Van horlick and Scudamore Divide Ski Trip - January 25-26, 2014

We kicked off the adventure straight from the Duffey Lake Road, embarking on a 15 km logging road slog to the end of Morris West Spur. Nothing like a long, flat skin to really get the existential questions flowing. “Why are we doing this?” “How far did you say again?” “Are we there yet?”, just a few of the classics.

Once at the base of the Bible Group, we set up camp and soaked in the remote quiet. The weather was cooperative and the vibes were high. We skied up to Morris–Stein Pass (Van Horlick Pass) for a recon mission, hoping to get eyes on our objective: Mount Gideon.

Back at camp that evening, spirits were high. A cozy night was had, with the usual debates about snow conditions, route options, and whether skiing in ski boots was actually a good idea (spoiler: it’s not).

The next morning, we headed back up for our summit attempt of Mount Gideon via the SE Ridge. That’s when things got... biblical.

The ridge was a mess, tight, technical scrambling, mixed snow and rock, and quite unfriendly to ski boots (not to mention skis on our backs). Our route-finding turned into a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure book with no happy ending.

With conditions working against us and the ridge requiring more faith than we were prepared to give, we called off the summit push. Instead, we made the most of it with a few fun laps nearby, salvaging the day with some good turns and no epics.

Stein Drainage from Van Horlick Pass

Troll Peak(left) and Scudamore Peak(right)

Skinning up on the East side of Gideon Peak

Skinning up on the East side of Gideon Peak

St. Jacobs

Alex and Ben with Troll and Scudamore in the background

Boot packing some section of the route. Not enough snow coverage

Boot packing some section of the route. Not enough snow coverage

Ben and Alex discussing which route is the safest 

Ben and Alex charging up on the East face of Gideon

Ben and Alex charging up on the East face of  Gideon

East Face of Gideon, this is only a gendarme, the summit is behind 

Getting up on the SE ridge. No easy route at all. 

Van Horlick area, Silent Hub

The South side was very steep so we started traversing on the north side

Ben and Alex trying find a better route,.Can't get up to the last section.

Ha! Ben finally gave up after  several attempts to get up to that narrow chute . I' was happy to turn around

The snow was good so we did laps instead.