Rae Glacier

It's ski season! And this time, I mean it.

Last weekend, as Nicolas and I were coming down off of Grotto Mountain, we ran into a group of mountain bikers who claimed to have friends who had skied on Rae Glacier the weekend before. This sort of information could not go uninvestigated, so when I got home, I did a search of all popular early / late season backcountry ski destinations, and came up with the following list:

1. Rae Glacier
2. Parker Ridge
3. Bow Summit

Now, for those that are familiar with these areas, Bow Summit is far (past Lake Louise) and Parker Ridge is REALLY far (near the Columbia Icefields). Rae Glacier, on the other hand, is very easy access, especially as Highway 40 is open past Highwood Pass. I was going to have to go check it out!

Elbow Lake and the shoulders off of Mount Rae

At the parking lot, I ran into a group from Canmore who had the same intention as I - to ski Rae Glacier. I wasn't really sure what to expect, as I had never been there before, so joined up with them. So here we were, 6 people carrying skis on our packs, as we walked past Elbow Lake campground and a group of 15 girls taking some sort of backpacking course. They probably thought we were crazy, although they did see snowboarders doing exactly the same thing the day before.

Water levels going down, causing rocks to protrude out of the lake

There was a steady drizzle as we hiked up to Rae Glacier, but at times it turned to snow, which made things promising. We were certainly not going to be able to ski back to Elbow Lake, but as long as I could get a few turns in, I would be happy.

Group from Canmore taking a break

By the time we got to the glacier, there were heavy clouds all along the valley, obscuring our vision. However, we could hear rockfall from either side, so that was kind of exciting. The glacier itself is not very large anymore ... maybe a couple of feet thick at its deepest ... so crevasses weren't a concern. The bigger problem would be skiing around the rocks that littered the glacier. However, there was enough snow to get a few turns in, albeit on heavy slushy snow. Whatever ... I skied on September 19th!

Leaves changing colour