I woke up one morning with an idea… a rather stupid idea, an overnight ski touring trip at Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park with one goal: skiing Rogers Peak before Halloween. It takes a real keener for that to happen. Aussie ski-venturer, Jayden, was more than keen.

Report from October 30th

Our adventure began in the Hermit Parking Lot, no more than a few kilometers past the Rogers Pass Discovery Center on October 29th at 4 PM in hopes of gaining the Hermit Meadows Campground (2000m) before dark. Admittedly, it was a late start, but we did have a wonderful conversation with park staff, Ben, about our plans. He mentioned we might be the first at skiing Rogers Peak this winter. Yew!

We mounted our 40lb lead ingot of a pack containing overnight winter camping, mountaineering, glacier travel, and ski gear. Call it quad training for the upcoming season, the climb up the Hermit Trail was back-breaking. The pain and icy trail wouldn’t stop us. After all, the strenuous ascent granted us spectacular views of Mt MacDonald ablaze by the setting sun.

As the sun vanished behind the Connaught Drainage, it got blisteringly cold. We completed the ascent to camp with blocks of ice instead of toes. It must have been -20C with the alpine breeze blowing softly from the north. Now, we had to set up camp… with frozen fingers. Through years of backpacking in adverse conditions, I taught myself to set up a tent with only teeth. Okay, that’s a lie, maybe with the help of a palm and one thumb.

As soon as we got a chance, we slipped into our sleeping bags. I demolished a packet of dehydrated beef chili and went right to sleep. On one hand, Jay’s -40C sleeping bag kept him nice and warm throughout the night. On the other, my killer -16C bag and 3-season sleeping pad combination, not so much. After wiggling my toes all night to avoid losing some bits, I emerged from the tent to clear skies and a rising ball of flames.

After being cold all night, we didn’t hesitate to jump on our ski while figuring out how we would accomplish our day’s objective, skiing Rogers Peak. Since the snow was crusty in places and powdery in others, good terrain selection would be crucial.

Luckily, Jay is insanely good at sniffing out good quality snow. On the way up, he scoped out a gnarly couloir in the distance and believed it would be packed with snow blown off the nearby moraine.

After too many snack breaks, we arrived at the Swiss Glacier which leads to the Rogers Peak by booting up its southern aspect. Since I had previously summited Rogers Peak twice in the winter and summer, I knew the glacier pretty well. After indicating the crevasses to avoid, we put on our harness, sorted our glacier rescue gear and tied into Jay’s bright yellow 6mm/60m Mammut rope.

We arrived at the end of the Swiss Glacier with Rogers South Face towering 300m above us. This was going to be a chore. I took my avalanche probe out and started sticking it in the snow ahead of my tracks. I was searching for the hidden moat (bergschrund) waiting to swallow me whole. After safely assessing the depth of the snow bridge covering its gaping mouth, we stepped over the moat.

As the snow got warmer and heavier, we checked our bases by excavating a snow pit for a proper snowpack analysis.

In all honesty, the snow pit observations did not instill much confidence in the slope’s stability. Our test results were mostly inconclusive. One thing was sure: the failures indicated a slightly unstable snowpack. We weighed our options and found adequate exit points in case we triggered an avalanche. On top of the existing concern, the moat we just crossed presented a serious hazard: a fall higher up on the slope would probably make us tomahawk into the crevasse. We both agreed to boot up the col and gather further intel.

I seriously hoped skiing Rogers Peak was worth its suffer-fest of a bootpack spanning more than 300 vertical meters. At about 3000m, the altitude fatigue kicked in high gear. We were constantly out of breath and our muscles ached. What a stairway to heaven! The trick was to find a sustainable climbing rhythm. We settled for 10 steps and 10 seconds rest.

After what felt like an eternity, we gained the col and sat down for a few minutes only a solid alpine gust almost blew us off the ridge. Time to move on.

We stood up shielding our faces from the gale-force wind. With a newfound resolution to finish the fight, we pushed on through the remainder of the climb (roughly 100m). At 2:30 PM, we bagged the peak.

After such a strenuous climb spanning two days, we deserved it. Skiing Rogers Peak in decent conditions would be the best of rewards. We clipped in our bindings and launched off the summit. The peak and top half of the south face were barren. Our edges could only find hardened wind-swept snow.

After growing up on Canadian East Coast ice, those conditions are my bread and butter. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to practice my “Chamonix-ski-mo” turns. Rightfully so, I had a blast. Jay didn’t share that opinion.

To Jay’s content, the lower half was mostly shielded from the wind. It was covered with a good 10cm of slightly wet powder while the glacier, being naturally cooled by the underlying ice, had awesome dry powder. Needless to say, Jay was pleased.

After traversing the flats of the Swiss Glacier, we headed down the couloir we had scoped out on the ascent. Jay’s sixth sense (the powder sensing one) was yet again correct. The couloir was filled with wind-blown snow, albeit with thin coverage. After skiing some full-on winter powder up on the glacier, the couloir’s conditions kept us light on our feet. We swerved left and right avoiding rocks and streams. Then again, no complaints on our parts. It’s October 30th after all.

Indeed, the thin Halloween snowpack trashed our skis. The way past the couloir was mostly survival skiing. We arrived at camp by 4 PM with enough time to pack our gear and haul our 40lb pack down the Hermit Trail. We dragged our broken bodies back to the car at 6:30 PM looking forward to a healthy dose of delicious poutine at Nomads in Revelstoke.

To this day, I still wonder why we put ourselves through such torture. The views? The turns? The adventure? Who knows? Maybe I just like the pain 😉

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