Valkyr Adventures – backcountry skiing in Canada
Day1 Flyin || Day2 Naumulten Circumnavigation || Day3 Rollins Ridge || Day4 Grizzly || Day5 Heart Ridge || Day6 Rollins-Viking || Day7 GrizzlyStoneyLookout
Day 6 Rollins-Viking
On Day 6 the skies were again obscured with winds coming in moderate at treeline and snowing lightly; but there was sun in the forecast so we opted to go back to the Viking Zone to take advantage of the huge array of terrain choices. Jesse, Graham and Kyle hadn’t been there so we went back to check it out.
As we approached Viking ridge the vis turned to complete whiteout shite so we did a run down Hi Rollins in blower pow. A little bit of refresh sure had changed the snow for the better even on that E facing shot. After navigating some cliffs we skinned back up and got to Rune Stones via a direct approach from the S.
We had another good run down Rune Stones this time taking the right fork and we decided to go back up to Grizzly a different way but still up the Norseman route ignoring Lee’s plaintative attempts to encourage another run of Viking’s N slopes down Ragnarok. Unfortunately the right side of the creek was just as steep… Following behing us day Mike and Greg also did a couple runs down Scrape and Pillage and also exiting via the Norseman route managing to find a bench at 2000m that joined our two skin tracks and avoided about 100 kick turns.
We went directly to Norseman lake and out Grizzly Gullet, which was a quicker but steeper exit from this zone. I don’t think we could have done this on our first day when these approach slopes to Norseman lake were destroyed by the sun. They were nicely refreshed this day as were the N facing Grizzly shots which again had sublime skiable snow. .
The Burgundy line was our route today. The white line between the blue and burgundy is the bench to avoid 100 kickturns. Far left loop is Rollins, far right is low pass to Stoney.
Skinning up!
Ski room protects the skis from the elements.
Down Hi Rollins
Stay skiers left to avoid the cliffs!
Good skiing when you avoid the cliffs!
Top of Rune Stones.
We skied more skiers left to the first time we skied this.
Nice snow to the bottom.
Rune Stones and Scrape and Pillage in the back.
Next time stay left of the creek, then find the bench at 2000m to the lake.
Top of Grizzly Gullet.
Grizzly zone skied well.
GQ with the lake far far below
Back up the low entrance to Stoney. Jesse and Grahame pointing out their line from the previous day.
One bootpack on the low entrance.
Google Earth Image from Above
Valkyr Map from Valkyr Adventures
While we as a self-guided group found that we could unlock the massive potential of some of the more gnar terrain of the Grizzly, Viking and Rollins zones with some effort we did notice in the hut log that many self-guided groups meandered around in the more mellow terrain. If your group is a tad more hesitant/less-willing to explore we’d suggest Zenith Guides (Evan Stevens). Lee and Evan geeked out on maps and terrain before getting to Naumulten; an exercise that proved fruitful!
