It was a good day to be doing essentially a valley tour with some elevation up to the Robertson Glacier. The day was with some wind and swirling clouds on the high peaks. The snow was awesome with lots of it on the Burstall/Robertson Glacier trails.

We skied the Burstall Pass trail to the flats and then headed up towards the Robertson Glacier. Fortunately a track had been put in some distance up but a lone AT skier passed us just before the end of this track and made one for us. The traditional stop at the end of trees was held for a snack.

Robertson G./Bob, Kim, Damian, Yoko, Janet/

Then it was off up the moraines towards the glacier. We kept going until somewhere around 200-300 meters from the steeper vertical which I believe is the beginning of the glacier. Here we turned around and proceeded down in ideal snow conditions.


Robertson G./Kim and Bob/

Alas with our group there were a few bum and faceplants but everyone enjoyed the descent.

Robertson G./Janet/

Robertson G./Yoko/

A second lunch was held at our previous lunch spot.

Mt.Birdwood, Pig Tail, Commonwealth.

Mt.Chester

When everyone was chilling off we headed back to the Burstall Pass trail. Back at the intersection, we were lucky to find a track that took us alongside of the first lake. We broke off and headed over to the drainage for the second lake which was still open water and skiied down it. We were able to cross the second lake to get over to the north side. A short bushwack found us at the third lake. Again we skiied around to the north side where we set off to climb up to the low pass.

This proved to be the challenging part of the trip as most of us climbed without skins and we had to thread our way through semi-open slopes with new growth forest. Eventually we made it to the low pass and found a relatively easy descent into the drainage.

Above Hogart Lake/Damian

The drainage was flat and open for awhile but eventually got steeper and closed off. But at no time was the skiing difficult due to the excellent snow conditions. In no time we were down the drainage and onto the Hogarth Lakes Trail loop. A short ski for 20 minutes and we arrived back at the Burstall Pass trail just near the dam and cars around 5:00pm.

An excellent snow conditions day to be out on the trails. Thanks to Ivan, Yoko, Kim, Damian and Janet for joining me on this day with excellent snow. Thanks to Ivan for the photos.

Bob - Coordinator and Scribe