When Brett, Scott, Becca and I all decided on driving to Alaska for the summer of 2019, we immediately made plans to caravan up together and get in some late season skiing along the way.
Brett had been doing some research on a route called The Seven Steps to Paradise, one of Chris Davenport’s “50 Classic Ski Descents of North America,” near Roger’s Pass in Glacier National Park (the Canadian Glacier National Park). While I hadn’t had much time to research skiing in Canada living from my truck that spring, Miles and I had just completed Mount Whitney’s Mountaineers Route, and Mount Shasta’s Avalanche Gulch, which were both listed in the 50 Classics as well. Adding on a third ‘Classic Descent’ in less than a month sounded like a great plan to me.
The Seven Steps route begins at Young’s Peak, a 2,815-meter (9,236-foot) summit in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia. It involves roughly 5,000 vertical feet (1,575 meters, actually) of skiing from the summit back to Highway 1 near Rogers Pass.
While I was in California, Brett and Scott would be heading up from different parts of Colorado, meeting up somewhere soon after, and meet me over the border in Canada. Becca would coordinate with us a bit later for a majority of the drive as well.
Brett, Scott and I were all on track to meet up just over the border in southern British Columbia, but two days before I headed into Canada Brett called me up. He had been in a car wreck, and while luckily everyone was uninjured except some scrapes and bruises, his truck had been totaled.
Scott had been right behind him and they somehow managed to cram all of Brett belongings into Scott’s truck along with his own stuff, and retreated to a friends house in Bozeman, Montana. While dealing with insurance companies, Brett was trying to decide whether he could rent a vehicle to make the rest of the drive, or if he should buy something in Montana, or just fly to Alaska later on and have time to shop around. But then what to do with all of his things? Surely he couldn’t fly with everything he owned.
After a couple days he told Scott and I to go on ahead, so the two of us met up in Canada to start the drive. We still planned to ski in Roger’s Pass, hoping that Brett could get his stuff sorted out and drive up to meet us in time to ski the Seven Steps.
We managed to find a great spot close to Glacier National Park with a free campsite outside Golden, B.C., and drove there to wait for Brett and Becca. We managed to find a nice wide open spot by the river where all four of us could set up.
While we waited for the others, Scott and I headed into the Park to scout out the route and try to get in a half day of skiing. The weather wasn’t great and I forgot my skins back at camp, so we didn’t get any skiing in. We did get an updated weather forecast from the Park Rangers, though. It looked less than ideal for the upcoming week, with the exception of the next day. It would be a beautiful sunny day, followed by cold, blowing winds and heavy snow for the foreseeable future.
If we were going to ski the Seven Steps from the top of Young’s Peak as Brett planned, it would have to be the next day. Except Brett was still in Montana.
We called him up and told him the news, hoping beyond expectation he somehow could be on the road that night. No go. He had found a used Tacoma to purchase, but it had just come into the dealer and would not be ready for a couple more days.
While Scott and I were definitely going to ski the next day, we had hoped to save Young’s Peak for when Brett could join us. With the delays, Brett told us he would just have to meet us further north.
We were all bummed Brett couldn’t join us for the trip he had planned from the beginning, but Scott and I knew he would be angry at us for passing up such a perfect weather day to ski such an incredible line. Those opportunities just don’t happen too often.
So we decided to go for it.
The start of the route was a flat road covered in snow. It would be more than two miles before the incline increased significantly, so we made great time in the morning.
I should mention Scott is in much better shape than me, and he is an absolute machine on any uphill ski. I had been practicing a lot lately, so I was able to keep up for a while, but when things got steep I was lagging behind. Luckily I’m always able to pretend I’m stopping for photos, not just because I’m breathing hard.
Up in the valley, a few ski tracks lead in many directions, so it was more difficult to pick the path that would be best for us. Still, we only really got off route one time.
The tree covered ridge in the distance turned out to be our preffered ascent, following the ridge up to the Asulkan Hut, just out of view over the horizon on the right.
We made a sharp turn and skied across the valley to the correct area, and found another skin track to follow. Whoever set that track was going steep though, and Scott and I were both slipping on our skins trying to follow the trail. So we had to break our own, less steep trail for most of the hike. Or really, Scott had to. I was too far behind to worry about that for most of the uphill.
Over the ridge, we found the very inviting Asulkan Hut, which we knew little about but had seen on the maps. It was a hut for guided groups only, booked out in advance at the cost of a multi-day guided ski tour. That can’t be cheap.
The Canadian ski hut made the shelters we were used to visiting in Alaska look like a wooden box. Well, that’s kind of what they are up there! But this one was decked out with nice tables, bunk beds (with mattresses!), plenty of cookware, a nice heat system, and lots of style.
It even had a nice deck and seating for paying clients to sit and enjoy the surrounding scenery.
It was beautiful and inviting, but we had places to be, and would not be spending the night, so we got back on the trail and soon crossed onto the Asulkan Glacier.
As usual, Scott sped off into the distance, though he always stopped to wait for me before we ever got out of sight of one another.
We came near the end of the track we had been following, and could see the one previous person had transitioned in the middle of the steep headwall ahead of us. We could see by the tracks they had begun booting up the slope, stopped about a third the way up the steep bit, and skied down.
We had a discussion about avalanche conditions, and potential reasons the last person may have turned around where they did. Did he/she see something we didn’t and decide it was too risky to go on? Or were they simply out for a short day and they had to turn around just shy of the summit?
I told Scott based on what we read at the ranger’s station the day before, and what we had seen so far today, I had no reason to assume it was more risky than what we had done so far that day. I wouldn’t want to be booting up that slope in a few hours when things were super wet, but for now it seemed a reasonable risk to continue. However, we should keep our eyes open and be ready to make the same last minute call the other person did.
Scott said he was thinking the same, but wanted to make sure I was comfortable going ahead before saying anything. This is why I love skiing with Scott. He is an amazing partner to have around because he is always paying attention, and making sure everyone in the group is 100% on board with an idea. He’s never afraid to turn around for any uncertainty, even if he really wants to do something.
Both of us were glad we drew the same conclusions, and we pressed on. Like the previous skier, we strapped skis to our packs to boot up the steepest slope of the day. Scott reached the point the last person had turned back, and, seeing no reason to think it unsafe, we kept climbing. Scott was steadily pulling ahead of me even though he was now doing a lot more work, kicking steps into the untouched snow.
It was a short but tiring section, and from the top it looked to be a short cruise over to the proper summit.
Young’s Peak granted us incredible views of Glacier National Park, all the way back to the highway and into the Canadian Wilderness all around. There were glaciated peaks in every direction, and the next drainage over was the Illecillewaet Glacier that Lizzie and I had hiked to two and a half years ago.
We watched two skiers tackle a super steep line from a peak across the valley (the only other people we would see all day!), before clipping into our skis to start down.
The Seven Steps to Paradise run get’s it’s name because, starting from Young’s Peak, there are seven large rolling hills dropping into the valley below. Still, it maintains a fairly steady slope around 30 degrees. Steep enough to be plenty of fun, but not so steep to always be worried about avalanches. In addition, the lower angled slopes between rollovers grant plenty of safe areas to stop and wait for your partner(s) to make some turns.
It is easy to see why this is listed as one of the 50 Classics, it was an absolute blast to ski, though the long flat road out was a workout after such a long day!
We spent another night at camp and within two days Brett and Becca would find us and we would all begin the long drive north, with only one more short ski day before Alaska.
And now, Brett had a shiny new (used) Tacoma complete with camper shell and brush guard. That meant the three of us would all be riding through Canada in Tacomas, lead by Becca’s little Civic.