Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

April 15-16, 2022

2509m

Pemberton Icecap, BC

“Torah Peak” is the unofficial name given to a deep and remote summit in the heart of Pemby Icecap that also boasts over 300 m prominence. This peak is almost entirely glaciated on all sides. Using a snowmobile to sled a few hours in from Rutherford FSR is pretty much the only logical way of getting in. With some experience one can sled over 50 km each way and get to within an hour or two’s skinning to the summit of “Torah Peak”. There are some other methods of getting in for those without a snowmobile including a traverse up and over Exodus Peak from the south, but all of those would be multi-day fairs. I’m only aware of one group that summitted this peak sans snowmobile.

This peak was the primary objective when Eric and I sledded onto Pemby Icecap but we were a bit too optimistic about the sledding parts. After “Appa Peak” and Longspur Peak we realized we might not even have enough fuel for the whole mission. Running out of fuel on a remote icefield would not be an option, so we parked the sled and shouldered the overnight gears. We traversed over “Famine col” and tagged “Famine Peak” in mostly a white-out and then traversed to a key shoulder/col on the west side of “Famine Peak”. From there we would locate a key passage to connect to the main glacier of Pemby Icefield.

As soon as it made sense we ripped off the skins and started the 300+ meters of skiing down onto the icefield. The upper 1/4 had some challenging wind-affected snow but the lower slopes were much more sheltered and preserved some top quality powder. Even I was able to make easy turns even with the overnight pack. We rejoined the snowmobile tracks after descending onto the icefield and skid/skinned a few more kilometers towards “Torah Peak” before calling it a day. The evening was very cold but thankfully I had brought the trusty -32C Western Mountaineering Puma GWS bag for the night. Eric did the tent job while I played with the Reactor to melt snow. The fuel canister would go dead after a few minutes due to the coldness but we found a way or two to keep it running for the needs. Eric’s tent was a strong one, but not very spacious for the two of us, so the sleep was not very comfortable. I always thought my BD Hilight was the tightest 2-person tent but now I’d slept in a tighter one. There’s no way to get out of this tent without significantly disturbing the other’s sleep.

We were tired so didn’t manage to wake up until 8 am in the morning and it was still brutally cold outside. Thankfully the sun beams were shone on us so the stoke level was high. None of us needed to cook anything in the morning so we quickly got going. I had brought some dehydrated meals (does not need to be booked) from a potential new sponsor to test them out and it was awesome. This really saved me from having to cook the ramen in the morning, which could be a real pain in this cold. We roped up for the ascent of “Torah Peak” as this peak had some large crevasses on the satellite images, even though most of the crevasses were filled in with the April’s snowpack. We followed the sled tracks for another 2-3 km before leaving them for our objective. The sled tracks all went northwards and stopped at a weird location with some flags probably for helicopters to land, so we suspected that must be a secret ice cave. However, peak-bagging took priority over curiosity.

Eric and I then took turns breaking trail up the north slopes linking up several obvious ramps. The route-finding was straightforward but the slog was never-ending and extremely monotonous. I had to call for one food break after about 3 hours of non-stop skinning. The summit started to seem “close” but we still had to ascend/traverse a few rolls and bumps to get there. Once skinning onto the final summit ridge we were greeted by some fierce and cold winds, that despite the awesome views we could not linger too long up there.

The skiing on the upper route was mostly on wind-affected snow but the slope angle was gentle enough that I had no issue making some turns. And then the lower slope was a long but fun run. The few flat and slight-uphill stretches were annoying but other than those we had a blast descending to the icefield. Eric was keen to check out that secret ice cave while I was not interested in. I said I would ski back to camp to wait and lazily pack things up and a few minutes later Eric also decided to just ski back to camp. I hadn’t checked the time yet so I naively thought we still had enough time for another objective, as otherwise I probably wouldn’t be too opposed to that 2-3 km detour. People pay massive bills to helicopter companies to check that thing out so it had to be good.. Once back to camp we realized that it was almost 1 pm so we would be lucky to have enough time to slog back to the sled before dark, let along to bag another peak… While packing the overnight gears I also melted more snow and cooked the Ramen. I had brought that for breakfast but it also could be served as lunch. In about half an hour we were able to get going again.

The most direct way to get back to the sled would be to reverse what we did a day earlier on “Famine Peak” area but such was complicated. We decided to take the long way around following the sled “highway”. This would double the distance, but did not need much brain power. It was a massively long plod to the “divide point” on the main icefield which is also the prominence col for Longspur Peak and from there we skied northwards down towards a frozen lake, losing over 300 m hard won elevation. We then wrapped around eastwards. The plod up the next glacier back to the sled would require over 500 m elevation gain and I was downright exhausted at this point. I could feel multiple blisters on each foot but the weather was closing in, the time was ticking and Eric was leading in front out of sight at times so I just had to suck it up and tough it out. Eventually Eric started to lead a short-cut to ascend the final 150 m to the snowmobile and the total distance we had covered on skis was about 34 km.

The weather had magically cleared although it was still overcast. We got our visibility window to sled up and over that broad pass near “Appa Peak” so we had to hurry up for it. About halfway up that 300-m regain we somehow lost the balance and Eric started to sled horizontally. I had to jump out of the sled to prevent it from flipping. Eric eventually regained the balance but I had to post-hole a ways up the slopes to get back onto the sled. We then had no further issue traversing over that high shoulder down onto Appa Glacier. The long descent was a tiring game for me as there’s nothing to stop me from sliding forward except for the piece of sling on the seat. I eventually found a way but grabbing tight to the sling but also fisting onto the seat. The worst riding was the section between the toe of Appa Glacier and the emergency shelter as the terrain was mostly not flat with some side-hilling and some steep rolls of descents. The descents were definitely the worst. We eventually got back to the groomed tracks. We were told the grooming was done for the season so the final 20-ish kilometer of riding was a bit bumpier than on the way in. With some rushing here and there we did manage to beat sunset to finish the trip and that was not bad at all.

The loading of Eric’s snowmobile took a while but we eventually also finished that and drove out of the FSR before dark. We then drove southwards to Whistler for a massive dinner in Splitz Grill before resuming the drive back to Squamish. I had some worries of my car parked in the McDonald’s parking lot but it was still there when we got back. I eventually got back home after 1 am in the morning.