Day 1 - Peyto Lake to Peyto Hut

Skiing across Peyto Lake at the start of the tour.

This was a 4 day trip completing the traditional Wapta Traverse. We stayed at Peyto Hut, Balfour Hut, and Scott Duncan Hut.

The famous Wapta Traverse (so far Canada's only Hut to Hut icefield traverse) has long been a goal of mine for when I could finally ski. This year I hoped that I had faked it till I'd finally made it enough to ski the traverse. So I signed up for an ACC event and was very honest in the questionnaire. I skied a trial run with the leader up Mount Haffner and got on the trip! After it was postponed due to avalanche hazard it felt a lot more like it would never happen, but then all of a sudden we were going!

This trip was very hard for me, not because it is a super epic trip (though to someone like me it is). It was hard because although I was just fit enough for it, I should have trained harder and been more fit. I should have got my GPS earlier and practiced navigating with it (so I understand how they work). And I should still have been a much better survival backcountry skier (with better skills in side-slipping, making tight turns in bad terrain, trusting your edges, and kick turns). But I still made it and isn't that great?!