1am from Van. 4am from parking lot. 7am for Matier Glacier 1100m and 11km later
Probed through the seracs and never touched ice which was expected for a nice April snowpack but it's always to good to get primary verification
First morning light on the glacier hits us and brings warmth. Got a couple of hours of nobody there before the long weekend crowds hit.
Then skinned half the face and bootpacked (992 steps) the rest
Cold wind nips at the NW face and the rest of the group does not look enthused about the idea of scrambling the mixed iced rime to the sub-peak to ski the NW face direct so I retreated after cutting a few steps. No problem as there's enough space to do a quick cold (minus 8) transition plus the bootpack technicality made it slower going and set us half an hour behind already.
I had set the bootpack skiers right so we could hit skiers left and avoid the two other groups starting the NW face climb behind us so off we went for the first descent of the day Dan was coldest so got to go first. Turns yielded acceptable quality of sluffy, fast, confidence-inspiring rippable snow. Not bad for a steep N face in April.
Filip gutting the collection zone and doing his best to fill the bergschrund with snow
Group 2 and Group 3 behind us ascending the face on our skintrack and bootpack. I'm rather proud of the steps which I tried to cut nicely and glad they got to see some (lots?) of use. Group 4 and 5 are ascending Peak 1 on the standard mountaineering route off to picture left
Then off to Peak 2 which we skinned and booted up. It's also another convenient N face but is rarely skied. I figured that if our skin up the glacier ascent route was trouble free and good (it was) and our route up Peak 1 yielded stable, dry snow (it did) then Peak 2 would shed quintuple overhead blower Tito's Tumultuous Tears joyful weeping (oh boy did it ever)
On Peak 2 I skied down below a convexity, parked myself off to the side of the kill zone and told Peter to centrepunch the convexity. What could possibly go wrong?'
Instructions to Dan. Try to look slutty and hit skiers left which is steeper but just a tad bit more exposed. Trust me....
Dan produced enough material for an OnlyFans, Grindr and Tindr account
Finished up Peak 2 as we saw a group who'd been helidropped skin off to Peak 3. We already knew there were tracks on Peak 3 from the day before and it was kind of nice to chill for a bit after the frenetic pace of the morning so we watched a conga line form on Peak 1 while we ate and replenished liquids. Then off we went for Peak 3. Nice views of our track on Peak 1 and also our route up the morning glacier which was getting used even in the solar affect of mid-afternoon. Also a classic view of Peak 1 and Peak 2 from the approach to Peak 3.
Using the old line "Let me go first to take pictures" I snake tracks down the face. It never fails to work. Peter unleashes ski instructor powder destruction down the Partizan Belgrade centrepunch line of Peak 3's face
Hey Dan would you mind gapping those crevasses. OK! 200m down. Another 900m to go down this central part of the face before we get to the lake so far below
Dan takes off and Yolo's down a section of this 1km wide glaciated face to our skiers left. Filip and Peter and I see a ramp a little to his right and we gut it
The last third of the glacier descent gives us N facing pow and opportunities to do some serac jibbing. Fortunately the lakes on the exit are all still nicely frozen making for a quick run out on tired legs and lots of opportunities to see the lines in the sun as opposed to this morning's starlight
