Page 8 - 2004 AMA Summer

A young officer's dream, the mapping of the Kananaskis Park was poor (the perfect excuse), contours did not accurately represent the ground and there was the slight oversight that cliff faces had not been marked on jhe map! We had numerous surprises^tnding severe features, blocking our path that should by rights have been clearly indicated on the map. Detailed map recces in conjunction with
a visual check solved most of these geographical surprises but
on our side entire expedition, when the tempera-
brought down with chill to -30”C we were
generally aided by bright blue skies and fresh powder snow. Although the snow proved great for skiing it did preclude us from conducting ice axe and crampon work at the lower altitudes.
We had three days of ski training, despite everyone having skied before we still struggled enormously with the downhill backcountry skiing, a very different discipline from on- piste skiing. Towards the end of the week we were combining walking and skiing. We had a successful, arduous ascent of Olympic peak and then a short descent down the Olympic run at Nakiska. The ascent was hard going in part due to a never-ending tree line that we
)uld not get above. The trees in tup tept dumping huge
mounds of snow on us every time a ski or bergen brushed a branch.
Fortress Ridge provided another excellent day of ski moun­ taineering, despite a significant
amount of sidestepping and tra­ versing. The descent from thè ridge, which looked wonderful,* was in fact through a heavily wooded area (not marked on the map!), the ground under the snow being littered with partially buried, felled trees. A few choice words from expedition
members and a couple of hours later and we arrived back at the bottom of the mountain covered in bumps and bruises.
A half day of rest and an oppor­ tunity to purchase provisions and we were off to face a week on the icefield. Thejj/Vapta Icefield provides* a fantastic skills ground to conduct further training whilst allowing an expe­ dition to bagi some/ rpagnificenf peaks. For more^^dventurous teams with a little more experi­ ence the Columbian Icefield
would be a more remote and interesting challenge. The Bow ascent is reasonable despite the fact it took us 2 hours to climb the last 800 meters (with 7 days of rations, skis and climbing kit, all in 2 foot of powder snow). There were some exhausted individuals that night when we thankfully reached the inviting steps of Bow Hut.
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Further training days on the ’ mountains provided a flavour for glacial mountain skills.
Crevasse rescue drijl^provided
A R M Y M O U N T A IINEER M
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