The Edge of Everything
After skiing all around the West, Alaska, and Japan, there was one region that I had yet to experience on skis – the Canadian Rockies. Yes, I had skied a few days at Rogers Pass during my first winter of touring, but those are the Selkirks, not the Rockies, and I was too naive to really appreciate how incredible the mountains were. After doing some hikes in the Canadian Rockies in the Fall of 2024, I knew I needed to come back with snow. The mountains were stunning and endless, and the access was so good.
For the 2025-26 season, I made it a priority to visit Interior BC and Alberta for skiing. While we had a terrible winter in the lower 48, the Canadian Rockies were breaking records for snowfall. I recruited John, Chris, and Logan to join for a late winter trip, targeting two weeks at the end of March and beginning of April. Our plan was to stay in Golden, BC, a small town that sits between the Selkirks and Rockies, with incredible mountains on either side. We were an hour away from the deeper coastal snowpack of the Selkirks and the shallower continental snowpack of the Rockies. In theory, we could pick between completely different mountains, weather, and snowpacks.
The challenge with the interior ranges is often a persistent weak layer. There was the inevitable January / February high pressure, which created a weak layer across the region. Then a week before our trip, an unusual March atmospheric river arrived and rained up to 7,000 ft, stabilizing the snowpack, but also wrecking havoc on the conditions. As we drove over Rogers Pass the first day, we could see massive avalanche debris in just about every avalanche path. And Rogers Pass is mostly avalanche paths. Oof.
Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start. The snowpack below treeline was trashed by rain, but travel above treeline was difficult in whiteout conditions. That didn’t stop everyone else from braving the whiteouts and skiing in a ping pong ball, but we were cowards and got turned back by the wind. I had been told that late winter to early spring is the time of year to visit Rogers Pass, but the guidebook also says that its the time of year where clouds cling to the summits and upper reaches of the mountains. In the lower 48, the weather is typically more binary: snowing or sunny. In the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks, it seems to often be neither – persistently cloudy and variable.
On our second day at Rogers, we had a bluebird morning and went for Rogers Peak, only to get engulfed by clouds and wind near the summit. Doug even got carried in a small avalanche. Down low was complete garbage. In two days at Rogers Pass, I had already skied more bad snow than the rest of my winter combined. It was still a beautiful day overall, but I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, like we had whiffed on the brief window of good weather and snow.
Chris and I were working remotely about half the days during the week. The constantly ambiguous weather forecasts made it really challenging to plan. One day looked worse than the day we did Rogers Peak, so we opted to work. But John went out to Lake Louise on a short tour and reported bluebird conditions!
Chris and I rushed out the door after lunch and drove up the Icefields Parkway to meet John. Mt. Hector? Summit clouds began to build as we pulled into the parking lot. Crystal Ridge? Actually, coverage seemed insufficient on that west aspect. After three false starts, we ended up going for Jimmy Jr, a random nice looking south facing panel of snow. Predictably, the clouds rolled in as we got above treeline, but they lifted just enough on our third and final lap for a decent view in decent powder. Chalk it up as a modest success, but I hated feeling like a chicken running around with its head cut off.
Logan arrived later in the week and was eager to ski, so we decided to check out Granddaddy Couloir on the Icefields Parkway, figuring it would be a good option for a low visibility day. It was an awesome feature, but the snow was absolutely terrible – wildly chunky and inconsistent beneath chopped up powder. We watched the group behind us rip the couloir effortlessly, making the snow look good. In the PNW, we’re pretty skilled, fast skiers. But out here, we found that everyone carried heavier gear, skinned faster than us, and skied gnarlier lines – in worse conditions. We were soft and weak in comparison.
Staying in Golden, the Kicking Horse Ski Area is clearly visible. Next to the ski area, there are incredible east facing avalanche paths. Doug raved about one of them, “Repeater”, so we opted for a short drive to ski the Kicking Horse sidecountry. Somehow, the north aspects had developed a mysterious breakable wind crust, and the massive east facing avalanche path turned to schmoo pretty quickly. But it was still beautiful to overlook the Columbia River Valley, which actually flows north in this section!
A week into our trip, we were feeling pretty defeated. The clouds were a constant question mark that made it hard to commit to anything bigger. Snow sucked in the trees, but visibility in the alpine was unpredictable. Back home, I am so much more confident reading the weather forecasts and forecasting snow conditions. I know my data sources and microclimates. Here, we felt confused and timid. But there was nothing else to do but keep shooting our shot.
On the second Sunday, we thought there was a decent chance of good weather, so we went big, aiming for a linkup for Forever Young Couloir and Seven Steps of Paradise at Rogers Pass. The weather held, the snow was great, and we finally got that elusive spring boot top powder! After a week of faffing, it felt so good to get what we came for. This was one of the best days of the trip.
Rogers Pass contains perhaps the greatest density of steep skiing and quality lines of anywhere I’ve ever been. But Chris, John, Logan and I don’t ski simply to tick off classic lines; exploring and seeing new places is at the core of why we adventure in the mountains. So for the rest of our trip, we turned our attention to the Canadian Rockies.
We took a few rest days, then sprung into action with a stretch of increasingly good weather to end our trip. Logan really wanted to try a mysterious west facing gully (usually west aspects are not skiable) in Kootenay National Park on Storm Ridge. If the Selkirks were designed to be as skiable as possible, the Rockies are the opposite, with horizontal cliff bands and a thin snowpack. This west facing line was actually skiable, but the snow skied rather poorly. Still, it was fun to get off the beaten path.
We had been targeting the Wapta Traverse, a classic ski traverse along the Icefields Parkway, for our nicest day of weather on Friday. To make the car shuttle easier, we skied Mt. Hector the day before and left a car at the finish of the Wapta. I highly recommend this move.
Mt. Hector is a 11,000 ft peak, one of the easiest 11ers in the Canadian Rockies. It is an easy ski, but the summit scramble is non trivial. As we skinned up the glacier, lenticular clouds engulfed the summit, and it seemed like we would be skunked once again. But miraculously, this time the clouds cleared. It seemed like the weather gods were finally smiling upon us. Keep trying, and eventually you’ll get lucky.
The summit views were all time, like some of the best I have ever had, anywhere. Infinite mountains in all directions.
For our final day of the trip, we did the Wapta Traverse in reverse, eschewing the typical north to south direction in hopes of north facing powder. Our hopes were fulfilled with a transcendent 3,000 ft gentle powder run to the end the day. The Wapta Traverse isn’t the best ski traverse I’ve done, but it was unique in the scale of the glaciers we crossed – true icefields. It felt like the perfect end to the trip.
Doing destination ski trips is always a bit of a crapshoot. It can be challenging to align four people’s schedules, so flexibility is limited. You can play the probabilities, but weird things happen like atmospheric rivers in March. When I think back to other ski trips I’ve done – Japan, the Sierra, and Colorado – they all had elements of less than ideal conditions. In the moment, I wanted good snow and cool objectives. But when I look back, I mostly just remember the wonderful moments with friends and getting to intimately know a new corner of the world.
Our ski trip to the Canadian Selkirks and Rockies wasn’t everything I wanted, but it was everything I needed it to be. I came away with even more appreciation for what I consider to be some of the most incredible mountains in the world. Thank you to John, Chris, and Logan for yet another great trip!