I rounded up a few older VOCers for an easter trip to Sphinx Bay. I had never been for an extended stay and was so happy to have some nice friends to explore the area with! We packed 4 into my little blue tracker and headed to the rubble creek trailhead. Now I understand why glacier camps are held here …
After a leisurely start Friday we arrived at the hut just before dark. The lake crossing was awful, we plodded through ankle deep slush almost the whole time. It was great that I had read via the VOC the ice fishing trip report and so I knew the lake ice was still very thick. These are nice thoughts to hold closely when you are ankle deep in water in the middle of the lake.
Saturday, with a 7am start we went up ‘the corridor’ to climb Mt Carr and look for easter eggs. We didn’t quite make it because the area where you climb onto the North ridge was rocky, and the sun was beginning to hit the steep snow slope we were standing on. We walked over to take a look near the bookworms, ate lunch, and then skied the long descent on PERFECT snow back to the hut. We were so stoked.
Caro made us mint julips to celebrate and we set up a snow couch on the side of the lake. Will remarked, wouldn’t it be nice to watch someone struggle across the lake? At which point a party coming off the Neve did indeed begin to cross! We cheered them on. I read about prior VOC trips and then we all had an afternoon nap. We didn’t find eggs, but some did come out at dinner time.
The next day, some of us rested, some of us opted to skate the lake in the morning, and Will and I went to check out Guard and Deception. We bookpacked up Guard from the col and turned around when the scrambling got tough, then we skied to the summit of deception and skied out the deception glacier, again on perfect snow. We were completely blown away by this descent.
Pictures by Laurent
Caro leading us to the Bookworms
Admiring our the lines from the hut, bookworms in middle left.
We approached the skate across the lake with much trepidation but with the skies slightly overcast on Sunday the lake was in perfect shape for skating! We rejoiced in our luck.
With the last crux complete I was wearing a large grin as we looked down the barrier. There was much more dirt than snow so we opted to ‘ski’ the switchbacks.
Here are more of Laurent’s great pictures
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lroberge/sets/72157677861896947/