Cold weather which impacted equipment for some, and a track that had been set by snowshoers taking a very convoluted route to Rummel Lake made what should have been a more routine trip into a more challenging trip. Fortunately there was a track set between the Rummel Lake and Chester Lake trails which made the potential trailbreaking section much easier.

We started around 10:30am and it took us until 12:15pm to get to the end of the last cutblock where the trail begins to Rummel Lake and we found a skiers track.

Muddling about in the Rummel cutblocks

Climbing up the Rummel cut blocks

This was due to a main track which was obviously set by snowshoers who didn't appear to know where they were going or were having some extra play time in the cutblocks. Because we were two groups starting (with the car shuffle) this compounded the problem of finding the correct track. But even Carl commented he had skied back between the two groups and had not seen another skiers track. We had lunch at the end of the cutblocks in the sun and reasonable temperatures and proceeded on up.

Shortly after the second minor drainage crossing on the Rummel Lake trail we headed off towards Chester Lake. After a short while skiers tracks were encountered which fortunately led us down into the drainage and meadows which take you up to the col overlooking Three Valley Lake creek.

Climbing to the Rummel-Chester col

Cone mountain, Sundance range , Mount Fortune and Turbulent (I think!)

After a short descent of the drainage on the Three Lakes Creek side we angled off on a dropping descent to the lower meadows of this valley. Again tracks were found and followed out to the meadows. These tracks dropped a little quicker than most and avoided the small avalanche slope, which is usually traversed at its base. The snow along this traverse was rock hard in places which made for a little more challenging descent and some people actually took their skis off.


A nasty side-hill traverse to get into Three Lakes valley

At the meadows, it was debated whether we should go up to the Elephant Rocks and Chester Lake as the track appeared to head that way.

We're through!

There seemed to be no concensus, so we followed the track to where it would start to climb up to Chester Lake. Here the easier route stopped and a very steep route started. As some of us were using half skins at this point, the decision was made to just head to the Chester Lake trail which involved minimal climbing through some meadows.


Cutting back to Chester Lake trail (Mt Galatea in the background)

Mount Chester

The runout down to the Chester Lake PL was fast with some steeper sections being fairly scraped off. We all made it safely back to the cars around 4:45 and headed to do the car shuffle.

My thanks to David, John, Stan, Sim, Jeannine, Janet and Carl for joining me on this rather chilly sojourn. Thanks to all for your patience with my equipment problems on the first part of the trip.

Bob - Coordinator and Scribe

Additional comments by David: Bob, this trip was okay, we all have our good and bad days, it was very clear and scenic in the cold sunshine. As a general comment, I want to add that this winter's snowpack is very strange. We do not have much snow. For those looking to yo-yo, most slopes are either bare, sun-crusted, have avalanche debris or are liable to avalanche. Tourers will find a shallow unsupportive snow pack often requiring heavy trail breaking in 40cms of sugary mess. Until we get at least 15cms more snow, the best skiing seems to be on machine or skier packed trails and even these are icy in places.