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Sunshine On The Waddington

The only cloud we experienced on our week ski tour from Fury Gap to Scar Mountain around Mt. Waddington rose from the fires we passed on our way from Williams Lake to Whitesaddle Air at Bluff Lake, our take off point. That smoke delayed us a day because the aircraft were busy fighting fires. Otherwise, we had perfect weather from May 4 through May 10 to ski and see the awesome coast ranges surrounding us. 

I joined a party of five others for the annual University of Calgary Outdoor Programme spring tour which chose the Mt. Waddington tour this year. Steve Ludwig from Canmore did the guiding. Whitesaddle helicoptered three of our party to Fury Gap (379954) Monday night after the fire fighting lifts were done. The other three flew in Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. 

The drop down from Fury Gap on ice crust left the more adventuresome with a couple of skin burns, but the views across the head of the Franklin Glacier and up the Dais and made up for any inconvenience. We skied up the Dais and camped early enough to ski further up one of the ridges toward Waddington. We looked back SW to Cavalier Col. In the other direction Steve pointed out the gully he had used to climb to the northwest peak of Waddington the year before. 

Wednesday morning we skied over the Jester-Waddington col, across the Corridor Glacier and up the Ice Valley Glacier. Mt. Munday's wall loomed above us and some huge rock fall lay strewn across the glacier. We camped just over the col NE of Mt. Agur at the head of the Waddington Glacier (461864). 

Thursday we skied up Mt. Munday with one pitch of kick stepping on belay carrying our skis. The 745 meter climb from camp to Plummer Hut gave us an awesome view of Mt. Waddington, and the walls of Combatant, Tiedemann, Asperity, Serra Peaks etc. Our ski back encountered some rather bumpy cauliflower snow. Friday we ambled along the Waddington Glacier to climb Mt. Irresistible and then moved our camp down the glacier (489817) below Mt. Martello. By afternoon our skis penetrated the snow about 10 cm. The slope, conditions and scenery lifted our hearts even with heavy packs. 

Saturday we skied up a small knob (483812) to spend time wondering at the majesty of the Whitemantle Range to the south and the Homathko Icefield to the southeast. Then we packed our gear and skied over the ridge to the south west of the Waddington Glacier and worked our way down and then up to Scar Mountain (555753). The camp at the top provided an awesome panorama of the Waddington Glacier from Mt. Agur and Mt. Munday down across its twisted ice falls to the toe of the Glacier. 

We had to pack our skis all too quickly on our descent from Scar Mountain because of the bush, tree wells and snow conditions. We finally hit the road, skied a few more kilometers, had lunch, anticipating a 10 k walk down logging roads. Then the logging camp bridge builder drove up, waved us into his pick-up and took us into camp. His hospitality included hot showers, a great spaghetti lunch, and a ride down to the airstrip for our flight back to Whitesaddle Air. The group included Steve Ludwig, guide (Canmore), Isabelle Emery, John Northwood, Bill Sawyers, Alf Skrastins (all of Calgary) and myself.