April 15 we walked up the snow-coach road (snow-coach tours are running) carrying our skis and then walked down the road onto the Athabasca glacier. Put our packs on sleds and skied up the snow-coach track. The first step of the glacier was passed on climber's right (north) as per normal. At the second step we traversed the glacier back left (south) and passed the second step on the far (south) side of the glacier. This was much less nerve racking than skiing through the fields of serac debris off of the south slopes of Mt Snowdome (those seracs have been much more active this year than last year). We did have to herringbone across 10 meters of exposed glacial ice. As you traverse to the south side of the glacier two snow ramps present options, we took the southernmost and I don't know if the closer ramp goes, if it does it would be quite safe, all things considered. I figure that our route added one hour to our travel time relative to the more common route on the climber's right
(north) side of the glacier.
We were able to ski straight up the "Ramp" of the third step towing our sleds given our climbing tees were the highest lift position. Good snow coverage at the top of the ramp, the crevasses seem to be well bridged there.
April 16 we skied from our high camp, on the BC side, to the Southeast face of Mt Columbia. We used crampons on our ski boots and followed steps from the day before. Good climbing conditions on the face and the mountain saw 8 ski descents, from the summit, in 2 days, none of which were by my guest and I who boot-packed up, and down, the face.
April 17, the winds picked up overnight and we encountered some sastrugi descending the top of the Ramp. We skied out the normal, north, side of the second step and there is an incredible amount of serac debris there, spooky.
Barry Blanchard
UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures