The ADVG Ski Expedition 2018 finished their ski season with a Wapta traverse, where we started from Bow hut and exited via Sherbrook Lake (May 12 to May 16).

Along the way we managed to ascend: St Nicolas, Olive, Vulture Peak, Mount Balfour, Mount Daly and Lilliput Mountain.

To Note
HS: 200 cm + above 2500 metres.

The theme of the weak was the warm temperature. To mitigate that we were leaving the huts at around 05:30 in the morning and we were finishing our day no latter then 12:30. This being said, we had a solid freeze every morning above 2600 meters, which offered us good and safe travel during this 6 or 7 hours window.

Bow hut approach: We did not use the canyon to go up to Bow hut, but we skied in via the summer trail. A bit more work and some walking involved.

Mount Balfour: We managed to ski almost from the summit of Balfour and continue down the Fairy Glacier to 2500 meters on excellent corn snow.

Mount Daly: After following the ridge up just behind Scott Duncan Hut, we avoided going around left onto the very steep northerly snow slope of Daly. We instead went up a friendly snow gully that snakes its way up to the small plateau just before the final short snow slope. This gully is found 20 meters to the climbers right of the ridge, and help you avoid the major hazard of this steep convex and exposed snow slope.

Sherbrook exit: We had a good freeze down to 2000 meters yesterday morning. We started skiing down at 05:15AM and finished at 09:00 AM. We had to go up 50 meters above Sherbrook Lake in order to go around it, crossing along the way three avalanches paths that had considerable amount of timbers, which we had to walk across. We managed to ski all the way down to the car with the exception of few short sections (below 1760 meters) where we had to walk.

Sincerely,

Fred Amyot