Stanley Mitchell Trip

A couple of weeks back, I was thinking about what I should do during the Easter break. In the back of my mind, I knew that the Little Yoho Valley is a ski touring paradise at this time of year with good coverage on the approach, long days, and better stability. After seeing that there was open space in the Stanley Mitchell Hut, I scrambled to get a crew together to make it happen.

After studying the guidebook, I even hatched an ambitious plan of skiing all of the tours...in a day. And I wrangled up Joel and his buddy Antoine to join me for that day, as well as my girlfriend and her sister/sister's boyfriend to joins us at the hut.

The approach was fast, even four the casual crew I skied the approach with. 3.25hrs to Takakkaw and to the hut in another 4.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the weather/visibility to tackle my ambitious tour, but that's not to say we didn't try. After getting up Isolated Col and to the shoulder of Mt. MacArthur in the whiteout, we decided that the wind tunnel of the President Glacier was too much. Back at the hut, we took a consolation prize, skiing some protected powder on the south slopes of MacArthur on the way to Kiwetenok pass.

@joeldesgreniers feeling a little isolated #yoho #yolo @skiuphill.ca

A post shared by Peter Knight (@peteyknight5) on Apr 17, 2017 at 7:37am PDT

Instead of stumbling around on glaciers in the clouds, let's just ski some pow. #vape #sendit #winter2.0 #skimo

A post shared by Peter Knight (@peteyknight5) on Apr 18, 2017 at 7:58pm PDT

Making use of a window of visibility on the morning of our exit day before descending in flat light. Of course as we returned to the highway, the clouds were gone and the sun beat down on us. #yoho #yolo #skimo #vape

A post shared by Peter Knight (@peteyknight5) on Apr 17, 2017 at 8:36pm PDT

Bummed that we didn't get up the Presidents, we decided to take advantage of a weather window on Sunday morning before skiing back out to the highway. Joel and I traded turns leading and made it to President pass and back in 2hrs. Great snow near the top!

Finally good visibility last sunday! It must have been a challlenging weekend to #skiuphill on the Wapta... #ski #skimo #skimoanada #winterisnotover #backcountryskiing #explorebc #canmore #skitouring #glacier #springskiing #whiteouticefields

A post shared by skiuphill (@skiuphill.ca) on Apr 19, 2017 at 7:05am PDT

A great weekend. The approach/exit was not too bad, and I still would like to go back and hopefully nail a weather window!