, you need to use a Double Mariner as there is not enough rope to send a loop down and back up. For this reason I carry two twenty foot lengths of some crazy strong cord that is used for winch cables in a thicker form (one at the front and one at the end). Breaking strength is about 1,300 kilograms and you can rig the system with additional mechanical advantage by using more pulleys. The Mammut RescYou works kind of like this, but you can rig something like it yourself with just a few extra pieces. I use Tiblocs for this system and I know that many do not like them, but I find them to be perfect for this use if you know what their potential faults can be.

First thing about crevasse rescue is that you need a bomber anchor (I bring pickets in summer, but in winter skis, shovels and such make them redundant) and you need a way to release the system if a problem occurs. For this reason I always attach the haul rope to the Tibloc with a tied off munter hitch.

Tied Off Munter Hitch with Tibloc. Anchor not shown.

 Using the extra cord and a few more carabiners and pulleys a lot of mechanical advantage can be had.

Mechanical Advantage.

This is a very shortened version of multiple pulleys used to gain mechanical advantage. The grey cord is about 7 metres long and can add a lot of length to the system. It is super light and very strong. With two people above and pulling this is plenty of mechanical advantage to bring someone up.

Other things to think about when traveling on a glacier: I know it’s popular to take the leashes off your ski poles so as to not get caught with them in an avalanche, but when you go down a slot it is great to have a way to retain your poles during the fall and also to clip them to something when you want to climb out. This is also very true for skis. Those brakes are no help when you need to get out of your skis but not lose them down the abyss. I use leashes to attach my skis to my boots, but this also make it very difficult to slip a loop over your foot when you want to prussik out. It is my standard procedure to have one prussik on my foot when I tie in to the rope. I coil up the extra and put it in my pocket. If I go down I can quickly pull this cord out and clip it into the Tibloc I keep on the rope by my waist. Being able to take weight off the harness quickly makes self rescue that much more efficient.

So, maybe this post is done. Don’t know, but I may be back to update later. The thing to remember is this: its one thing to climb a mountain it is quite another to do it in a style worth repeating.