One of the habits I’ve tried to stick to over the years is to have at least one ski trip a year where I travel out of my home mountain range. I love the Sea to Sky and still have plenty of nooks and crannies I haven’t skied yet, but stepping out of that comfort zone to explore other mountains will always refresh my appreciation for where I live.
Our season on the Coast has been good, but a tad underperforming. Storms have rolled through and dumped healthy amounts of snow, but we’ve also had weeks without any precipitation at all. And when conditions seem to be the same over and over, changing up the terrain can be just what skiers need to reignite the flame.
One stretch of mountains I’ve recently begun to explore is Rogers Pass. This stretch of highway through the Selkirk Mountains is home to some of the finest ski touring in the world, but like any amazing backcountry zone, it comes with caveats. Rogers Pass is also home to a busy stretch of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway. The massive concrete snow sheds and long tunnels shield vehicles and railroad cars from avalanches, but the area still requires constant avalanche mitigation during the winter. A team of Parks Canada avalanche technicians work with the Royal Canadian Artillery to knock down unstable snow using 105-millimetre howitzers, often closing the highway for hours (or days) at a time until the pass is considered safe for travel.
I’ll note the obvious here; the avalanche control performed by Parks Canada and the military is to make the highway and railway safe, not the backcountry skiing terrain. Navigating avalanche risk from ski touring is up to the skiers themselves. The added hazard of artillery means skiers have a lot of responsibility to keep themselves and others safe. Some slopes in Rogers Pass are prohibited from skiing altogether, since they require frequent control with explosives and/or their slide paths intersect the highway itself. A few areas are unrestricted and open to skiers all winter, where you are permitted to ski as long as the highway is open. Other zones are “winter restricted,” meaning they may open or remain closed on any given day depending on planned artillery gunfire. The Winter Permit program (managed by Parks Canada and enforced by park wardens and peace officers) requires every skier to take a short online course every season to clearly understand these closure nuances.
Adding to all the navigation of control hazards, Rogers Pass has some incredibly complex terrain. Glacier travel is required in most alpine areas. Couloirs are long and steep (just what expert skiers want) but come with their own caveats of rocky, wind-loaded entrances and slide paths that point you straight into terrain traps. There’s also the hazard of plenty of other people, which requires solid communication within and sometimes between groups.
The closest towns to Rogers Pass are Revelstoke and Golden, and while the drive from Revy is a couple of hours shorter, I’ve found myself basing out of Golden the last couple of trips, for a few reasons. First, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort is the perfect warmup for skiing in Rogers Pass. It has quick gondola access directly to the high alpine at 2,347 metres, where you then have your pick of sharp ridges with dozens of double-black chutes. There’s plenty of hikeable side country to get the lungs and legs prepped, all leading to rowdy, no-nonsense lines. There’s a reason the Freeride World Tour stops in Kicking Horse—the terrain kicks ass.
The other bonus is your Epic Pass gets you a handful of days at Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, which Kicking Horse is a part of. There’s also plenty of bargain-priced accommodation in Golden if you want to keep your road trip costs down.
When it’s time to hit the Rogers Pass, planning is essential. Groups need to strongly consider the winter restriction closures, the weather and the Avalanche Canada bulletin before choosing from the vast amounts of available terrain. The Rogers Pass Discovery Centre (where you need to stop on your first day to get your Parks Canada pass) has plenty of great map and terrain photo resources you can use. Unless you’re skiing with a guide or someone experienced in the area, I would recommend keeping it conservative your first few days. Rogers Pass has an inter-continental snowpack, meaning large amounts of mostly dry snow, on average about 10 metres a year at treeline.
That all sounds wonderful, but looming instabilities such as buried crusts and facet layers—as well as surface instabilities like storm and wind slabs—are a constant threat. Skiers in the B.C. Interior have a lot more respect for the snowpack, always wary of when it can catch you off guard with devastating consequences. This is not the Coastal snowpack that often seems to settle out after a few days before you can send it down whatever you want.
While the alpine weather didn’t cooperate on this trip to Rogers Pass, I still managed to get some great skiing in long treeline gullies with the sun intermittently poking out for mesmerizing views of Mount Sir Donald and the surrounding Selkirk Peaks. Every day I ski in Rogers Pass I’m learning and cautiously grow more confident in skiing this Canadian treasure.
Vince Shuley is already planning his next ski trip to Golden and Rogers Pass. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider, email [email protected] or Instagram @whis_vince.
