There is a bit of a ventilation problem at Burton Hut (aka Sphinx Hut). It seems we did too good a job sealing gaps and insulating the hut. Knowing this, John Sherk and I started scheming a workhike to add a vent. Finding a date for this was tricky, but eventually, we settled on the weekend of May 3rd, while the lake was still frozen. A touch late for a lake crossing, but there had been many positive reports in the past week. Kathleen Griffin had some time off during the week, so we decided to make the workhike more of a thing. We would start on Brohm Ridge, tackle Nch’ḵay̓, and then meet with John and company at the hut to do the work.
After driving most of the way up the Brohm Ridge FSR, Kat and I started skinning at a pleasant time. It was easy skinning, though the sun was baking us. We reached the Brohm pinnacle in the late afternoon. After dodging some crusty avalanche debris below it, we crossed under the pinnacle safely. We gained the ridge next to the glacier, and set up camp in a relatively snow free spot. What we should have realized is that there was no snow there because the wind had blown it all away. As the sun set, the winds started gusting to 50+ kph. Despite extensive efforts to set up camp, we realized we had to move it, or our tent would blow away. By now, the sun had basically set. We managed to find a reasonably sheltered wind lip which we dug a platform into. The tent got set up and gear carried down. The snow had gotten quite icy by this point. Kat went to get the last bit of gear and plopped it down on the slope next to the tent. Unfortunately, it was a bit too icy for that and half her splitboard went flying into the dark down the glacier. The mission had fundamentally changed.
Our campsite at sunset. Before the winds picked up.
Garibaldi in the background.
Knowing John was off-work the next day, we inreached him and asked him to come up the ridge with snowshoes if I couldn’t find the splitboard the next day. It seemed unlikely I’d find it, so I figured this made sense. The next morning, I got up at sunrise and skied down the glacier in the last known direction of the splitboard. I reached a steep roll and deemed it unwise to solo ski further, especially with no sign of the splitboard. I started traversing to find a good place to skin up. Then, I spotted it. The board was sitting on a 30 degree slope, holding on by a nubbin of ice that had caught on the binding. I gingerly skied under it, worried that any snow I would dislodge from above would knock it down all the way to Ring Creek. I grabbed it, and stuffed it into my bag. After an unpleasant transition on the steep and icy slope I skinned back to camp.
Returning with the splitboard.
We inreached John and told him to call off the snowshoe rescue. We would meet him back at the hut. John said that there were poor condition reports from the lake and that they were considering approaching at night and leaving at night. We said that we would investigate and report in. First mistake, we should have asked John for more info. It was too late for Garibaldi, and we were quite tired already, so we set off across the Warren Glacier towards the hut. As we started climbing, we realized that we had left Kat’s shovel blade at camp. Kat was buying a new shovel anyways, so we decided wouldn’t go back for it. Second mistake, made easy by us being tired and assuming we would have no more avy terrain to cross. If anyone happens to be doing Garibaldi or up around Brohm ridge, we would appreciate it if you took a look at 49.86025, -123.01918 for the blade.
Traversing the Warren Glacier.
After some uneventful skinning, we reached the glaciology huts and got our first look at the lake. Still looked frozen. After some careful first steps onto the lake, the top layer of snow was deemed supportive. To be cautious, I cut through the snow layer, past the slush, and used an ice screw to get the ice depth. 2.5+ in. Not great, but seemed fine on skis, especially given the supportive crust on top. Still, we steered well clear of creeks and the shore as we made our way towards the hut. After reaching the hut, we reported the ice reading to John. Out of an abundance of caution he decided to call off the workhike. We then decided to take it easy for the rest of the day, nap, and get ready for the way out tomorrow.
Measuring the ice thickness.
Kat skinning towards the hut.
I couldn’t quite sleep. It was hot, way too hot. I kept wondering what effect this would have on the ice. So, in the evening I went to take readings. Before I even stepped on the ice, things seemed off. The Sphinx Bay entrance had grown five times larger over the course of the day, and the small creeks that had been frozen were now flowing. My first step revealed another problem, the snow layer had turned fully into a slush layer, offering no support. Finally, the more worrying part was that the ice depth had decreased to only 1.5 in. A one inch loss in one day! I could now punch my ice axe through the ice in two swings. As it was a cloudy day tomorrow, there would be no refreeze tonight. The lake was out of the question.
We were now in a pickle. We couldn’t cross the lake, and both routes out from the hut (Gentian Pass or Sphinx Pass) involved crossing avalanche terrain with our now insufficient avalanche gear. We had seen evidence of a natural avalanche cycle from the recent heat that did not seem finished. Additionally, it looked like weather was moving in so there was possibility of a whiteout the next day. This seemed like a a pileup of circumstances that could lead to a very bad situation. The InReach came in handy here. We had some idea of how to do the Gentian Pass route, but didn’t want to attempt it in bad weather. We asked John to contact SAR just so they knew something would be up if we didn’t check in (turns out it’s hard to reach SAR, so this didn’t actually happen). Then, we conferred with him about best options. He consulted with Jacob Grossbard, Haley Foladare, and Jeff Mottershead. Then, he suggested waiting an extra day at the hut for good weather, and then exiting via Gentian. He would meet us at Panorama Ridge. With Jacob’s input, John sent us waypoints to enter into our maps. With Jacob’s waypoints and better weather, enough confounding variables were off the table so that we felt confident that we could make our exit if we waited a day at the hut.
The next day was quite relaxed given the circumstances. We had plenty of food as there were still leftovers from the construction project at the hut. If you visit the hut, help yourself. To kill time, we did some hut improvement. Notably, we moved the bookshelf over so you could see the books and also not hit your head on it when exiting the sleeping platform. We also added some barriers to the sleeping area upstairs so you can’t roll off into the ladder hole. Finally, I plugged some gaps that I had missed during the original construction. I also realized that the timer for the lights was broken and needs to be manually turned off lest it drain the battery. If you visit the hut, make sure to turn the lights off manually so the next people have lights too. Something to fix in a future workhike. We made a rice curry and headed off for an early sleep so we could get an early start the next day.
A new and improved location for the bookshelf.
We rose before dawn and started off. We contoured around the lake shore until we found a good spot to head up towards Gentian Pass. After a short, steep, bushwacky bootpack, we were in open terrain and were able to start skinning. The snow was firm and travel was easy. The steepest bit involved travelling up a gulley towards the pass. Kat transitioned to bootpacking, while I skinned on. We decided that tackling the pass directly would put us under cornices. Instead, we headed up the ridge to the glacier. There wasn’t much snow on the ridge and we had to bootpack. However, the views around us were stunning. The landscape was probably the best of the trip so far.
Contouring the lake shore. If only you could make it the whole way like this (you can’t).
A short and steep bushwack.
After cresting the ridge, we were able to transition and ski the glacier down. It was probably some of the best turns of the season. It had snowed a few inches of powder overnight onto a firm crust. We toured around the south side of Cinder Cone, trying to stay out of creeks. By this time it was very hot again and the snow had turned to slush, leading to some tricky sidehilling. There were some huge cornices hanging off of Panorama Ridge that we didn’t want to be under. Think 15+ meters in size. So, we crossed some creeks and chose a safe way to get up to the Panorama Ridge hiking trail. By this time, John had let us know he had spotted us and had brought his friend Jason Galbraith with him. We told him to feel free to summit while we had lunch.
Bootpacking up the ridge.
A selfie at the top.
We met up. John had graciously brought candy and Coca-Cola for us. We had a small feast and skied down together. It was easy going. John and I skied as far down the swtichbacks as possible, while Kat and Jason decided to transition in the meadows. Theirs was a more pleasant walk, ours was a more exhilirating ski. Eventually, we met back up at the fork in the trail and bootpacked down to the cars. I was thankful to have brought my speedcrosses for this.
Finally coming down the trail.
Overall, things turned out fairly well. We made a number of mistakes. Had we made more, things could have gotten much worse than having an extra day at a nice hut. We ended up recognizing our mistakes and mitigating them, but that doesn’t always happen. Having Ben’s inreach to talk with our friends in town was very useful for our decision making. Anyways, always do some measurements yourself before you cross the lake in late spring.