Chickadee Valley Ski Tour

Impressive steep rock buttress on the north side of Mt. Whymper.

December 12 met up with my ole buddy John for a ski ascent. I was super keen to ascend Boom Mountain. Boom is a relatively short and straight forward ascent, so I thought. Super cold morning, at least it felt that way, when we left the parking lot it was -22C. I have never skied or hiked in Chickadee Valley before, so I was curious about this popular ski location. Since we left the parking lot just before 8am, it was quiet, but on our return, the parking lot was over flowing with parked cars. 

Shady and cold in Chickadee Valley.
Great views though.

Chic Scott's ski guide book has very basic beta on the ascent of Boom Mountain, but there are several easy to find on line sources. Generally, most parties will ski up the last avalanche slope (most westernly slope) to gain the gullies that break through the upper rock bands which guard the large flat summit plateau of Boom. The avalanche slope and the gullies are very steep, and don't look too inviting. John and I scoped these lines, but we agreed that the western end of Boom Mountain, just above a col, seemed to be the same angle as the regular route, and maybe a better option? Turned out we had to break a trail though steep trees and we had very slow progress in the soft snow was we plodded towards this col.

Gaining height and finally the tree begin to thin.
West end of Boom Mountain above.

Nearing the col west of Boom Mountain.

After a few hours of trail breaking, we eventually reached the high col west of Boom Mountain. We picked a line up the west side of Boom Mountain. We started with some steep skinning. Soon the snow had a very hard sun crust. Maybe 200 metres of skinning up, the snow became rock hard and too hard to skin up. Since we didn't bring ski or boot crampons, or an ice ace; we chose to bail. We stopped for a quick lunch at the col, great views to Mt. Quadra. On our descent, we got in one short section of excellent powder skiing just below the col. Below this slope, we found a ski track descending an avalanche slope. We followed this down to valley flats and quickly found our up track. No summit, but some great exercise and enjoyed a beer with John in the parking lot before heading home. Great day out. 

At col, looking straight up the west end of Boom Mountain.
I wanted to ski/climb up this slope to gain the upper summit ridge.

John starting up the lower slope of the west end of Boom Mtn.
Very soon the snow got rock hard and steep.

The beautiful Mount Quadra from the col.
I have wanted to climb the north face of Quadra for decades.
Hopefully one day.

The small patch of great skiing we had.

On descent from the col we found tracks dropping in this avalanche gully.

The impressive north side of Mt. Whymper.
There were at least two parties skinning up the big slope on the right.
And old ski tracks coming down from the cool small snow col just right of centre.

Cold day, mostly in the shade all day.
Temperature about -20C all day.