Joined Paul K. and Alexis for a ski tour up Mt. Outram on Saturday , what a classic! The ascent was a solid 9 km with nearly 1800 m of elevation gain, definitely a workout but totally worth it.
Snow coverage was great in the alpine, and the eastern side of the South ridge had some seriously impressive cornices. The summit was windy and bitterly cold, reminding us who’s boss up there.
For the descent, we dropped into the South bowl and skied down to the south drainage of Seventeen Mile Creek, then picked up the trail again around 1300 m. Paul’s knowledge of the area is next level, honestly, we could have blindfolded him and still made it out just fine! I was more than happy to follow these two forest ninjas through the trees.
Once the snow thinned out near the trail, it was time to ditch the skis and finish on foot. All in all, a fantastic day with great company and solid skiing.
Alexis and I stayed at Manning Park for another day of skiing with the Three Borthers area as the objective. We had a nice dinner(unfortunately for Alexis, he had to settle in with his liquid diet.) at the lodge and then we headed in at Lone Duck 1 camp ground to stay for the night, surprisingly even thought the weather wasn't at its bes, lots of people camping that night including a group of scouts and VOC. We had a chance to dry our clothes/gear at the fire place. It was warm with light snow falling over the night.
Few years ago I did this traverse starting from the first fork off the Fat Dog route, following the old fire road, west of Similkameen River to the summit of Cousin and Second Brothers and descended via Fat Dog Creek trail.
Alexis and I did a counterclockwise loop, having Third Brother and Cousin peak in the agenda. We wanted to take the Fat Dog/Cambie Creek trail as the ascent route thinking the trail has been already broken. It's a popular trail for snowshoers and beginner skiers. We had some 15-20cm of fresh snow over on a faint trail. The snow was fluffy and light so it was n't that bad ploughing through it.
Once we were in the alpine, we followed the ridge to towards the West ridge of Second Brothers, traversing below the summit to the East ridge, then it connected to the West ridge of Third Brother. It was very windy and cold between this traverse. After getting on top of Third, we skied off to the South col to Cousin Peak, continued descending to the South ridge of Cousin but dropped too soon the creek. What a slog traveling on the creek. It took us 4 hours in the dark. It was difficult to know how far we were to the parking lot without GPS. Luckily, Alexis found the Inner Cambie loop junction trail.
It took us 12 hours of walking on skis. A little sufferfest for the week-end. Another great adventure with Alexis and Paul.
Looks like an epic day up on the Three Brothers. Sort of wished I was there until I heard it was 12 hours!
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