Ski Divas

Just returned from 8 days deep in the heart of the Canadian Rockies (near Banff National Park) this past week.  Flew into Icefall Lodge from a staging area just 30km north of Golden, B.C. (near the Chatter Creek staging area), and then spent 20 minutes on an A-Star helicopter flying north into the Lyell Icefield region and Icefall Lodge, our drop off destination.

Heli coming into the Icefall Landing.

Main Icefall Lodge.

The goal of the trip was two fold.  First, to do a photo shoot with Doug Marshall.   And the second was to explore a new region and adventure for Ski Divas!

Once we arrived at the lodge we were oriented to what would be our home for then next week.  The new main lodge, the wood fired sauna, and "Ice Station Zebra"  the original lodge.  The entire operation was built by owner and lead guide Larry Dolecki.  His hard work and dream to create a hut system in one of most remote regions of the Canadian Rockies is surely coming to fruition. With a new satellite hut on the Lyell Icefield, and another hut in the works towards the south, I believe this will soon be one of the most majestic hut systems in the entire Canadian Rockies.

There was a big snow storm our first day in, which made for great skiing on the second day.  Lydia Marmont was the other guide during our stay at Icefall Lodge, and was our guide for the first few days.  Our first day we headed Northwest of the Lodge to the home run.

Headed up Home Run.

Approximately 1500 vertical feet into our ascent we backed off due to unstable slopes.  We then skiied back down to the lodge and headed one drainage system to the east up towards Portal Col and Mt La Clytte.

Top of Portal Col, great skiing into the north basin.

We logged approximately 8,000' of elevation gain on the first day, and got an excellent introduction to the region.

At night we socialized with the other folks who were there for the week.  It turns out I knew most of them through various ski connections (its a small world), including Ian and Doc from Mt. Baldy, B.C.  The social scene was always lovely, and provided endless entertainment on and off the slopes.