January 7th held the best skiing I’ve had since spring of 2017. In the days leading up to it my dad and I were looking at the weather forecasts and avalanche bulletins to try and plan a great day. The weather looked like it would be sunny and cold, but the avalanche ratings were considerable. Talking about many options with my dad, some were very close to home, some off of Whistler Blackcomb and some on the Duffy. I wanted to go to the top of a mountain so Mt. Rohr was what we agreed upon. In winter of 2017 we had been skiing on the lower part of it and summitted a mountain close by, Mt. Marriott in the summer of 2016. I was excited too go, especially because I hadn’t stood on top of a peak since the summer. Rising at 6am we were out of the house at 7:15am and on the road up the Duffy. Arriving at the salt shed parking lot we met up with a friend, Denis. The temperature was cold, around -10℃, but I was wearing softshell pants to make for more comfortable travel. Starting out it was a bit cloudy as we made our way along the windy trail that eventually joined up with the logging road.
I delayered when we came to an old RV that was almost entirely buried in snow. It was strange to see something so antique, and out of place in the wilderness.
We crossed under a fallen tree, but it was fast moving on the road. When we left the logging road for the summer trail to the Wendy Thompson Hut and Rohr Lake, the going slowed down. At points, the trail was quite steep, but there had been many people ahead of us to no trailbreaking was needed. Where the trail splits we stopped and took another layer off. Drinking and eating gave us all a boost and we set off again. The trees thinned slowly and we came to a semi open area that had quite a few down tracks. Denis pointed out where he had camped last season when he had spent three days skiing around Rohr. In hearing that, I got excited about Winter camping, in a tent or cabin. In my head I started to plan what huts I want to go to this season and thinking if I could convince some friends to come with me. As we came to the lake and the terrain flattened out. The snow was deeper and I repeatedly got in in my boots because my softshell pants didn’t reach over my boot shells. I then tucked them over the liner to keep as much snow out as I could. By then it had started to snow slightly and the temperature started to decrease. We were surprised that it hadn’t cleared up yet, as the forecast had said it would.
A few minutes past the lake we stopped and talked about where we would be going. It was whiteout conditions, but my dad knew what the slope was like, the angle and how it lead to the summit. He said that if it were clear we would have gone to the climbers right at this point and ascend a ridge, but it would be too dangerous without visibility. After some tea, snacks and putting on layers, we kept going up the gentle slope. There were no longer any tracks, and the snow was deep. Knowing our elevation, I knew we only had about an hour and a half or so until the top. The visibility became worse as we got closer to the top and we became colder. After about an hour we stopped and had to wait because the light was so poor we couldn’t see where we were going, or if we would walk off of a cornice. My legs were super cold so I took out my Gortex pants as we waited and put another layer on my top as we waited. Twenty minutes later the clouds did lift a bit, we could see some light coming through. We then back tracked slightly to ascend a lower angle slope. Once there, it was one of the most boring peaks I’ve stood on, just because we couldn’t see ten metres in front of us.
We were all very cold so we quickly took our skins off and locked our heals in. At the start of our descent we were just following our up track, but the light improved slightly as the slope was broadening. At some points we released our heals because it was so flat. On the way down to the lake we got some nice turns, though they weren’t especially deep. Reaching the lake we walked across and rejoined our uptrack. It was then that we realized we had been on the summit one hour too early. Being able to see all of the terrain around us, including the summit, as well as the sun, we were bitter thinking about when we were on the top. It was ironic how nice the weather was, when an hour previous Denis had had a frostbitten nose.
On the other end of the lake, we came to a section that was about 200 metres of vertical and around 35°. This short run was the best skiing I have had in a very long time. Hitting the first pillow, my jaw dropped at how deep the snow was, and my dad had captured it.
My face was covered in snow but I was so happy, I had not thought it would be that amazing.
Continuing down the slope we watched Denis take lots of air and my dad got some more shots of me.
I was well set up for a picture of Denis dropping, but right has he went airborne my camera died. Arg!
Entering back into the trees the skiing was still quite nice, we stayed close to to our skin track until we came to the end of the trail and onto the road. From there we shuffled along for a bit but then we cut into a drainage and admired the pink light as we skied. Once again we hit the logging road and doubled poled as much as we could. The lighting was beautiful as we loaded into our trucks and I was very pleased with the day. We had stood on top of a mountain, which always make a day awesome, but it had been challenging due to the physicality of it and the difficult conditions. It was also fun because we skied rad powder and enjoyed incredible views. The only thing that could have made it better (realistically) would have been the sun being out a few hours earlier.