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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
01 Feb 03 |
incomplete |
N/A |
| 2nd Time |
01 Mar 03 |
5:00 |
2:30 |
These pictures are from the first attempt. Click here for pictures of the second (successful) trip.
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The easiest way to explain what we did is to show a quick map with the route. We parked at the picnic area along the Cameron Lake Rd, which is where the road closes in the winter. We skied down the road to the Akamina Pass trail head, then followed the boundary cut-line to the crux of the ridge just shy of the summit. We then, turned around, dropped into the Forum Lake bowl, then up to the ridge between Forum and Wall lakes. We didn't like that crux either, so we skied two runs on the lee slopes through the trees. Great conditions. Now for the pictures
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This is looking down the road from where we started. Forum peak is in the clouds, but you can see the boundary cut line and the crux of that ridge. The summit is just above that crux. The road is mostly flat, so we quickly made our way to the Akamina Pass trailhead. Going up the trail to Akamina Pass was along hardpack snow, and again, great conditions for travelling. Once at the pass, we turned sharply to the left to follow the boundary cutline.
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The boundary cutline starts off flat, then it turns a bit to the right and goes downhill into a valley. Once in the bottom of this valley/drainage, you're faced with a very steep uphill slog for about 200 meters. Eventually, the route flattens out and it's a good place to stop for that first snack break.
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Skiing down this cutline into the valley bottom wasn't a matter of just coasting down there. You had to avoid trees, and with skins on, turning wasn't the easiest thing to do. Here we see blair wrapped up with the trees. I couldn't stop laughing at him!!
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As I said, the ridge flattens out quite a bit as you make your way to the crux. Here's Blair taking a picture of the crux and the remaining ridge ahead of us. This ridge was slightly corniced, and below us on the left was frozen Cameron Lake.
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Here is a better look at the crux. The black line shows the west ridge that hangs above Forum Lake. This ridge was very corniced. The red line shows the route we would need to take up through this crux. In the summer, you could just scramble straight for the summit, but with skis on our backs, ski boots on our feet, and no ropes with us, we weren't prepared to venture up this part. A fall anywhere along this red line would result in a fatal plummet into the Forum Lake bowl.
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So, we decided to turn around, and at the same time, the weather turned worse. Here's Blair suffering in the wind. Notice the ski pole strap. Fortunately, the wind died down within half an hour.
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So, we took off the skins, tightened up the boots, and we skied back down the ridge until we could safely drop into Forum Lake bowl. Not wanting to loose too much elevation, but also not wanting to hang too long under those cornices, we quickly made a descending circle around Forum Lake. Eventually, we were under the lee (wind loaded) slopes of the ridge between Forum and Wall lakes. This was the only "nervous" part of the trip. We quickly moved northward into the trees and ascended the slopes there. Once at the low saddle in that ridge, we followed the ridge to the same rockband that turned us around on the other ridge. This time, the crux wasn't as bad. Nonetheless, Blair and I figured that if we carried our skies up that slope, we wouldn't have time to summit Forum and ski back along Akamina Ridge.
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So, we turned around and headed toward the northern highpoint on that ridge. Here we see Blair coming up behind me. In the background, you can see the lower part of the rockband we'd have to move through. From this angle, it didn't look too bad. In fact, Blair and I were kicking ourselves for not going for it. I'm sure we would have been on the summit in about an hour.
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Here is a better picture of the entire rockband. Once over this, the summit is just a ridge walk/ski away. The bowl on the right is Wall Lake with part of Akamina Ridge above it. In this bowl, there are several ice climbs, including Midnight Madness, but I'd be wary of the avalanche danger from the cornices along Akamina Ridge.
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From the highpoint on the Wall/Forum ridge, we could look back at the first ridge we ascended. The lower red dot shows where we turned around and the upper red dot marks the summit. We were pretty close.
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Once we were at the ridge highpoint, it was time to ski back down to Forum Lake. The snowpack was amazingly strong and the powder was terrific. Here we see Blair coming down. The skiing was so amazing that when we got down to the bottom, we agreed that we had to try that again. We put the skins back on, went back up to that highpoint, and again, had a terrific ski back down to Forum Lake. After the second run, we were too tired for a third run, so we headed back to the car. It was a great trip.
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