Most of my mountain trips from Canada are on Bivouac.com which is run by my wonderfully eccentric friend, Robin Tivy. One day, Bivouac will disappear so I am gradually retrieving my trip reports and putting them up here.
We didn't actually set out to ski from Apex Creek to Mountain Station in Nelson, instead we left Nelson at 6.30 am intending to circumnavigate Ymir Mountain. But, when our group of six started to skin up the Whitewater ski runs to gain the long west ridge of Ymir Mountain, we found ourselves engaged in an ongoing altercation with a snow-cat driver who pursued us from run to run. Somehow in the last fortnight, despite a 30 year history of co-existence between ski tourers (who get up early and cross the Whitewater runs into the backcountry beyond) and Whitewater owners, a ban, of dubious if not unfounded, legality (this is not the intent of the Controlled Recreation Area guidelines) had somehow been enacted.
Annoyed, you could say pissed off, at the antics of petty tyrants with non-exclusive tenures who are becoming ever more emboldened, we drove down to the Apex Creek parking lot at kilometre 10 on the Whitewater Ski Hill Road and headed off through Hummingbird Pass. I suggested we consider skiing from Evening Ridge over to the defunct site of a tele-communications tower on the ridge above Selous Creek, and then descending the old logging road that runs down to Mountain Station in Nelson. Although we hadn't put a car at the other end, we knew we could walk to Roland's house along the old BNR railway grade and collect his truck. The others agreed with this plan, perhaps because they failed to consult a map, perhaps out of naïve trust.
But, such a day trip seemed too short, after all we had got up at 5.00am, so we decided to do a run up Mount Beattie first. Mount Beattie, a 2000 metre ridge north of White Queen (also unmarked) is unmarked on the 1:50,000 topographic map, yet offers good treed runs off it's west aspect (also off the north and east aspects, although these are shorter). We found a skin track up to the northern most peak, must have been Howie as he is about the only other Nelsonite to regularly trek up Mount Beattie, and skied to the top before stopping for our first snack. Unfortunately, the west facing runs in 5 Mile Creek were somewhat crusty from a couple of sunny days.
Down in 5 Mile Creek we turned our attention to our next point along the way, the north end of Evening Ridge, which also offers good treed runs, these east facing. Roland happily built a road in a long switchback to the gentle north end of North Evening Ridge, where he graciously allowed me to break trail the remaining distance to the top. Here we partook of "elevenses" before skiing back down into 5 Mile Creek - no crust on this side.
Skinning back up we worked our way into the pass northeast of Evening Ridge where we had a lunch (my lunch bag was beginning to look depressingly empty) and looked over the rest of the route out to Mountain Station. Some conversation among the group ensued, or should I say some grumbling, when I estimated that we still had about 10 km left to travel.
We contoured through mature forest around the head of Selous Creek to gain the divide between Selous and Anderson Creeks. We had a 200 metre ski down, through thickening trees, to another pass at the head of Selous Creek, where we found a sturdy trappers cabin buried deep in the snow. Here we put our skins on and contoured east finally emerging at the site of the now missing communication tower.
I ate the penultimate snack in my lunch bag, and we buckled up our boots for a 1000 metre descent down a very narrow overgrown road. After the first 200 vertical metres where the road was not too steep and the snow soft and untracked, we came upon our old snowshoe track (put in on Wednesday) which gouged a deep track right in the middle of the narrow roadbed and the skiing became increasing challenging.
We all had our own techniques for descending. Roland pretty much pointed his skis straight and hung on - I know I came to a couple of sections where a creek bed had eroded all the snow and noted straight tracks before and after indicating that he had merely tucked and jumped. Aaron, on tele-skis, somehow managed to link the odd turn between snow-plows, Ken put his skins on, as did Maurice after a few particularly spectacular crashes where I swear I saw his cheeks flapping from the G-forces.
Eventually, one by one, we emerged at Mountain Station. Ken, Roland and Aaron popped out first, closely followed by me. As Doug and Maurice were some distance behind we sent Ken and Roland off to walk back to Roland's house along the railway track. I ate my apple, the last morsel in my lunch bag, and still felt hungry.
Shortly, Roland appeared and we all piled in his truck. Back at Roland's house we found Ken happily ensconced inside, sitting up to the breakfast bar with a cup of tea and huge slab of cake with ice-cream and fresh fruit. Happily, he hadn't yet taken the first bite, and I quickly intercepted it and sent him off with Roland to pick up his vehicle from Apex Creek. There are distinct advantages to not being the designated driver.
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