Simpson Pass

Back in February, when I was planning the trip to Egypt Lake shelter, one discussion that came up was the possibility of having to take an alternate route up to Healy Pass due to avalanche hazards along the southeast face of Mount Bourgeau.

This alternate route starts from the top of the Wawa chair at the Sunshine ski resort, heads northwest past Twin Cairns, then eventually connects to the Healy Creek trail. The difficulty, however, is negotiating a long cliff band that sits between the resort and Healy Creek.

Fortunately, at the time, we did not end up having to take this route and find the break in the cliffs. However, I was curious about what this route entailed and figured it would be easier to find the correct path from the bottom.

Intersection near the E5 campground

Ray and I started by making our way towards Simpson Pass from the Sunshine parking lot. Apparently, there are some nice slopes in that area that can be skied. We did not make it all the way to Simpson Pass as the tracks we followed lead directly to the cliff band, which was considerably higher than the pass. Not wanting to lose elevation, we turned back and started traversing, looking for the break.

Looking back at the break in the cliffs. There is nothing here that distinguishes the area.

Finding the break in the cliffs was pretty straightforward. However, after getting to the top, there was very little to distinguish the area from the surroundings, so finding the spot would probably be difficult in the reverse direction. At least we know what it looks like, vaguely, in case the need ever arises.

Our first glimpse of the Sunshine resort (Continental Divide chair off of Lookout Mountain)

The rest of the way was quite straightforward, as we could see the Continental Divide chair off in the distance. There were some exposed slopes along the way, which in worse conditions we would avoid, and we eventually made it to the top of Wawa chair. We then enjoyed a somewhat scraped run down the ski-out back to the parking lot, free of charge!