Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

April 13, 2025

2721m

Pemberton, BC

Xinran (Clair) and I had just climbed Mt. Matier so when the weather lined up nicely for two weekends in a roll we naturally thought about making an attempt at Joffre Peak. I had climbed the pair back-to-back more than 9 years ago so the history was repeating itself. I have to say again that I do NOT repeat peaks but Xinran’s my girlfriend and therefore has that privilege for me to make exceptions. Xinran had been wishing to climb Joffre Peak ever since she paid her first visit to the area last year in August, at the time being just a hiker for Joffre Lakes. I myself, did not get any view on my solo climb of Joffre Peak back in Jan. 2016 so there was another reason for me to go back up there besides helping my girlfriend to achieve her dream and/or improve her snow climbing techniques. The weather was perfect but the fresh snow combined with the afternoon heat in this time of a year would surely raise some concerns later in the day for a SW-facing route, so the plan was to do the entire approach at night. Harry joined the team and we together decided to meet in Squamish at 2 am. Xinran and I had opted to car-camp for simple reason to spend more time together.

I somehow was unable to fall asleep so I spent a good part of an hour to study mathematics in the middle of the night. I unfortunately was still not able to sleep as the back of the Subaru was getting quite hot. The three of us met in Squamish as planned at 2 am and left Harry’s vehicle behind at the Apron’s parking lot. I then sped us up north and we were the first group parked at the Joffre Lakes parking lot. In January 2016 I had taken the Anniversary Glacier approach but it seems like most parties nowadays take the Joffre Lakes approach. I didn’t mind a change in the scenery and this approach is also considerably shorter. Harry led us dashing down to the first Joffre Lake in a blistering pace but I quickly took over the lead once the grade picked up. I had opted to carry most of the group gears so it’s better if we took the pace more conservatively. About halfway between the lower two lakes I had to stop to don snowshoes for the added traction. The trail was incredibly icy and it was not possible to just bootpack my way up. Xinran had been wearing the microspikes and Harry donned his snowshoes right from the trail-head. It was still in the pitch dark when we arrived at the upper lake and we were greeted by some cold breezes coming down from Matier Glacier. From the far end of the upper lake we started to break our own trail on the climber’s right side of that gigantic moraine. There were signs of previous traffics but the recent dump of snow had erased all existing tracks. The side-hilling was not very pleasant and neither were the cold winds.

This entire stage involved over 600 m elevation gain and was very foreshortened, but was not as steep/unpleasant as I remembered from my Spetch/Hartzell trip in 2017. The snow was much softer and that made the side-hilling more tolerable. There’s one steep roll to overcome underneath Matier Glacier and Harry broke trail for the entire way up it. I stayed back with my girlfriend and we regrouped at the edge of the glacier. It was cold and windy and we were still in the shades, but we took our time donning harnesses and roped up for the glacier travel ahead. There was no existing track on Matier Glacier and I didn’t mind to play more cautiously. This roping up process took a long while but eventually it was my turn to lead us a few kilometers across the flat-ish glacier to the base of the Aussie Couloir. Looking back we could see one fast group of 3 snowshoers slowly closing in the gap, but they were unable to catch up to us when we ascended our way into the Aussie Couloir. That group turned out to have two people that we knew, and was gunning for Mt. Matier instead. In fact, another group appeared on the edge of the glacier and was going after Mt. Hartzell, and I also knew at least one person in that group.

As promised I would be keeping Xinran roped up with me the entire way up and down the technical climbing and the roping up process always took some time. Harry had originally planned to follow us from behind since he also had never climbed a steep snow route for such a long distance, but he eventually decided to go ahead. This was good because the trail-breaking was very heavy in the couloir with sections up to thigh deep. Without Harry’s work we would have taken much longer time. Harry ended up breaking trail the entire way up to the top-out but Xinran and I were not that far behind. Looking back we could see the three fast climbers on Mt. Matier got themselves into some awkward positions and subsequently at least 10 climbers/skiers got stuck in the wrong route. They eventually sorted themselves out but it took at least an hour, so we were able to top out Joffre Peak first. The only steep section was the upper “fan” which lasted for about 50 vertical meters, with grade exceeding 45 degrees but not by a lot. The lower route had lots of sections that I could plunge down facing outwards in the current conditions, and it never felt too exposed. I led us traversing the corniced ridge to the true summit staying far on the climber’s left side. I was glad to be able to see something this time, as the views were rather incredible. I was inside the ping pong ball for the entire climb back in Jan. 2016.

As we slowly made our way back to the couloir’s top-out we noticed a bunch of skiers (at least 8 of them) bootpacking up the couloir, and several of them were able to recognize me out. I had thought about the strategy of the descent and had decided for Xinran to do single strand, 60 m rappel to bypass the steepest section in the upper funnel. Harry would downclimb beside her and I would dissemble the anchor afterwards and downclimb to them. This worked out but was far from being efficient, and not to mention this was Xinran’s first ever rappel. We then decided to down-climb with me short-roping Xinran from above. By this time the skiers had already finished tagging the summit and had started skiing down the couloir, and sure enough a small avalanche came down and got Xinran and I swept. I was able to get out of the way but got pulled off immediately by the rope, and we kept tumbling and sliding for at least 50 vertical meters before I finally was able to stopped the fall. I lost the backpack, the ice tools and gloves along the way so the arresting was done by bare hand “cat clawing” on the snow, and my hand sustained some degrees of injuries but nothing severe. A while later Harry down-climbed to my position and helped me setting up a deadman anchor so I could transfer Xinran’s load to the anchor. Xinran was not able to move as there’s a ton of snow on herself and the rope was kept really tight. I then down-climbed to Xinran as quickly as I could and got her sorted out. Nobody got really hurt so we could walk out ourselves. The decision was then made to wait for all of the skiers to go down first, and they would keep an eye on my lost gears. Other than the backpack we were able to retrieve all other gears in the immediate vicinity.

Using an obvious rock anchor I made Xinran to do another single strand, 60 m rappel and meanwhile I told Harry to downclimb as quickly as possible to get out of the couloir, as there’s no need for him to take the added risks with us. I then altered techniques among lowering, short-roping or simply pulling her from above controlling the speed, and we eventually got ourselves down the Aussie. There was a secondary small slide coming down but I was able to arrest the fall again, and this time we lost Xinran’s sunglasses. Thankfully all of the gears were retrieved at the very bottom of the couloir, including my backpack that contained the car key. The rest of the descent was uneventful and despite all of the drama in the couloir, we were able to finish car-to-car round trip in less than 12.5 hours. I even jogged most of the trail sections without traction. There were still groups of Mt. Matier by the time we got ourselves down the glacier, but our friends’ groups were already on their way down to the vehicle. While driving back I had to pull over to take a nap but then I quickly regained the strength. After dropping Harry off in Squamish we embraced the traffics and even earned ourselves time for a proper dinner in Richmond before going home.