KOKANEE GLACIER - May 5 to 12, 2007 Day 5 - Kokanee Glacier, Pyramid Peak, Pyramid Words by Lee Lau. Pictures by Lee Lau and Steve Hutchison

|| Day 1 - May 5 - Fly in and Lemon Pass || Day 2 - May 6 - Kokanee Glacier - Kokanee Peak - Battleship || Day 3 - May 7 - Glory Basin - Mt Robert Smith || Day 4 - May 8 - Sunset - Outlook - John Carter || Day 5 - Kokanee Glacier - Kokanee Peak - Pyramid Peak || Day 6 - Kokanee Glacier - Keyhole - Kokanee Lake || Day 7 - Mt Giegerich - Mt Nansen - Glory Basin ||

Other useful links:

• British Columbia's Ministry of Environment official web-page for Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park
• Kootenay Rockies webpage on Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park with summer routes and activities primarily described.
• Alpine Club of Canada's webpage on the Kokanee Glacier chalet.

By now the weather (and us for that matter) had settled into a routine. Just below freezing at night meant fast travel in the morning. Warmer temperatures had nearly yielded corn yesterday so today we went up high again to look for corn. This time we gained the vertical quickly by bootpacking the frozen north-facing slopes up to the Kokanee Glacier.

Panorama looks north to Goat Range in the background

Waiting for Steve on the bootpack up to the glacier

Despite the vast terrain accessible from the glacier we were actually rather limited by the impending high temperatures and the fierce sun. I correctly guessed that SW slopes would corn and quickly knocked off a few runs on really fun snow. But the snow deteriorated alarmingly quickly as one dropped elevation and we retreated back again to higher ground

The corn cycle begins! SW facing slopes get hit first

SE slopes get sloppy really fast.

We hadn't checked out Pyramid Peak yet and I had the itch to ski its NW face visible so temptingly from the chalet. However, the face had long since been cleaned out by wet-slides and there was debris scattered all over it. The views from the peak however were amazing and we were glad to take those in! The panoramas below will show that the face proper is cliffed out and not skiable. The approach to the NW face is gained by dropping down to the saddle immediately to the S of Pyramid Peak where you can ski right into the face.

All three panoramas are from the top of Pyramid Peak and look to the east.

We debated what to do next and took a wild guess that the NW slopes of Pyramid would be corn. They were perfect corn and we had great skiing from 2500m to almost 2100m. It doesn't seem a lot but after the marginal skiing of the previous two days this was an epic run. We now knew that the rest of the week would be good for steep lines as the corn cycle built.

Perfect corn skiing on Pyramid

Sharply spiking afternoon temperatures had played havoc with the snowpack. Snowbridges started failing over creeks and lakes and ponds were now visible where they weren't present yesterday. So we tiptoed back to eat and drink more and hide from the glaring sun.

Quick melting snow takes out snowshoe track

Resorting to crossing by bridge to avoid collapsing snow

Day 5's route

|| Day 1 - May 5 - Fly in and Lemon Pass || Day 2 - May 6 - Kokanee Glacier - Kokanee Peak - Battleship || Day 3 - May 7 - Glory Basin - Mt Robert Smith || Day 4 - May 8 - Sunset - Outlook - John Carter || Day 5 - Kokanee Glacier - Kokanee Peak - Pyramid Peak || Day 6 - Kokanee Glacier - Keyhole - Kokanee Lake || Day 7 - Mt Giegerich - Mt Nansen - Glory Basin ||