This weekend I wanted to ski North Star Peak in the Purcells. For the longest time I was going to bushwhack straight up the North Star Glacier drainage creek, but then I learned of a hut nearby and started to think, maybe I can ski more than just North Star for the day.<\/p>\n
I was going to meet up with Luke in Radium after he got off workfor an early evening hike up to the hut. After the drive up the logging road and the 3-5h hike to the hut, I thought we’d be arriving around nightfall. But Luke got caught up in a highway closure on 93s and I ended up hearing that he was back in Lake Louise at 6. I told him I would be alright doing the trip solo, and was heading up now before it got too dark. He said he would be coming a couple hours behind me.<\/p>\n
So I set off from Radium up Forster creek, hoping I’d get reasonably far before the night came in. Halfway up the road it started to rain and thunder. It ended up being in just one area though, further up the road it was dusty dry. Got out of the car and started marching up the deactivated logging roads leading to Olive hut. Once the road ran out, marshy meadow started up, leading to the steep fan which went up to the Catamount Glacier. On the steep fan the trail came and went, and by the top I was following my own nose. Before long I got to the toe of the glacier. I was only able to walk on the bare ice for a bit, as it steepened up at a roll. I knew from Google Earth that on the top side of the roll were large crevasses that would be difficult to avoid, so I went left around the glacier and up a small snow slope to a rocky outcropping. Then back onto the glacier. It was full on night for the walk up the flat bare glacier to the hut. The ice was really dirty where there was a bit of pitch, and really flat everywhere else so I just kept on going in the hiking boots, no crampons needed. After a bit of scrambling I was up the rocky bit onto the knoll that the hut is situated on, finally arriving at midnight.<\/p>\n