Icefall Traverse Day 2 – Mons Hut to Lyell Hut

April 19, 2024

This is Day Two of the iconic Icefall Traverse. For all the details, visit the Icefall Traverse Overview page to see the other days, and get all the details on how to book, etc.

I woke up at 5:30 am to Guide Jesse’s alarm. We were supposed to get up at 6:30 am, so when the alarm blared at 5:30, I just assumed I screwed up. I thought we passed a time zone and my phone didn’t pick it up because it was on Airplane Mode. Nope! Our poor guides had to get up an hour before us to start boiling water for our breakfast. Holy!

I have to confess, I am not guided very often. For skiing, almost never. Since I am usually self-guided and self-catered, I was not expecting our guides to do all the cooking and chores on this traverse. I am feeling very spoiled indeed.

Not that I am complaining. I hadn’t slept for two days, and I was a bit of a self-confessed ‘shit show’ today. I managed to spread out my gear ALL around the hut. I had pieces here, there and everywhere. I spent so much time hunting down my gear, that I didn’t have a second to help in the kitchen.

Breakfast was oatmeal and brown sugar, and coffee. Luckily, I emailed ahead of time asking EXACTLY what food was provided at the huts and lodges. I brought my own dehydrated berries, chia seeds, and ground flax seed that pumped up my oatmeal perfectly. As there was only coffee, I was pretty happy I’d packed my own tea bags as well.

Despite it being ridiculously hot upstairs all night, our gear was slightly damp. I think the steam from hours of boiling water circulates through the hut, and settles on any flat surface. We figured out later that we should have opened the upstairs vents, and let the steam escape. Oh well.

Days One and Two Video

Lyell Hut Traverse

Today felt like a very typical glacier traverse. The route was up to the high point, then a good, long ski down to the moraines at the base of the glacier. Then a final push to ski up to the Lyell Hut at over 10,000′ elevation.

Totals – Downloadable Tracks on Gaia, Displayed on Strava

Date: April 19, 2024
Group:  Ten (Alisen, Mike, Mike, Amber, Pam, Jeff, David, Iwona, ACMG Jesse, TG Sebastian)
Distance: 10.44 km
Elevation:  1,136 m
Time:  6 hours (includes breaks and breaks)

After Jesse took the 7:00 am radio call for weather conditions, it was time to pack up. We were aiming to be out of the hut by 8:00 am, and we pretty much nailed it. We spied the Lyell Hut from the top of Mons Peak the day before. It is a lonely hut on a windswept rocky outcrop, a ways above the glacier. It is so windy, that there is a giant windscoop guarding the entrance. Interesting fact – it is the highest elevation ski touring hut in Canada, sitting at 2,860 m (9,400′), and the second highest hut in Canada.

A pattern that emerged yesterday would hold for the week. Guide Jesse is out front, breaking trail and setting the route. Then it’s “The Mikes” in whatever order they choose. Amber and I marveled that these three guys could talk for hours and hours. I just don’t have enough interesting things to say. After the Chatty Group, it was me and Amber. We skied along in companionable silence for hours on end. Pure bliss. Following us was the Group of Five – Pam, Iwona, David, Jeff and Sebby. They would stick together, and get privately guided by our young Seb.

From the Mons Hut, we skied up to the high point. Jesse warned us that this approach would either be freezing cold, or smoking hot. As the day started out fairly mild, I was skeptical of both extremes. Wrong! It was SO hot skiing up, I stripped down to my sports bra and Black Diamond Alpine Hoody for sun protection. Even my lightest-weight long underwear was too hot.

At the high point, we needed to make a decision. Ski down to the rim of Icefall Canyon, or ski straight for the Lyell Hut. Unfortunately, the snow conditions were not ideal – a thick breakable crust, hardpack, and a general lack of pow. We decided to skip the extra torture down low, and hopefully get some peaks above Lyell Hut.

This is where Jesse’s years of guiding experience, and his 10 previous traverses, really made him shine (not that he wasn’t spectacular the whole time). We needed to ski down the glacier and then cross a series of moraines. Jesse warned us that we’d have to do a few transitions to get up and over these moraines. Nope! He absoluletly NAILED the perfect line. We had to double-pole a little bit, and side step maybe once, but otherwise, we swished along all the moraines. It was the best line ever! As this traverse is used for the ACMG Ski Guide Exam, several candidates were taking a very close look at Jesse’s track to also nail the perfect line.

Now for the bad news. The breakable crust was pretty severe. On the initial downhill, there was enough good snow to actually ski and get some turns. I stopped at the first flat area, and turned back to see nothing but carnage – just about everyone had crashed as the snow turned to breakable crust. I was wearing my 106 mm DPS Pagodas, and they were able to cut through the crud enough that I could stay upright.

As we got lower, I changed my strategy. Mike and Mike went first (after Jesse of course) to groove out the crust a bit. I then put one ski in their track, and kept the other ski on top of the crust. I used that ski like a snowplow brake to slow myself down. Wiping out in these conditions was not going to happen. This was a long, grueling, and icy ski down. My right hip was screaming for keeping it in the snowplow position for so long, but I had no choice.

We finally got to the end of the moraines, and it was a relief to start ascending the Lyell Icefield. By now, the weather was changing. While we woke to overcast skies, the wind had now picked up. The wind kept increasing in intensity, and the visibility kept descreasing the closer we got to the Lyell Hut. Our chances of summiting a peak were decreasing.

By the time we were skinning up next to the giant windscoop, I was freezing. I really wanted a photo of the big windscoop, but couldn’t be bothered to expose my hand or phone to the cold. When we finally saw the little spec that was the outhouse, I was pretty relieved.

Just before the hut, Jesse and Sebby stomped out a trail to get across the top of the wind scoop. Seriously, this was a big freaky. Slipping down that would mean going all the way to the bottom, and then skiing back up the long way around. I did not want to fall. We all ran for the hut, and left our skis out, in the vain hope that the skies would clear and we could keep skiing.

Lyell Hut

As I mentioned, Lyell hut is well situated at just under 10,000′, which means the 11,000′ surrounding mountains are tantalizing close. We keep our boots on and our skis ready until about 6:00 pm, when Jesse finally called it. There wouldn’t be enough light to see, and with the convoluted terrain, it just wasn’t safe. Zero viz means zero views, which is part of the fun. Oh well. We had an amazing summit the day before.

The Lyell Hut is the same layout as the Mons, but with a bigger vestibule for boots. It makes up for this convenience by being more narrow. This allowed us to really get in each other’s way as much as possible. I felt for Jesse and Sebby in the kitchen, guarding their pots of boiling water as we squeezed by.

To give you an idea of how windy it was up there, there is a pee hole just outside the door. The women reported that we couldn’t tell if we were peeing or not. The noise and the wind just whipped it all away. I will admit that the auto dry feature did make up for the freezing cold. I am surprised the boys didn’t come in soaking wet, but I guess they know better than to pee into the wind. Not something I’ve had to deal with too much.

Jesse and Seb made another dehyrdated dinner (which we all helped carry over from Mons Hut), and we had date squares for dessert. I packed together a few squares, and put it in my lunch. It was like eating Lembas Bread from the Lord of the Rings – one small bite would sustain me for hours. I kept that date square going for days.

We all slept in basically the same spots, except for Seb. There was an extra ‘bed’ on the bench downstairs, and he snagged that. I was finally tired enough that I fell asleep, and had a pretty good sleep. Again, it was super hot upstairs, but this time we had all the vents open. I woke up sometime in the night freezing cold. It took me about 20 mintues before I figured out that I could just put on my touque. Ahhh. Much better.

Tonight we had Story Time. Mike M has a million funny ‘horror’ stories from his work. Basically, men behaving poorly. The funniest though, was when Mike talked derisively about these ‘old 60 year old dudes’. Mike completely forgot about Jeff who IS one of those 60 year old dudes! Story time would continue in the Rostrum hut when we were all in one room again, with Jesse telling a hilarious story of Cocaine Chelsea. You just might want to hire Jesse to hear this story.

Click here to keep the adventure going with Day Three when we ski from Lyell Hut, over Crampon Col to reach Icefall Lodge.

Thanks for reading! You can follow my blog, join my FaceBook page Al’s Adventurers, or follow me on Instagram

Alisen