Ian and I wrapped up a series of ACC ski trips for the winter 2019 season with a trip on the Columbia Icefield. We were joined by Brendan, Martin, Benjy who was visiting ze faterland, and Nick.

Saturday, May 17: After a sleep in Rampart creak, we met Nick at the Columbia Icefield parking lot at 6 am and geared up. The skin up the Athabasca Glacier was pretty nice, and more importantly, uneventful. We decided to make a large swing to the left to avoid being under the seracs, and go through the icefall. Another group tried the same thing by the shorter bypass, and after punching through a crevasse went back to the serac route. We encoutered no difficulty, crossed one open crevasse (2 feet?) and one strong bridge. We then reached the ramp. This is where things went bad for me. I had been sick the week before, and thought this nonsense was done, but coughing fits hit me, which made the rest of the approach difficult for me, especially with the heavy pack (50ish pounds?). Combined with white out and snow rolling in, we set camp at ~2940 m in the first flat area south of snow dome that we reached (GR790796). Going in for a couple of extra kilometers would have been best, but I was not up for it. After setting up camp (it was quite the condo development with 4 structures!), MS, BK and NM ("Team A") headed up to Snow Dome, without being sure they made it to the summit, not finding the summit pole in the witheout. We hunkered down for the night.

Sunday: Team A got up early and gunned for North Twin (3rd highest 11,000er), swinging back by Snow Dome on the return to find the post. Team B (IH, BC, and I) went for Snowdome (3510 m) and Kitchener (3490 m). In and out of of the clouds on the way up to Snowdome, and blue bird for the remainder of the day. I was still coughing, so I lead that day to set a moderate pace I could handle without bending over coughing (not too often anyways). While this was meant to be a relaxing day, was still 17.5 km of skiing with ~900 m of gain, the vast majority above 3000 m (6:50 return trip).

Monday: after a bad night with coughing, I decided to stay in camp. Team A was heading out, after bagging Andromeda on the way out. IH and BC headed to West Stuttfield, for a long, 25 km day.

Tuesday: happy but tired, we decided to table Andromeda for a future trip, and headed back down to the car. Nice snow from camp, but the ramp was icy. It's moderately steep (~blue ski run) and with the heavy pack a bit tricky to maneuver. We took the serac route down, which made for fast travel. 1:45 from camp to car.

A first trip on the Columbia Icefield, which while not as succesful as I would have liked (though 2 11,000ers is not bad!) was spent with great people, in a beautfiul setting, and for the most part a great weather window that was bang on the forecast.

After an 8-month ski season, having started in October, I'm OK with putting the boots, skis, and avi gear away and turn my attention to hiking, scrambling, and climbing.

Looking forward to going back!