Summer 2007 - The Alpine Club of Canada

Marmot Women’s Ski Camp an intense learning expe
BY MARY ANN MAJCHRZAK ROMBACH
Day 1: Bow Hut
Ten women blazed their own trails up
the Bow headwaters for this spectacular
camp, which far exceeded everyone’s
expectations for sheer fun, outrageous
beauty, stupendous challenge, and an
over-brimming slate of winter mountain
knowledge.
Guides Sylvia Forest and Jen Olson
led the way, in the capable hands of
Camp Manager Gabrielle Savard. Th e
whip cracked at the parking lot of Num
Ti Jah Lodge, and we skied off across
frozen, snow-covered Bow Lake, up the
‘Mousetrap’ for a kilometre, underneath
the headwall with the ‘Glacier Peering
Down,’ then up the fi nal ‘hill’ to Bow
Hut.
Along the way a continuous stream
of lessons about avalanche risk, route
safety, spacing skiers and hazard-warning
evidence kept our brains engaged as
much as our bodies. Th e latter – fully
female – were voraciously hauling heavy
packs up to the hut upon fat boards and
grabby skins, eager to devour adventure.
After a quick lunch and rest in the
hut, preceded by the scampering of
participants to fi nd a place to spread out
their sleeping bags – the usual territory
grab – we tumbled onto the snowy slopes
for beacon lessons. We had the full range
of experience – none to lots. We had the
full range of beacons – old to new – and
every brand known to mountaineer. In
short order the guides and manager had
everyone functioning up to snuff – or
at least enough snuff to qualify us for
further travel!
Dinner on night one brought forth
fresh spinach salad, to complement a
delicious full meal. After dishes – more
lessons! Everything from route fi nding,
route time calculations, compass navigation,
map reading and knots, ad infi nitum.
Th e guides and manager emptied their
heads and fi lled up ours every night with
everything they had, followed by a little
down time and sleep. (Or lack thereof, as
two over-excited participants had a rough
time with that one!)
Day 2: Mount Rhonda
Th e second – and all subsequent
– day’s patterns were the same as the fi rst.
Lessons, fun and adventure, all blended
into one fully pregnant experience. We
headed up Wapta Glacier to split into
two groups, one heading to Mount
Rhonda’s south summit, the other to the
north. Super weather, blue skies and cold
temps kept the powder slopes safe and
exuberantly skiable. Whahoo! I was in the
south summit group. What a blast skiing
up that never-ending ridge to the top
– followed by wicked skiing all the way
down!
From left to right: Mountain Guide Sylvia Forest, Mary An
Knaus, Assistant Guide Jen Olson, Megan Long, Taoya Whit
Day 3: St. Nicholas – Olive Col to
Rob Ritchie (Balfour) Hut
We clambered quickly after breakfast
to jam everything into packs to ski over
to Rob Ritchie (Balfour) Hut. A quick
beacon check and off we went, up and
around St. Nicholas Peak, heading for
the col between Mount Olive and St.
Nicholas. Up and over that one and
Sylvia decided in the biting blasts and
-15°C temperatures to abort the Olive
summit attempt and instead, practice
roping up and climbing exercises along
St. Nicholas’s frigid ridge. Butts almost
frozen after that one, we skied hurriedly
down Wapta Icefi eld and Vulture Glacier.
We came to a less windy place and a
wonderful intermediate powder slope
– perfect for me. My group yo-yoed this
slope, while another group climbed a
steeper summit east of us. We gathered
after this and took off together down
Vulture Glacier to the hut.
Th is hut sits on an isolated snow
patch beneath the horrible gaze of Mount
Balfour, far above. We were so small on
an endless sea of ice. All night, the full
moon peered in through the windows,
adding to the drama. For a normal
earthling like me, this fi rst experience
on glaciers left me feeling like I might
have been on another planet, so strange
and new was the environment. I was so