Three of us had a great day in the sun listening to avalanches thundering down mountains on a safe trail. We met at 6:00 am and discussed about 10 potential options as well as the scheduled trip. After some serious thought the interest seemed to be for a trip with little or no avalanche danger and there was interest in the Currie Creek area. This option shortened the original trip by about 10 km. As it turned out this distance reduction was a good choice as the snow became very wet reducing glide and there was trailbreaking for about 7 km.

The Palliser triangle is a triangle formed by the connector trail joining the Whiteman Pass trail to the Palliser Pass trail. As it turned there was no avalanche danger on this route.

We started out from Shark Mtn. PL. The track was quite hard and icy and the run down the hill to the Spray River required a fair bit of speed control. We waxed up at the Palliser trail junction and skied a track set recently towards the Palliser warden cabin. Shortly after the Whiteman Pass junction we skinned up at a steep hill. The trail continued on at a level gradient but we soon lost the tracks of a skier which had been up it quite a while ago. Shortly after this we lost the trail (it is poorly marked) and proceeded up Currie Creek. Eventually, we realized that we had gone too far and consulted the map to confirm. Back down the creek we skied looking for a bridge that Mike Potter says in his "Backcountry Banff" book was to be built in 1992. The map showed that this should be near the confluence of Currie Creek and Whiteman Creek. When we got to this point we discovered the trail but no bridge. A tree had been cut down to serve as a means of crossing Currie Creek a little upstream as well as another log to get across Whiteman Creek.

All the while that we had been trying to find the trail a constant sound of snow crashing off of Mt. Morrison was happening since around 10:00 that morning.

Mount Currie

We were kind of glad we had chosen a safer trail for this day. It was lunchtime by now so we watched and listened to the avalanches and kind of dawdled over lunch.

Mount Warre and Whiteman mountain

Once back on the trail we made sure we didn't lose it, although there were places where one had to look closely especially at the second crossing of Whiteman Creek. Lisa was particularly helpful to find the trail at this point. We eventually skied over a low ridge and came to some meadows where we knew the connector trail would be. After a careful search, we finally found it and started up another low ridge. Coming down the backside of this ridge we again had to look closely at one point. Finally, we came down to the Spray River and just about lost John to the creek as the side of the bank collapsed down as he skied along it. We had to take our skis off to get across. At this time, John realized he had lost one of his half skins and went back about a kilometer to look, unfortunately, without finding it. Once across the water we had a snack and proceeded over to the trail to Palliser Warden Cabin one way and the Assinniboine trail the other way.


Mount Morrison and Mount Turner

The ski back along this was slow as the snow was quite saturated and occasionally the side of the track would collapse down.


Bob crossing the Spray river

One particular location just after we completed the triangle we had to climb up a small hill. It was total isothermal snow up to the thigh for the first person. Eventually we were back to the Spray River bridge about 5:45 pm. It was still a beautiful and sunny day so we stopped for a quick break in the sun before the hill climb. Skins were helpful in getting up the hill and we skied back to the cars arriving between 6:45 and 7:00pm.

On the drive back, we decided to go through Canmore and stopped at Tim Horton's for a takeout coffee. We left Lisa here and John and I were back in Calgary by about 9:30 pm.

A great, gorgeous, sunny, warm day was enjoyed by Lisa, John and Bob C/S. It was a reasonably hard day and we were all somewhat tired but the weather in the mountains made it all worthwhile. Although John didn't find his skin, Lisa did find her water bottle she had left behind at a stop on the Watridge Lake Trail. Someone had brought it back to the trailhead.