This left me with only the Spearhead to take on the long ago booked 4 day, 3 night stay at the Qua Yurt. The Yurt sleeps eight people - I joined a group organized by the Moose that included the Jackelope, Mrs. Moose, and four others. There's plenty of negative press on the web about this company, which also operates Wildhorse Cat Skiing. If I hadn't seen (and poached) the surrounding terrain before, I'd have been a bit more reluctant to go based on the reviews. A few red flags popped up during the days before departure including unanswered questions about transportation costs and departure times.
We stayed at the labyrinth Ymir Hotel the night of the 11th for a very early 6AM departure on the 12th. It was that night when we learned that we wouldn't be dropped at the spot shown on the map, but rather from the North Clear Cut. They would transport our heavy packs and drop them at the usual drop off spot on the map. Fine and dandy if you had a small day pack, which it seemed everyone but me did. The upside was that we'd get a "free" cat drop from Wildhorse Ridge. This seemed to be worth the trade off of the longer walk as this was the ridge that Blair and I had shuttled from with sleds. Steep and north facing sounded good to me. The snag was that we ended up getting dropped in the flattest possible spot and the run was hammered with tracks. While some of the group made short laps above the drop off meeting point while waiting an extra hour beyond what we were promised for the cat to arrive with their big packs, I proceeded solo to the Yurt to unpack the heavy load. I returned back to the drop point and still had a bit of a wait before the cat showed up. At this point, I wasn't overly impressed with the operation. It seemed the reputation was deserved but thankfully the passenger compartment hadn't fallen off the cat....
Our planned exit involved us dropping to the North Clear Cut, dropping the heavy packs and then skinning up the cat roads to the top of Wildhorse Ridge and then riding down towards town until we ran out of vertical, at which point we'd be given transportation. I took this vagueness to mean we'd be taking a ride in what the staff would later call "rickshaws" - toboggans dragged behind a skidoo with a tin windshield - yes tin - you don't need to see where you're going I guess. Normally they'd pick us up from the clear cut, but they had cat skier customers on Monday.
After the cat showed up and dropped the heavy packs we all headed to the new home for the next few days. New snow coupled with some light snowfall kept my spirits high. Visibility was naturally poor and we opted to check out the low hanging fruit immediately around the Yurt. There had been nobody up there for five days previous, so we broke track up towards Qua Peak stopping more or less where the trees and consequently the visibility required us to - the long flat ridge before the actual summit. A NW aspect of about 1,700 feet down to Qua Lake. On the second lap we moved over a bit closer towards the bowl and I promptly got a reaction before I even started the cut. It went clean down 30 or so and rumbled to the bench below. We enjoyed the leftovers and headed back to the Yurt. 5,367 up today with some hard earned feet for me including hauling the heavy pack from the bottom rather than the drop off point where the others got theirs and busting in the up from the lake to the Yurt.
The group had designated pairs to bring supper meals for everyone - first night was pasta and chicken - it'd turn out to be a bit light on the portion size for those of us banging out big days. The Moose and I have been attempting to bang out another 5 digit day, but things haven't quite worked out for various reasons. We knew it was only a matter of time and finding the right place.
The right time and place happened to be the next day - although it didn't seem like it. Most of the group were slow to rise and a few grumbled about the "early" start after yesterdays 6am cat departure. We were fed and out the door pointed up by 8:15 - not exactly the time I'd want for a 5 digit attempt. The Moose and I never really said anything about today being a "go" day. We recycled yesterday's up and found some better turns coupled with slightly better visibility on the edge of Qua Bowl. We made a pit stop at the creek by the lake to top up on water - the owner had said most groups melt snow, which proved to be a full time job. The creek was about 800 feet below the Yurt - not exactly ideal. After a 3 downs and 2.5 ups, I was already feeling the lights getting dim, so we detoured from the direct up and headed over to the Yurt for lunch. Bellies full and feeling rejuvenated, we finally mentioned the elephant in the room - it'd be tight with daylight, but we could probably pull off the 10,000 footer. Another 3 downs and 2.5 ups later, coupled with a final trip to the creek to top up water we were skinning up to the Yurt in headlamp. With the last few steps the Suunto just ticked past our previous 5 digit day coming to rest at 10,270 - a whopping twenty feet more than last time. It felt easier this time. The Moose keeps tracks of things like split times and said we shaved more than 30 minutes off the second half of the day. With an early start, an up that didn't involve detours to the yurt or the creek, what's the limit? I have 20,000 over there ---> followed by a question mark. It's a big question mark. I think 15,000 is a legitimate target for sure.
We stumbled into the Yurt and were greeted with the 1.5lbs of lasagna per person that was on the menu for that night, compliments of the Mooses or the Meese? Crib, Scrabble, and a few other card games kept us occupied into the not so wee hours of the night. Almost everyone shot right up out of bed when part of the roof avalanched. A few quick thinkers headed out to move the skis and snowboards under cover. Shortly thereafter the other half of the roof went and most likely would have broken at least a bit of gear, which would have been a less than optimal outcome.
The Jackelope cooked up a stellar breakfast and we were off yet again - starting with a lap on the by now, very tired edge of Qua bowl - since visibility hadn't really permitted anything else. This time at the bottom of the lake, we headed across to the other side to check out NW shot off the unnamed peak above Qua Lake labeled 1983 on the map. Other than the one I cut loose on the first day, things had been reasonably stable. We experienced virtually nothing moving on the edge of Qua bowl and hoped for similar results over here. The Moose was showing no signs of slowing down and had done a couple hand shear tests on the way up with no results. I noticed one crack originating from the up and suggested the Jackelope put a cut into the slope. He did and nothing moved. I tried again going just a bit lower and promptly cleaned out most of the powder. We kept traversing and things kept remotely triggering. The upper bowl feature had quite a few trees so we did manage to find pockets of storm snow that hadn't pulled and usually got a couple of great turns in before they let loose as well. The lower section after the bowl was the quintessential Kootenay tree run. Steep, pillowed and full of mashed potatoes? WTF? Blower should be the norm, but with temperatures hovering right around zero since we'd come in a few days ago, the blower was quickly turning to slop as the mercury rose, especially at the lower elevations. We waited at the bottom anxiously for Mrs. Moose - it turned out she'd gotten tossed into a tree well. A good reminder of the bigger danger in the Koots - they say more people die in tree wells here than in avalanches. We opted for one more attempt at the bowl, thinking that by traversing over to the least steep section in the middle, we might find a slope where the hoar wouldn't react. It still did and once again we were left with small pockets of fresh. We headed to the creek to top up on water. Wet and frustrated we pulled the pin on the day with only 4,350 up. I felt infinitely better after this 10,000 footer than the one last year. Had it not been for the discouraging conditions, I'm confident I wouldn't have had any issues with a normal sized day.
We were back to the yurt early where we spent even more time honing card skills before and after a mushroom optional stew. There was talk of an early start for the last morning which didn't sound that appealing to me, but I figured I'd make the effort, take a look at the thermometer in the morning and go back to bed. Two and a half great days was lots for me thanks. I set the alarm for 6am, woke up at 5am, decided that was too early and rolled over. The Moose shook me awake at shortly after 6.... "it's bluebird".... "fuck off, not funny".... "no really, it is".... "cold?".... "yep".
We scrambled to get ready and headed up South Seamen Peak, where the Jackelope and Mrs. Moose had put in an up a few days ago. Despite being a southerly aspect, things were really good. The cold over night had dried things up a bit and we finally got some views from the summit. The Moose was in hurry - later saying he wanted 5,000 as quick as he could - in about 3.5 hours as it turned out - so the Jackelope and I paired up. I tried to convince him to take a lap off North Seamen, which was just a short walk away, but we ended up with three laps off South Seamen before the sun warmed up the snow, followed shortly by the cloud breaching the pass and eventually enveloping most of the surrounding area. We headed to the Yurt to wolf down some more food and pack up for the exit.
The exit plan was supposed to be drop your big packs at the clear cut by 2pm and be on the downhill side of Wildhorse ridge for 4pm. We climbed to the top of the of the pass above the Yurt and saw people on sleds. Hmmmm. The people on sleds were staff bringing in the next group for the Yurt. That was odd, since the owner had said they'd be coming in by cat - just like us - he'd also said there would be eleven cat skiers. The staff were surprised to see some of us - there's 8 of you?
"Boss said there's only 4 of you... how are we going to get you out on the sleds? We'll need to go get the rickshaws or maybe the cat."
"Uh, the cat? Isn't it hauling cat ski customers?"
Uncomfortable silence for a second or two - "uh, well it was supposed to be - they even made eleven lunches today, but there was a mixup.... turns out there were zero guests today. "
"that's a bit of an oops eh?"
"yeah, it seems to happen quite a bit"
"If it's all the same with you, why don't we use the cat"
"It's slower, but yeah, we don't care"
"Perfect, maybe we could even get a cat lap or two in?"
"hmmm.. maybe...."
Sensing opportunity for a bit of cheating I quickly offered up this tasty morsel "Moose here used to be a cat driver, maybe you guys could even get some turns in"
Definite look of disappointment - "I don't have my gear here"
So we almost managed to get some free turns, but did avoid the sketchy rickshaw exit. While waiting for the cat to arrive at the North Clear Cut (we saved the climb with heavy packs as well!), we headed up for a lap off Wildhorse Ridge - this time a line of our own choosing - it was steep but the warming had beat us to it. Total up for this day was 5,960 - bring the four day total to 26,180
I stopped in to see if Blair wanted to ride the following day at the Pass. He couldn't, but he was nice enough to offer up a shower, a meal and a bed. I caught up on the world, looked at forecasts and decided to head home. On the way over Kootenay Pass the next morning it was zero at the summit (5,820') and it was still only about 9:30am! My park has gotten a bit of new snow and is calling for another 5 to 10 for the town, which hopefully means 20 or more up high. Maybe there's hope for February yet?
There's already talk of a return trip to the Yurt in the future. I'll probably go - despite the issues there's great terrain there and no competition from day trippers. I wouldn't mind checking out a slightly more luxurious hut/cabin/whatever though - a hot shower is a very nice luxury to have.
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