Trip date: April 24, 2022
Duration: 8:30
Distance: 30km
Elevation gain: 1050m
Within a few days of summitting The Preacher, Vern was planning another trip across Hector Lake to bag “Hector Lake Peak”, which we had passed on the way. Personally, I didn’t mind the long lake crossing that much, but I really wasn’t expecting to be back at it again this season. But as the last weekend of April approached, the weather was looking great for another trip in the area. The Bow Summit weather station had recorded a couple days with many consecutive hours around 10 degrees, and it was still getting decently cold at night, so I was pretty confident that travel would be much easier than it had been in early March. A good, solid crust makes for very fast skiing!
It also makes for some interesting early-morning, skins-on downhill skiing. The trail down to the lake was pretty icy and also poorly-defined in some spots. But we managed to follow it most of the time, and before long we were at the shore of Hector Lake.
The snow on the lake was exactly what I was hoping for, super solid and super fast! It’s a good sign when even my slow nylon skins can glide on flat ground. The good and easy times continued up Balfour Creek, with its view of Mt Balfour and the many seracs looking stunning in the morning sun.
The canyon at the back of the valley looked good and snowy, but we weren’t sure what we would find behind the choke point. Should we go left, like last time, or try the right-hand route? Conditions meant the steep left route was actually skiable, so we went with that. This time, there wasn’t quite enough snow for us to ski along the edge of the deep wind scoop, but kicking steps across the steep snow worked well.
The upper part of the canyon was as gorgeous as we remembered, with ice-coated walls and growing views of the glacier above. Since we had our memories and previous GPS track to guide us, there was a lot less talk of route choice and more relaxed skiing as we took in the views from the bench above the Balfour Glacier.
We knew we had to get over the moraine to our left at some point, preferably sooner than we had for The Preacher. We took the first opportunity that looked skiable and managed to get over the moraine without taking off the skis. This was our first good look at our objective and it actually looked like we would be able to ski up (and down!) most of it! This boosted our spirits even more and we followed the moraine to the south ridge of our peak.
Given the steep side-sloping ahead of us, we decided this would be a good place to use ski crampons. I’d never actually used mine before so I was pretty stoked to try them out. Vern was less stoked because his were mysteriously not in his backpack… The extra traction was definitely appreciated and I had a steep but simple ski up to a break in a short rock band just below the summit! Vern put in a valiant effort and made it ~2/3rds up the slope on skis before switching to boot crampons.
The final scramble to the summit was by far the shortest ski-boot scramble of the season! A couple moderate steps with loose rock at the start quickly gave way to a simple walk up snowy scree to the summit. There was a summit register waiting for us, placed 22 years ago and unsigned since then. Obviously Alex’s group was up here earlier in the year, but probably not a ton of other folks have bothered! This register named the mountain “Turquoise Peak” after the small lake to the east.
The weather at the summit was perfect for a longer break, but we were concerned about the rapidly warming snow on the west face below us and decided to head down right away. The upper part of the slope was steep and still a little icy, but we didn’t have to go far before we reached some delightful corn snow.
With a little work, we managed to find a route through the lower part of the slope that led us straight to the top of the moraine without any uphill skinning. We only had to carry our skis a few steps down the other side of the moraine before continuing along the bench and down into the canyon. The crust was punchy in a few spots, a sign of what was to come. Getting across the choke point of the canyon felt much easier, probably because the snow was softer and we could use the steps we had made in the morning.
In the creek flats, we hit a few sections of bottomless snow. The absolute highlight of my day was sinking thigh-deep in snow and then getting my skis caught under a buried bush as I tried to get un-stuck. Fortunately, there wasn’t enough snow on the lake for us to sink, and we were still able to move pretty quickly despite the thin layer of slush! Last time, the ski back up to the highway was longer than I expected, even though I thought I was prepared for it. This time, it seemed to go by a lot faster and easier. Maybe the fact that the sun was nowhere near setting yet had something to do with that…
I’ve had a lot of great ski days this year, but this one was on another level. The spring weather had a lot to do with that, no cold start! Blue sky and stunning views in every direction of mountains in their snowy coats are always good, but it’s extra special to enjoy them while comfortably warm 🙂 Other than the brief creek misadventure, conditions were perfect for fast travel and fun skiing. This was an absolutely top-tier trip and I feel so lucky to experience days like this!
Game Trail Adventures 
incredible scenery!
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