For many a mountain junkie in the dark months of winter who enjoys craves compulsively obsesses over sliding long metal and plastic planks across snow, the 2023-2024 season for much of North America has been a test of patience. After a few weeks back from Japan smugly stating that I had had my fill at the all-you-can-eat pow buffet of Hokkaido, with everything else this season purely a bonus, reality kicked back in and it was clear that was a blatant lie, as I was in need of a good day in the mountains.

Ski season comes with a lot of hype: spent money on gear, trip plans, objectives added to the lists. But you are completely helpless when a bad ski season hits, and besides jumping on an expensive flight, all of your spent energy on your desire to shred is just a call out into the empty void.

Jem Morrison and I had been trying to get out for some kind of mission since we crossed paths through mutual festival scene groups a few years back. Avid rock climber, skier, as well as a key local member of various Burning Man collectives including the silly party pirates of the Boobs and Berries crew. A Venn diagram alignment I’m always appreciative of between these two distinct and seemingly distant life pursuits.

He had purchased a new propane heater for his camper and wanted to drive it up the Duffey Lake road and hit some kind of ski objective, with the secondary objective of testing out whether the heater was working reliably.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

View of the Joffre (front) and Matier (rear) from the Duffey Lake highway

For our ski objective, we had our sights on a classic peak that he had summited once before, and I had only looked at and dreamed of: Mt. Matier. Though its comparably lofty neighbour, Mt. Joffre, gets a bit more of the hype due to its popular lakes, gnar town ski lines, and sometimes-a-tad-crumbly North face, Matier stands a cool 52 meters higher at 2783, and is the highest peak in the core region of the Duffey Lake mountains popular for ski touring and mountaineering.

Our journey was inspired by a recent attempt to climb adjacent Mt. Joffre, documented by the Southwest Peak Baggers group on Facebook. Shout out to this wild bunch who seem to generally abhor the idea of long planks connected to their feet; anathema to their love of plodding through deep snow in boots and sometimes snowshoes to climb as many unique peaks as possible while missing out on all of the fun sliding back down them (Yes, I am aware glissading is a thing, nerd).

I kid of course, just a bit of friendly cross sport trash talk. Big respect for their drive as they put up some massive days. The beta and info they post regularly far surpasses the often dumpster fire of the South Coast Touring page, though there are some great regular contributors there too, along with the barrage of both top and bottom shelf trolling.

#makeSCTLeeLauAgain #Duffeypoopgate2020

Truth be told we ended up having to take a page from the peakbagger playbook anyways, and due to low snow conditions, ended up walking the first 6km on foot with boards/skis on our backs, almost all the way to Keith’s Hut. Wild for mid-Feb. The Anniversary Glacier was a mess of exposed moraines and wet snow avalanches, which meant it was mandatory to take up and return on the high route above the hut along the upper bench to the spot known as Motel 66, which would be an incredible base camp beneath the imposing slopes of Mt. Joffre.

Looking up towards the Joffre slide. Apparently they are expecting another similar collapse of another massive buttress. Kinda scary place to be! https://gripped.com/news/major-alpine-climbs-on-north-face-of-joffre-peak-collapse/

Classic Duffey early season alder bashing… in February

“Motel 66”, looking up at the summit pyramid of Matier in the back.

From there, we traversed over onto the glacier proper, and ascended the gradual slopes and switchbacks up to the Joffre-Matier Col, below towering walls on either side.

We had brought our glacier gear, but didn’t end up needing the rope and harness in the end, as conditions were as reported with a decent snowpack up high. We were able to skin above the col to around the 2550 meters where there was a flatter bench to transition to crampons and ice axes for the steep 47+ degree climb to the top. The snow conditions were great for kicking steps and the exposure didn’t feel overly imposing, and so it made for an exhausting but solidly type 1 fun climb.

Easy travel up the Anniversary Glacier. Cruisy classic low angle glacier turns were beautiful on spent legs for the return trip.

Preparation for the final push at the Matier-Joffre Col. Slalok in the back.

Steep, and in parts exposed, bootpack to the summit from 2550m. Snow was soft with easy purchase made the climb feel solid and secure.

Steeeeeep! Glad we didn’t return this route, as Jem did on his previous summit.

At the Matier summit!

Mt. Joffre, with the incredible “Aussie Couloir” splitting the SW face.

Joffre, Matier Glacier, and Middle/Lower Joffre Lakes below.

The views were incredible, seeing as far as Mt. Baker to the south, and a massive swath of the beautiful coast range we know and love. I’ve spent many days on and around the local peaks of this region, and so it was special to get to look down on this incredible range from this long dreamed about vantage.

We tried to get eyes on the classic ski descent of the Northwest Face, which drops down the far side, hoping things looked promising. A ski/board back down the way we came on the exposed steep face would have been much scarier as a fall would definitely send you over the lower cliffs, with the pitch significantly steeper than the ~45 degree NW face.

After quick investigation, fortunately things were looking solid, with a short down climb on wind hammered rime that made up the entire windward side of Matier’s summit, and then we were strapping into skis and boards, ready for the fun part.

Spicy down climb on the wind hammered Matier summit to access the skiing on the northwest face

A look back up to the summit and the beautiful consistent pitch of fantastic skiing on the NW face

The skiing was surprisingly excellent, not even just for this shiite season, but actually pretty good for a higher alpine line. We took a long awkward traverse back to the Joffre-Matier col where I quickly boarded the pain train to the all-to-familiar destination splitboarders often visit when on a big day out with a skier, cursing the deficiencies of my chosen toolset. Though it was quick work to regain the Joffre/Matier Col for the return descent.

The stoke was extremely high between me and Jem at this point, that buzzing energy of adrenaline and excitement felt after a day well spent in the mountains. Those Peakbaggers are definitely onto something: summiting truly is a wildly spiritual experience. Maybe they do actually have their priorities in order…?

A beautiful, friendly cruise of low angle glacier skiing in shin deep powder on the upper Anniversary Glacier answered that question very quickly. Snow surfing really is just so fucking fun!

That fun ended very abruptly - a shockwave reminder of the 2000+ meter freezing levels and heavy rain that ravaged southwest BC over the previous weeks. I’ve written this in the past, but the adage about the best mountaineers having the worst memory comes into play at this point, and the melt/freeze crust ski, alder bashing, and exhausted march out, are probably all best forgotten.

We returned to Casa De Jem for après-ski beers and chili, hastily eaten in an attempt to replenish the approximately 4,900 calories my watch indicated I had consumed that day. Regrettably, the atmosphere was slightly diminished due to the aforementioned fact that the star of the show, the shiny new propane heater, was not staying lit. Fortunately it was pretty toasty in there from our body heat and the heater’s earlier operation, and I had brought my winter sleeping bag as insurance against this possibility, so comfort was not a concern.

Nevertheless, he was eager to diagnose the problem, and thus the great battle of the Jem v. thermocouple commenced.

Having sold my vintage Airstream, Winston, last fall, I relished the break from such maintenance that previously occupied much of my free time. Unable to assist with the heater, I ventured to Lower Joffre Lake for some night photography.

The conditions were far from perfect; it was hazy and pitch-dark, and my basic astrophotography skills and equipment fell short. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the complete solitude by the lake: sipping whiskey and observing the repeating lone hoot of an owl, gazing back up at the distant peak that we had stood upon earlier that day.

Mt. Matier

The Backyard Summit - Nch’Kay

Zen and the Art of Hokkaido Powder

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