_modzzz_articles_page_title_browse_letter RSS2018-02-14T21:15:00+0000North Joffre Horseshoe ski traverse Feb 10 to 13 2018.   This trip was organized by Wayne Pattern through the BCMC. We initially were 12 skiers and a canine, to start the traverse on Saturday morning. The weather forecast was for 3 days of mostly clear skies, light winds, with a maximum of 1 cm of precipitations, temperatures of minus 7 to 15 celsius. The avalanche forecast was considerable in the alpine and moderate at treeline on an improving trend over the following days. We parked our vehicles at Km 10 of Highway 99 past Mt Currie and started skinning up the firm snow of the logging  road to the swamp that forms at the end of N Joffre creek. Travel on the swamp was good. Towards the end of the swamp, we bushwhacked through thick trees and blowdown to the base of the avalanche chute at the start of the climb to Cassiopea Lake. Once we started approaching the slope littered with avalanche debris, we quickly decided to put on our ski crampons. Travel upwards even with the crampons was tenuous at times. This is a long and sustained climb.Just before entering the forest for the final push to the lake, a split formed in our group, with one skier experiencing gear issues with crampons wrongly mounted and inadequate skin traction. Two skiers remained with the suffering party and pushed on quite slowly. The front group eventually gained the lake and started the climb towards the Saxifrage col. At about 1700m, we stopped to wait for the last skiers. Around 15:00, we decided to camp on a bench above the lake and wait for the whole team to regroup.That evening, the sky was full of stars and the scenery was sublime. Spirits were high.  We woke up at 7:00 and started day 2. A group meeting established that the skier with the technical issues would attempt the col and see how if they could complete the traverse. Another member of the party offered to turn around with the skier if necessary.We delayered and climbed to the col on firm snow. We aimed for a col but it was not the ... Read more

]]>2018-02-14T21:15:00+0000