We were on the trail from the Helen creek drainage trailhead around 10:00 am with the valley fog clearing. Ploughs were working the 93 so Damian's car was at Mosquito trailhead not where we usually come out although there was a small pull out ploughed out a bit at that point. After a climb you are on the west bank of Helen creek maybe 10-20 metres above the creek with avalanche paths off Dolomite on the east side of the creek. There was evidence of a very large avalanche at one of the paths that had crossed the creek, climbed the west bank and caused damage to mature trees on the west bank. The branch breaks looked pretty recent. There had been a big cat - Bill thinks a lynx - using the broken ski track for travel with big paw prints in the few cms of fresh snow. Three ptarmigan provided another wildlife opportunity.
Ptarmigan posing for a photo
Ptarmigan feeding on willow(?) buds
John and Arnold broke a nice trail up to Katherine ridge. We did spread out on the steeper parts of this ascent.
John gaining Katherine ridge - Dolomite peak behind.
The few cms of fresh snow gave us a nice run off Katherine ridge to "lunch rock" near Katherine lake.
Philip - I think smiling after some nice snow descending from Katherine ridge
Arnold coming up to "lunch rock" on the Dolomite circuit
After lunch we headed up to the col east of Dolomite peak getting there just after 2:00 pm
Arnold, John, Bill, Shirley, Jim and Damian - whoops missed Philip
The run down the east side of Dolomite is often wind hammered, hard tracked and icy but on this day we were putting in the track and the few cms had Bill breaking trail down the gentle hills at times so slower than usual.
Descending east side of Dolomite peak - Mount Hector high peak in the distance.
We took the run to the west rather than down to the Mosquito creek trail. This was fairly tracked as I think, these days, lots of people like coming up this way to ski "Puzzle peak" - seemed more popular than the Dolomite circuit! We split into two groups of 4 for this treed descent with an FRS radio in each group which worked well I think. John's GPS track and skills got us spot on to the vague pull out at the highway around 4:15 pm.
Another photo of Philip to make up for missing him in the group shot Waiting for Damian's return
Damian graciously hiked the 1km or so in his ski boots to get his car at Mosquito - thanks Damian. Thanks to Arnold and Damian for driving - not the nicest drive in the morning and a long one. Thanks Bill for some photos - I really like the ptarmigan ones. Thanks also to all the participants: Philip,Bill,Jim,Arnold,Damian,Shirley and John from John for coming out on one of my favourite ski tours.
