"Ski"mountaineering

Its always an investment to take skis on a long approach. 

 The whole way up you dream of those epic pow turns your going to get up high, convincing your self the weight is worth it.

Last weekend I was able to tea up with Julian Stoddart and try a line on Robson we have been thinking about for some time.  Its notorious for being out of condition and hard to access but we had high hopes.  

Starting early half asleep both of us left our conscience and common sense in the tent.  The wind cut into our faces but our souls were thirsty for the beautiful aesthetics in the morning light.

The shimmer of the ice glazed faces started to reveal there forbidden ski environment and began to drown our hopes of doing more than mountaineering with skis.  Hope however still lingered as you don't know until you get there and even so there is always plenty of fun and adventure to be had.

Picking our way onto Robson Helmet col it was evident that things were not in ski condition with a thin dusting of snow over ice.  The warm temps in Sept had effected all elevations and aspects and very little new snow had bonded to the surface.  This spawned a new mission to head up the Helmet a beautiful peak in its self.  

With the views it was easy to make light of our situation and just enjoy the movements in such and amazing place.

We didn't give up on the hope of skiing and continued to "mountaineer" with skis in search of any skiable terrain.  At first glance slopes would look snow covered but upon closer inspection the glistening ice would appear.

with the right angles the ice on the faces is obvious (Kain Face)

The Helmet over shadowed by Mt Robson doesn't see allot of attention but the views are spectacular and its a great option if the higher reaches are out of condition or there is heavy s-w winds.   We spent some time eating and laughing on the summit and then started to down climb. 

Finally after rapping the schrund we found some nice lower angle sludge, got a few turns in and at the very least felt a sense of satisfaction in just using the skis.

 It seems life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of just playing them out.. sometimes with humility and skis on your back.