There is always someone faster than you, likely just not me! Us slowpokes may be faster some day, but are happy with 200-250 v-m/hour ascent rates. If you'd like an easy, friendly paced 'slowpokes' ski tour, please join in.
The plan is to visit Purple Peak, about 7.5 km in with 875 m elevation gain from the Skoki parking lot trailhead.
We tour up the Skoki Trail, past the ski resort and Temple Lodge, then keeping right we enter the Wolverine Valley. Following the valley bottom ESE up the drainage area we eventually reach the top of Wolverine Ridge. Fairly simple terrain till this point.
From the top of Wolverine Ridge about 1.5 km and 250 m elevation gain is left to reach Purple Peak. We skin up the NW aspect between Unity and Purple Peaks then along ridge top to Purple Peak. Max slope may only be about 30 degrees. We'll see if we can manage the terrain to safely reach the top. Otherwise, we can exit down our uptrack at any point. We'll likley choose to avoid that big beautiful purple bowl leading down into the resort and instead ski down our uptrack back through the Wolverine valley.
A bonus is that the alpine terrain is of relatively low consequence; Boulders, cliffs, trees, convexities, terrain traps and overhead cornices may all be avoidable. Our uptrack provides a mellow (depending upon how high we can get) but fun exit, right back to the cars. :-)
Required Items to Bring:
The usual minimum requirements: Your avy sense, a 3-antennae beacon, a probe and a shovel.
How to Get There:
Event Directions:
Insert the following address to your browser to find the trailhead:
That is, the carpool and meeting spot is a couple hundred meters east of the new Calgary Climbing Centre on West Valley Road SW (SW of the Hwy#1 west and Stony Trail NW intersetion). Exit Hwy#1 onto Valley Ridge Blvd NW, take the traffic circle and head south under the #1 highway, then east a few hundred meters to the parking lot.
Notes:
Please be prepared to discuss avy conditions, terrain management and route selection as a group, particularly as we approach Purple Peak.
This is sort of a "beginner friendly" tour, but a majority of party members with at least AST-1 is preferred as we will be venturing out of simple terrain during what may be still a considerable avalanche danger rating ... as the Avalauator Card may say, Extra Caution required. Perhaps let me know your experience level by email, or better yet, drop it into your profile on our website for easy viewing! :-) Thanks.
Cheers//
*Cancellation Policy*: If a participant is unable to attend a paid course or trip, there will be no refund unless the participant finds a suitable replacement that is acceptable to the trip coordinator. Acceptable waiting list candidates will have priority. It will then be the participant's responsibility to recover funds from the replacement. If the coordinator cancels an event, participants get a refund (less any non-recoverable costs). Note that ACC National does not refund hut fees due to weather, delay, closures, or any other reasons. The Calgary Section of the ACC is a not for profit club and we only charge attendees what it costs us to provide courses or trips.
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Registration for this event closed on Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 03:00 PM.