Stage I Complete

Finished! We completed Stage I at 20:00 on the 30th of April. 4 hours behind our expected schedule.

Our venture towards the glacier began with the long haul from Sunwapta Falls to Athabasca Crossing campsite. A trip of only 15km, but took us 12 hours. We would have been even slower, had we not converted the bag containing the canoe into a make-shift sled and had me pull that rather than carry it. Deep, warm, slushy snow had us snowshoeing at an incredibly slow pace, and rain all day did not help. Just a few km away from our campsite, a large thunderstorm broke in the valley above us, drenching us from head to toe.

We rested the second day to gather our strength and try to dry as much of our clothing and equipment as possible. A tough task as it rained all day again. We could hear the large ice floes in the river cracking, collapsing, and being pushed down the river grinding against each other; a horrible noise as we were hoping to use these to travel for almost the next week.

Pushing on to the glacier, we spent the next 2 days heading South down the Athabasca Valley on snowshoes. There were sections of thick ice on the river which helped us a great deal as we could avoid the dense bush and woodland on the side of the valley and use the river to move along using ice bridges to move between floes. We did spend a great deal of time falling through river edges, creek beds, thin ice and deep snow. On one occasion, whilst breaking trail, Vicki fell through the ice at the edge of an embankment wedging her foot and snowshoe underneath the ice, water and riverbank as the current pushed against it. For some time, her foot was underwater as when I initially moved to help I fell in almost to the same point. Climbing out, I was able to use the snow-shovel to dig out the surrounding snow and reach underwater, finally freeing her foot after some time. It took even more time after that to get the snow-shoe out. All (rather frequent) occurances like this kept our pace slow, our feet soaked and freezing, and our morale a little low.

We camped a little before the glacier as we arrived late and preferred to head there first thing in the morning rather than during a storm at night. A large thunderstorm broke once again above us. Cold air coming down the valley and very warm wind blowing off the glacier (which seemed the wrong way round at the time…) kept the rain coming, the and wind buffeting our tipi for most of the night. Avalanches from the mountainsides around us (some rather disconcertingly close to our site) woke us frequently. The following morning we hiked to the glacier. It had been hard to find water, as the whole area was more of a desert than what I had epected to find. Rocks, more rocks, and a few small spruce trees were all to be found. We arrived at the lake at the bottom of the Columbia Glacier early in the morning. Original plan of swimming in this was quickly cancelled as it was frozen. The view was spectacular; high rock walls to our left with frozen waterfalls cascading down, the glacier appearing to surge into the lake ahead of us, and the high peaks of Mount Columbia and Mount King Edward to our right, with snow and ice of the Columbia Icefields creeping over the edges. It was a great beginning to a very long day.

After the glacier, we hiked (no longer requiring snowshoes; the ice and snow was melting so fast) almost the entire length of the valley to get close to Athabasca Crossing campsite and our canoe. 30km in 12 hours. Unfortunately, with the ice and snow melting so quickly our original route along the river was now impossible; the ice bridges had collapsed into the river, the river had risen, and the snow had melted leaving a quagmire of waterlogged ground along the edge of the river through the dense woodland our only route.

The following day we reached our cached canoe to find the bag we had stored it in had been ripped apart and the paddles toppled. Bear-tracks were found around it and Tallak went crazy each time he smelt the bag. Unbelievably, and amazingly fortunately for us, whilst the bear had ripped apart the bag covering everything, he had left the unbuilt canoe completely intact. This could have ended our trip rather early…

 

The canoe back to Jasper was fraught with danger, excitement and the occasional sense of impending doom. Rocks jutting out from within the river, rock gardens and rapids around almost every corner, and the obligatory haystacks to keep the water in the canoe were mandatory. For the most part, we negotiated all this very well, the low water level keeping us on the edge of our seats. It took us a total time of 19hrs to canoe from Athabasca Crossing campsite to Jasper; more than double the time it has ever taken us before. It took us over 3 hours just to portage Athabasca Falls. There is a steep canyon section just below the Falls which is a Class III and deservedly so. High haystacks, narrow chutes of fast moving water between canyon walls and rock ledges all create their own challanges. The water was so narrow between canyon walls it was hard to backpaddle enough to slow the boat any, and we ended up rocketing through the canyon until the bow was caught in an Eddy just in front of a large rock. Spinning us completely around and depositing us (almost throwing us out) into a tiny Eddy at the bottom of a sheer rock wall. Thankfully there were some large rocks underwater so I could get into the water and we could turn the canoe around and facing the correct way. Without those rocks under the water I do not know what we would have done. We managed to get out by packpaddling pressed up against the rock wall until we could go no further, pushed out and ferried past the rock and Eddy.

 

The rest of the canoe to Jasper was almost as eventful, Hardisty Creek, just at the bottom of the canyon was a huge boulder ledge with a powerful creek running into the side of it. With nowhere to run though, we had to heave, push, pull and shove the laden canoe across the slippery rocks and through the deep powerful current before we could put in after in a calm spot. A portage, another 2 sections of rock garden we had to haul the canoe through by Beckers Chalet and we were home, arriving at Old Fort Point on the South Edge of Jasper. Grateful after a long and continuous 10 hours of tough and technical paddling.

Our thanks to Koshi & Mami for waiting so patiently to collect us from Old Fort Point.

Stage I complete. In 2 days we shall put the canoe back in the water at Old Fort Point and continue on our way to the Arctic and Tuktoyaktuk, our final destination.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *