Duffey – Saxifrage
Stu has been looking at Google Earth lately. He came up with this route. He took a picture of the slopes below Saxifrage from Cayoosh and he was sure this would go! Well it did, sort of. Probably better on a bigger snow year.
Saxifrage/Cassiope is accessed at the Saxifrage parking lot. The Baldwin map has you going on the left side of the swamp. We did that the first time we came here, and exited out the right side of the swamp on the North Joffre road. This time we opted to access the area from this road so we could stay away from the Swamp. The 2.4km was easy on the road, we then had to find a way to cross North Joffre Creek which was also easy.
Then through a beautiful treed forest and up a sunny slope to get to past the steep tree section that seems to surround this area.
Looking back at the swamp, you can see the road on lookers left. This slope is the only crux as it is south facing and would be tricky if the sun were stronger. If you were to go this route later in the year, start early.
We then got to the nice lake that allowed you to see the slopes from Cassiope and Saxifrage.
We were heading to the low spot on the left of the photo which was near Saxifrage
Looking back at the valley fog below
The slopes off Cassiope. Definitely a good option one day!
At the Saxifrage col, we could have gone down but decided to find another route. Fortunately we did! It was steep at the top!
But good to go!
Looking back you can see the col we came down, Saxifrage col would work as well.
Heading to the col for our destination.
Top of the slope at 2140m
Lee heading down ( Picture by Trevor Hoskins)
Looking back up. This slope was very nice. There was a natural slide off a fallen cornice to skiers right. Otherwise it was stable this day.
Navigating below 1500m was tricky. Lee checked out this couloir which apparently goes if there was enough snow. It may have been washed out from the recent slide.
Lots of exposed ice and rock below 1500m.
The green line showed the best option that didn’t have exposed rock and ice.
Photo from Stu taken from Cayoosh that shows the line and exit. Looks ok from here.
View of North Joffre from Joffre Lakes area.
Google Earth Image of our route.
Google earth image of the area below 1500m. The little boggle is me bootpacking up cause it was icy and rocky below me.
Elevation profile
