A couple days before we left for Golden we got a call from our pal Lucas asking if we wanted to do a backcountry ski traverse instead of just skiing the hill... We hesitated since we wanted this trip to be more about relaxing and catching up with his awesome wife. However, he twisted our rubber arms and we packed our bags for what would be our first ski traverse. The plan was to do a "mini Wapta traverse" and go in from Bow Lake and come out Peyto Lake.
The weather was absolutely FRIGID when we arrived in Golden, ranging from -25 to -30. I had never survived or let alone even skied in weather this cold. The night before we went through our gear and made bookings for both the Bow and Peyto Huts. Not surprising, they were not full.... The boys evaluated our packs and said they were much too heavy. They made us pull out our pots, stoves, fuel, and random other gear they did not feel was appropriate. They claimed the huts were fully stocked. I was hesitant.. I like to be self sufficient.. Darryl actually stashed some of the items back in her bag. They made sure we had harnesses, prussics, ice axes, and crampons for some glacier travel and summit objectives along the way. This was all fairly new to us. I had only just taken a small crevasse rescue course. Later on that night we practised using two prussics to climb a rope slung from the ceiling in his garage.
Day 1: Bow Lake to Bow Hut
The next morning we set off at 0700 from Golden and headed to Lake Louise. We grabbed a coffee and a snack there and then continued on for our car drop at Payto. Finding the parking lot to drop the car was a bit confusing since I had never been here before. In winter there are only a few parking lots plowed and this particular one was not signed in any way. We dropped the car off and all piled in to head back to Bow Lake. When we started to load on our packs and clip into our skis it was -29 with calm clear skies. We set off at 0930 across the frozen lake. It was SO COLD. All the condensation from breathing immediately froze to everything: my toque, jacket, sunglasses, and face cover. I was bundled up to the max wearing a fleece, down coat, and thick winter gortex shell.
We stopped for a small break to eat some food, but really couldn't stop long. It was just too cold for that. Darryl got so cold in fact that she needed help with her heated gloves and ended up falling a bit behind. We finally arrived at the final climb to the hut and hustled up. It took us around 3 hours including our break to make it here. We popped our head in the hut to see it totally empty.
Day 2: Bow Hut to Peyto Hut
The next day we awoke with some big plans. We wanted to bag a couple summits along the way to Peyto. Our first plan was to climb back up to the col and climb St Nicholas and then head over to Mount Rhondda before heading to the next hut. We left around 0800 and it was again absolutely freezing. At the hut the thermometer read a balmy -25, but as we popped out on the ice field the wind was whipping and seemed to cut right through my clothes. We were all just frozen. We made a new plan to instead just do Mount Rhondda. The further we got the colder everyone was, and even that seemed too far. We all regrouped and made a plan just to ski to Peyto Hut. What a disappointment, but what can you do. It was just too uncomfortable. As we skied closer to Peyto the wind seemed to calm and a couple of us made a last ditch pitch to the group about hitting up Mount Thompson because it was so close, but not everyone was keen so we skied down to the hut.
Day 3: Peyto Hut to Peyto Lake
The next morning we awoke to calm weather, but low cloud. Not fully whiteout conditions, but visibility was not great. We packed up our things and headed outside for 0800. By this time the weather had started to close in. By the time we hit the glacier below it was near whiteout conditions and we followed markers to keep on route and avoid crevasses. I got that dizzying feeling you get from skiing in these conditions. Your body isn't sure if you are going up or down. The snow was variable. Needless to say it was slow.