Headway Systems: Bow Hut

This might possibly be the last ski of the season but it is the last overnight trip for the Norseman. We started at the Num-Ti-Jah parking lot and headed across Bow Lake with full packs on our backs.
Gordon and Franz having a chuckle in the parking lot. We'll see if they're still laughing after a couple hours of carrying heavy packs.			The trip starts by heading across Bow Lake and heading left up through the canyon.
Hans heading up through the canyon.			Looking at the icefalls off of Bow Glacier.
A great view of the Vulture Glacier overhanging the cliffs.
I don't think there was anyone who wasn't extremely happy to unload their packs by the time they reached the hut. It was a very warm day and with the added indulgences, like beer and wine, it was a relief to drop the packs. We spent the afternoon skiing on the glacier just above the hut. Day 2. We had a couple of different destinations in mind for today so part of the group roped up to climb Mt. St. Nicholas and Mt. Olive while the others skied up to Mt. Gordon.

Here's our group getting ready to head to St. Nicholas. Starting from the right is Ian Graham our leader for today, Inge Stolz, Carol Guthrie, Roy Scarisbrick, and Franz Dopf.			Roped up and heading for St. Nicholas

Here we're heading for the col between Nicholas and Olive			Ian and Inge with Nicholas in the foreground

Ian with the impressive Nicholas behind.			You can see the track leading along the right edge of Nicholas which we'll follow to the summit.

Roy and Franz with Mt. Olive behind them.

It was a pretty easy walk up until this point. From here we've got a steep scramble up to the summit. Still roped together, Ian and Inge are above me and Roy and Franz are following behind me.
This is taken from the top of St. Nicholas. You can see the route we took from the col as we traversed along the ridge edge to the summit. We'll retrace out steps to the col and then climb up to Mt. Olive. You can also see Mt. Gordon to the west where the other Norseman spent part of the afternoon basking in the sun.
A happy group on top of St. Nicholas
MT. OLIVE
A panoramic view looking south to Mt. Olive with Mt. Gordon on the right.
Back at the col again we had our lunch and prepared to head up Mt. Olive.			Ian and Inge.
Roy checking the views.			Carol.
Ian standing next to a very large cornice. A good reason to be roped up. We offered to dangle him over for a look.
Ian, Inge and Roy from our view point on Olive. The true summit is further to the west.			Carol and Roy.
Roy and Carol with the actual summit of Mt. Olive behind. You can also see where the Balfour Hut is and the continuation of the Wapta Traverse.
Looking down the valley you can see the highway and Bow lake where we started from the previous day.			Inge preparing to head down.
Inge	Roy carvin' back to the hut. Ian
We had a great ski down along the east side of Nicholas before heading over to the main slope and back to the hut. It was a truly awesome day. This was about my 5th time to Bow Hut but the first time I had decent visibility.

The group enjoying some appies before dinner and cards after dinner.
We had a full hut of about 30 people but with dry conditions the drying racks weren't too bad. On previous trips with wet weather you couldn't move with all the clothes and equipment hanging up to dry. There's nothing else like the smell of wet clothing and mountaineers' socks drying while you eat your dinner. Good thing.

Back row: Steve Riggs, Franz Dopf, Inge Stolz, Ian Graham Front row: Brian Dechene, Barb Davis, Hans Stolzenberg, Carol Guthrie, Gord Antonello, Roy Scarisbrick, Donna Findlay, Joanne Riggs.

Somebody's got to do it!		Even the gloves were supplied.
People cleared out of the hut pretty early on Sunday leaving dirty dishes and messy counters but worst of all, an outhouse barrel that needed changing. Ian graciously offered to change the barrel only to find that it wasn't that bad. The room below the outhouse has been renovated making barrel changing very easy. What was once a fairly messy and difficult job is now a breeze. Our plan for the day was to descend down below the hut and then up onto Crowfoot Mountain. After navigating down through the wicked crud that had frozen overnight and dealing with very poor visibility we decided to call it a day and head for the cars. We'd had two very excellent days, so why spoil a good thing?
Standing outside of Num-Ti-Jah lodge after coffee's and beer we prepared to drive back to Calgary.		Hans broke his binding the first day but with a little ingenuity and duct tape he managed to ski the whole weekend. Congratulations to Hans for skiing 70 days on the year of his 70th birthday. That's a full time activity!