This was indeed a memorable trip. In years to come, we will dream of this trip though these dreams may have a nightmarish edge.

When I announced this exploratory ski tour 10 days prior to 30 January 2010, little did I imagine that there would be 16 keen Ramblers. For various logistical reasons, the limit was set at 10, but one (sensibly?) bailed at the trailhead, so 9 of us departed Floe Creek parking in Kootenay Park soon after 8.00am on a misty Saturday morning. Initially we followed old ski tracks up the summer trail until they took off steeply for yo-yo skiing activity. We broke trail in 10-15 cms of sugary snow and crossed several significant avalanche paths, some of which had already slid, before a break just short of the steep switchbacks up to Floe Lake.

Crossing one of the avalanche slopes

Climbing through the burn

By reference to Sim�s GPS and some searching we found the trail and zigzags reaching the Floe Lake campground for a well-deserved lunch at 2.00pm.


Lunch near Floe Lake Campground

Everyone was keen to continue to the midpoint of Numa Pass, which we reached at 3.00pm, 7 hours from the start.

Break at Numa Pass

Unfortunately, the hazy cloud limited views but it was only �5c with negligible wind. Skins came off and following a group discussion, when one member�s opinion was (wrongly?) assumed, we decided to continue over and down Numa creek. We all carried head lamps.

Initially both the snow and angle was good, but soon we reached a cliff.

On the gentle slopes just north of Numa Pass

Again, consulting with the GPS, we traversed to the vicinity of the trail and looked down some steep 40-degree terrain. With his wide Tele gear Peter was elated and soon carved some good turns between the loosely spaced trees. We all followed his example but enjoyment was probably influenced by one�s chosen equipment. We were all free-heel but some preferred the lighter thin skis with NNN bindings, which had merits for 80% of the tour.


This was way steeper than it looks

Our downhill enjoyment over, we were back to trail breaking and route finding. By headlamp we reached the Numa creek campground at 7.00pm.


On into the night!

Here we had our greatest route finding problem but after 30 minutes of wandering (and wondering), John found the trail leading downhill from the food storage area. Only 6.6 km to go and all downhill. But summer trails that parallel a creek are not all downhill as we found out. All credit to the group as we broke trail, climbed over, under or around tree obstacles and eventually plodded out, mostly on skins, to the highway at 11.00pm. A short car shuttle, good drive interrupted by Canmore�s Tim Hortons and we were back in Calgary by 2.00am. A memorable trip but not an epic, which I do not expect to repeat. We have defined "epic" as involving an unintentional overnight. 27km, 1100m, 15 hours (7 up, 8 down) by 9 crazy Ramblers: John, Sim, Joan, Peter, Douglas, Carl, Celine, Ealaine with c&s David. Thanks everyone. This trip would not have been possible without everyone doing their bit with enthusiasm, or at least without complaint