The intention was ambitious: climbing a big mountain without much knowledge about the route. Why? Because this area is very remote and is not often visited. This must be adventure! On ski's with our heavy pack we left the Icefields Parkway, the last bit of civilization on Tuesday Morning, March 9th. Jo, Stephan, Bram and myself. After 9 exhausting hours we reached a small lake and we all decided that that would be our basecamp. Next day the most amazing weather came through and as you can see, it was a pleasure making pictures on our ascent of Mount Brazeau.
But as the morning passes, we got stuck. The couloir we supposed to climb was not completely filled with snow..... and to make our way around the seracs would add significant time to our ascent. Running out of time with little options left, we decided to retreat Mount Brazeau. We toured a little further on the glacier to a small unnamed peak and relaxed before heading back to camp. We all felt very lucky to be here with the perfect views on the Columbia Icefields and some other impressive big peaks. Maligne Lake is North from us as you can see on the top picture. The lake is close to Jasper and part of Jasper National Park. The Lake is about 18km long.
Winter camping was pretty cool. The first night the temperature dropped to the -20 range because of the clear sky. But the stars were our friends while we were watching them sitting in our sleeping back. Some of us even saw a shooting star! The second night we had moderate wind and we stayed mostly in our tent playing cards, drinking tea and rested.
Coming out on the third day was a bit of a nasty experience. Snow and trail conditions made our travel difficult. Luckily we had the chance to all have a nice meal and a beer in lake Louise before splitting up the group. Thanks Stephane and Jo for these wonderful days!
