Dolomite Peak Circuit Ski Tour

Great day of touring and a few turns on the wonderful Dolomite Peak Circuit with John, Colin and Mel on January 17. We had great visibility and even a few hot spots of blazing sun and blue sky. Fantastic day, we were about 6 hours for the tour, so much fun. The circuit circumnavigates Dolomite Peak with approximately 16.7 km of travel, over two high passes, with our second highpoint reaching about 2570 metres providing a trip gain of about 850 metres. As most parties, we parked one vehicle at the Mosquito Creek hostel parking lot, and drove the second vehicle to the Helen Lake parking lot and started our trip with a ski up Helen Creek. 

Once a few km's up the creek, the trees thin and you start to get great views. First high pass is just north west of Dolomite Peak giving great views towards Cirque Peak and the Bow Valley. 

John in Helen Creek.
Views start to open up.

Mel and Colin in Helen Creek.

The gorgeous Dolomite Peak from upper Helen Creek.

View to the Bow Valley with Bow Peak on the left and Crowfoot Mtn. on the right.

When we reached the first high pass the weather was calm so we had a quick snack and checked out the descent to Lake Katherine. We had a few nice turns as we descended to the Dolomite Pass area. Great views to Cirque Peak.

View back up to our ski down to Lake Katherine.
Standing on Lake Katherine when I took this photo.

View to Cirque Peak.

OSWB skinning across Lake Katherine.
Photo by Colin.

Mel and OSWB with Cirque Peak behind.
Photo by Colin.

After the lake, the wind picked up and the visibility was getting a bit lower.
A small drop just before the last push up to our high point just north west of Dolomite Peak.

Colin enjoying the downhill below the high point.

Heading down hill towards Mosquito Creek.

After the last high point was reached, we had a few good turns with great snow into the upper reaches of Mosquito Creek. The weather and wind flipped between nice and nasty a few times as we descended. We did one lap uphill to get some additional turns, but the cold wind sent us into the tree of upper Mosquito Creek. A well packed trail with tight trees took us back to the parking lot and the crowds of the highway. Very enjoyable day in the hills. 

John heading into the trees in upper Mosquito Creek.