Yesterday Andy Paul and I bagged White Pyramid (3275m), a ski mountaineering gem in the Canadian Rockies. White Pyramid is immediately west of Mt. Chephren, a the very prominent rocky mountain just south of Saskatchewan Crossing. It is more of a mountaineering than a skiing objective, featuring big elevation gain (1680m) and a lot of time on foot scrambling over loose scree and postholing along the summit ridge. We were roped up for about half of the very windy ridge. The snow on the ski out — 1200 m of vertical from where we left the skis on the ridge down to tree line — was highly variable: from boot-top powder to grabby crust. We shared the mountain with a Calgary Alpine Club party of 4 that started hours before we did that we passed about halfway to the summit. Our car-to-car time was 8h 30m.
The attached pictures show highlights of this fabulous day in the hills:
Almost all of the route is shown — across the lake, up the moraines that are in the sun, then onto the ridge in profile on the skyline up to the summit at the upper left. Mt. Chephren is on the left edge of the picture.
The wind-blasted face that leads to the summit ridge. Two of the Calgary ACC party that we passed at this point give scale to this wild scene.
My companion at the point where the previous picture was taken. Andy is a powerful athlete who excels at anything he tries (right now he’s into mountain biking; he completed the Trans Rockies race last year…).
The view from the ridge on our descent. The Calgary ACC party is almost at the summit.
Everett and Andy on the summit, a very windy spot!
Sunday I rested!
Another great looking trip Everett! 😎
Don’t like the sound of the “grabby crust” though – that stuff always trips me up and I spend most of the time on my face in the snow! 🙁
Your skis look slightly wider than ours… I wonder if that helps, or if it’s just superior skill? Me thinks it’s the skill.
Fat skis are definitely “in” here in the Canadian Rockies. When I bought my K2 AK Launchers back in 2002 my friends were astonished at how fat they were (90 mm underfoot); but today these skis are in the middle of the pack when it comes to width. Many people are on skis 110 mm underfoot (and even wider). What you pay in terms of weight going uphill is more than paid back in the greater ease of turning a fat ski on the return trip.
Ah, it’s tempting to invest in a fatter pair. It would be nice if I could try a few out to see what suits best before committing the money. There are plenty of places that do try before you buy for down hill, but no evidence of that for ski touring.
Why don’t you bolt two skis together to make one fat ski. You could borrow Pete’s skis to make one fat ski for your other foot 💡 . Simple and at no extra cost. What could possibly go wrong :geek: .