Ymir Peak

Be forewarned: This is a long blog post with lots of photos and video!!

Everybody who goes to Whitewater Ski Resort gazes up from the lodge to gorgeous Ymir Peak (pronounced why-mir). Although, not in bounds at the ski resort, Ymir is the King of the area. Ever since I moved to Nelson I've wanted to ski it. However, skiing Ymir takes you into fairly complex and big avalanche terrain. There had been a few opportunities to ski the peak earlier in the season, when stability was good, but I wasn't able to find a touring partner for those windows. Well, I convinced Steve to skip school today, because conditions were setting up great for a descent of Ymir. Fortunately for both of us my arguments proved persuasive.

Last Sunday was Whitewater's last day of full time operation. They are closed this week and will reopen this weekend for the last two days of the season. Normally, you could catch a ride up the lift and cut out about 1300 vertical feet of skinning. However, I'm much happier that this window presented itself when the resort was closed so we could really climb the peak without mechanical assistance. Steve and I pulled up to the parking lot just before 10:30 and began skinning up through the ski resort at 10:35am. Steve, in the parking lot, pointing at today's objective.



Here's a view of Ymir Peak. Our ascent route is in black. Descent route is in red.



Although neither one of us were feeling particularly quick today, we made good time and had the first 1350 vertical out of 2600 finished in the first 45 minutes. We gave ourselves three hours to summit, but it only took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Steve and I on the way up.



A view of the peak on the way up. We followed the steep corniced ridge/face leading up to the summit.



Steve skinning up the steep face.



Steve cresting the ridge.



Joshua almost at the summit.



Joshua on top.



Summit shot.



Summit Video.



We were going to ski directly off of the summit, but to get to Popcorn Ledge, the ramp above the cliffs in the route photo above, you have to go around the backside of the peak. Unfortunately, this side of the peak was totally wind hammered and gutted. We threw the skis on our backs and down climbed about 100-150 feet to where we could strap our skis on.

Steve down climbing.



Since neither one of us had been on this side of the peak, we weren't exactly sure where to drop off of Popcorn Ledge into the bowl below. There are several large cliff bands that you could get sucked into if you chose poorly. However, we found our way through fine. Here's me looking down at Steve's tracks from Popcorn Ledge down to the bowl just before I dropped in. The pitch was nice and steep and we had great boot deep powder the whole way down the bowl.



Joshua skiing from Popcorn Ledge down into Ymir Bowl.



Steve in Ymir Bowl. Popcorn Ledge is behind him.



Steve letting the skis run.



Me in Ymir Bowl.



A look back at some of our tracks.



Joshua enjoying the wide open run down.



Steve skiing lower down the bowl.



A look back at our descent route from the bottom of the bowl.



Skiing down Ymir offers a fantastic 2500+ vertical descent. We hit it just right. It stayed cloudy for the ascent, keeping the sun from loosening up some of the avalanche slopes we had to cross and from turning the snow into mush. The sun then came out for our descent giving us great light for our photos, but didn't have enough time to loosen things up before we were back at the car. I'm really glad to have ticked this one off the list for the season. A fantastic day!