Presidents Pass is a lovely ski ascent in a beautiful valley. The ski in takes a day for fit parties. Most of the ski in is uphill with a lot of flat or almost flat terrain. The big puffer comes at the final section before the hut. There is a brutally steep uphill that will leave you huffing and sweating many times. Once at the Stanley Mitchell Hut there are lots of options for yo-yo skiing. There is also Presidents Pass from which you can leave your skis behind to ascend either of the peaks. You can also ascend to Kiwetinok Pass for a nice view of the next valley of peaks to the West. The ski out is very tricky for the steep section near the hut. The rest of the ski out is long and mostly flat. I recommend leaving your skins off for the ski out, it will go faster that way. The final section of road seems to drag on forever.
During our approach the weather was cloudy with some token open patches of blue. Takakkaw Falls didn't look nearly as impressive as in the summer. When we finally reached the steep section it was very tiring and I definitely lost a lot of calories on it. The section after the uphill was only 2 km but seemed to drag on for awhile. We were very happy to finally reach the hut. Since we were the first ones there we got first dibs on the good beds.
On our ascent day we were hoping to ascend the President and the Vice President. However, cloudy weather made that unlikely. The snow in the Little Yoho Valley was excellent and very deep. We ascended the glacier to the col. We passed many open crevasses on the way including the biggest open crack I have ever seen in a glacier. It was kind of a crevasse/moat/cave as it was on the very edge of the glacier. I took a picture of it so that you can see what I mean. As we ascended into steeper terrain we decided to dig a pit to check for stability. There were definitely some significant surface hoar layers. There was enough snow on them for a slide but we were getting hard results on them so we decided to go on and check again when we got closer to the pass. The bergshrund before the pass was more like an ice wall. We tried to go around the left side in steeper terrain. But the snow was very windblown and we noticed an active slab layer while trying to ascend with kick turns. We quickly retreated back below the ice wall where we had lunch. We descended the upper glacier roped up since visibility was very poor and there were a lot of open slots in the glacier. Once below the clouds and the crevasses we unroped and had wonderful powder skiing back down to the hut.
Since there was still plenty of daylight left Rob, I and another fellow from another group decided to head up to Kiwetinok Pass. We had a lovely ascent but unfortunately the visibility disappeared and we were unable to reach the pass. We waited at a high point for the visibility to improve. When it did improve it didn't give us a lot of time. I rushed to get my skins off and pack up so that we could ski down in good visibility. We had great powder snow on our descent back down to the hut and had some wonderful turns. While taking photos of us skiing I forgot to zip up my camera bag and when we had gotten further down I noticed that my camera was missing. This was even worse since this was a brand new camera and the first trip that I had brought it on. Fortunately for me, I was able to find it in the last place I took a spill. A very close call for me.
The ski out was nice except for the steep downhill at the start. I am not a good skier and skiing down the steep forest was very difficult. By the time we reached the bottom I was thoroughly wet and tired. I managed to regain my strength later after having something to eat. After reaching the road we were lucky enough to catch a ski-doo ride back to the parking lot from some of the rangers who had been doing stability tests. I was very thankful to not have to experience the long tedious road back again. I already knew how tedious it was after returning from Mount Field the previous year and I didn't need to experience it again. A very fun weekend out in the mountains.
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