Backcountry skiing in Whistler, Blackcomb and the Duffey (Decker, Matier and Twin one, Duke Vantage, Brunswick – Hat Creek, Chief Pascal, Cerise Creek)
Matier laps then the Twin One Glacier – April 7, 2011
A rare Apruary nice weather window brought Shar, Tyler, Louie and I out to the Cerise Creek drainage to enjoy pleasant rambles in the mountain. Overnight gear and a lazy departure brought us to Keith’s Hut by 11 am. After dropping gear at a pleasantly uncrowded hut we were up the Anniversary Glacier and at Matier by 2.30pm finishing off a 1500m ascent from the Duffey Lake Road.
I had recommended to Tyler and Louie that they ski off a small Matier sub-peak that had a beautiful aesthetic so off they went for another small climb. This gave a large group who we had caught a chance to ski off the NW face of Matier without us crowding them. After ourselves skiiing off the 400m or so NW face of Matier, Sharon (who was just day-tripping) skied off to Anniversary Col and down the glacier back to the road. Louie, Tyler and I, reluctant to waste such a nice day (it was only 3.30 or so) decided to do another lap of Matier and were back on the summit at 5pm.
I had skied off the Twin One couloir last year and thought that side of Matier/Twin One had a lot of potential so talked both Louie and Tyler into skiing off on the Twin One glacier side. After some fancy rime and rock navigation to get on to the Matier East face we skied snow of adequately acceptable quality and lightness successfully navigating gaping crevasses on the Twin One Glacier and back to Vantage – Duke col.
We were back down at about 6.30 and got back to Keith’s Hut at 7.30 or so for a brisk 11 hour day of ski touring covering 2290m of elevation gain.
The Duffey Lake road berm objective hazard
First glimpse of Matier Ridge in the distance
Dropping gear at Keith’s Hut
On the route to the Anniversary Glacier
Walking up to Matier. Joffre in the background
Sharon setting the pace to Matier
Louie skiing off the Matier peak ridge rime and ice shitshow
Sharon is not impressed
I sent the kids off on a pleasant ridge walk while I bunkered down from summit winds to take pictures
Sharon slicing, dicing and making short work of Matier’s NW face
Louie skiing off the impossibly beautiful subpeak
The Matier NW face mogul field. Our tracks are furthest lookers right
Lee on the second ascent of Matier for the day
Off on our second lap, Lee, Louie and Tyler skiing rime runnels to access the E face of Matier
Lee and Louie on Matier’s East face
Tyler on the Twin One Glacier
Lee on the Twin One Glacier
Crevasse dodging and serac slalom on the Twin One Glacier
Picture taken next day from Duke shows our tracks down – photoshopped to bring out the tracks. We skied off Matier Peak down to looker’s left col, down the E face then down the glacier
Elevation Profile:
Duffey – Matier Twin One at EveryTrail