| Park at the Rogers
Pass Discovery Center. Skin up Connaught Drainage. Before the back of
the draw, head
north-west into the forest, 607826. There's usually an uptrack to
Ursus Trees; it initially climbs to the right of a sheltered gully.
Further up, near the top of "Hospital Gully", 606828, Hospital/Ursus
Minor Bowl divides Bruin's Ridge (left) and Ursus Trees
(right). Make your way towards Ursus Trees and continue along Ursus
Minor's south-east ridge. The broad ridge leads to a high col
on Ursus, bootpacking to the col may
be required depending on snow coverage and conditions. Class 3
scrambling is necessary to reach the summits. |
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Connaught Drainage. |
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The uptrack left of
the drainage at Grizzly's slide path was in disuse. |
| Ski touring: RT 8.0; 5.5 up.
Well, we're back in Rogers
Pass taking advantage of the stable snowpack and high-pressure ridge.
I've been skiing Ursus Trees since the early 90's and have skied to the
high col before but never stepped on the summit.
Fabrice
and I love this place; it's our "go to" area for turns. In
the last couple of years, I've been compelled to investigate
the summit block. Last weekend on Grizzly Mountain, I noticed
an
uptrack high on Ursus, this prompted us to plan a trip to the
true summit. Charles was keen to discover Rogers Pass,
add some miles on his new equipment and gain experience as a skier. We
met at the Discovery Center and started skinning up Connaught Drainage
by
dawn; very cold temperatures enveloped the Rockies but it was a bit
milder here. Our ascent up the valley to treeline was nice; it was
sunny and it felt a lot warmer than it was. The uptrack was pleasant,
it seemed so much more casual after climbing the Teddy Bear Trees the week previous...
The boys waited for me at treeline, we paused before continuing towards
the high col. Near the col, the terrain gets steeper; with minimal snow on
the firm snowpack, it was difficult to keep an edge without
ski-crampons. We ditched our skis and joined an existing bootpack. The
steps in the snow were very firm and easy to follow; we we're now
engulfed in cloud... The scrambling begins from the col; class 3
scrambling leads to the first summit and is followed by another short
scramble up the final buttress. It was both thrilling and awkward with
the ski boots. Once on the summit, we were greeted with a view towards
Mount Rogers. Standing at the edge of the cloud layer, only the
northern view was revealed; Cheops Mountain and Sir Donald weren't
visible. Our stay
was brief, we carefully scrambled back down to col and glissaded to our
skis. We started to feel the cold as we prepared for the ski down; we were looking forward to that part of the
trip!
The fluff on crust in the alpine was consistent and the amount
of soft snow augmented in the trees, granting some good
skiing. We aimed for "Hospital Gully" for a nice exit onto the main
uptrack. Kudos to Charles, he did an awesome job skiing down safely
and with style. |
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Lower Ursus Trees,
stepping into the sun offers relief from the cold. |
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Ursus Trees. |
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Treeline, with the
objective in sight. |
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Balu Peak (8812) on
the left and Video Peak to the right. |
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Looking back towards
Illecillewaet Glacier. |
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Continuing in a
cloud layer, visibility comes and goes. |
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Nearing the high col. |
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Looking down the
ascent ridge with Hospital/Ursus Minor Bowl climber's left. |
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Skinning up the sun
affected snow. |
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Electing for the
bootpack's firm steps. |
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Reaching the col. |
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Scrambling to the
first summit. |
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Steep blocky terrain. |
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A bit of hands-on. |
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Looking down. |
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Final buttress to
the top. |
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Happy, happy, joy,
joy! |
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View north. |
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Bye, bye, Jo... |
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Descending the
summit buttress. |
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Backtracking to the
col. |
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Glissading to our
skis; Fab, you're such a buffoon! |
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Fluff on crust is not
that bad! |
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Some soft snow in
Ursus Trees. |
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Exiting from Hospital
Gully. |
| Back
to home page |
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