How to tour up Connaught Creek and not die
Connaught Creek KMZ screenshot
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Touring up Connaught Creek requires advanced hazard assessment and careful decision making. This can be either a straightforward and reasonable experience or a real challenge and a very dangerous one.
Connaught Creek is one of the most popular areas at Rogers Pass. It also happens to be one of the most active valleys for avalanches although, not all of the avalanche paths in Connaught are frequent performers so it helps to know which are and which (usually) aren’t.
Here is a story of the tragic Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS) avalanche that claimed the lives of seven people from a school group in February, 2003. That’s how the STS couloir got its name, after the students and teachers that perished in that slide.
What’s lesser known is that many groups have been dusted by avalanches from the STS face as well as close calls with the Frequent Flyer Path.
There are less complex areas to go at Rogers Pass but Connaught Creek remains popular due to the proximity of the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre as well as being an incredible place to tour in certain conditions. It’s also the most popular area at Rogers Pass during early season.
Photos of the 2003 STS avalanche—©Greg Paltinger
What is Connaught Creek good for?
It is a southwest to northeast running valley so the aspects available for skiing are southerlies and northerlies. The solar aspects consist of some of the most deservedly popular tours at Rogers Pass with a quick and “easy” approach and terrain that was made to ski.
The northerly aspects off of Cheops mountain are, for the most past, an entirely different beast. Steep, north-facing bowls, couloirs and technical descents are the norm for Cheops, with the exception of The Hourglass and North Bowl which are relatively straightforward. When conditions are ripe for either solar aspects or steep northerlies, Connaught is a good choice.
Connaught Creek is basically one giant avalanche path as you can see in the photos. The majority of common threat is from the north face (mainly the STS area) of Cheops and from the Frequent Flyer Path. Not all of the avalanche paths off Cheops are as frequent repeaters as STS. The STS Couloir/face is the most active path on the face.
Looking up Connaught Creek with Balu Pass at the head of the valley from Grizzly Bowl Slidepath
Touring up Connaught
Mountains and avalanches are unpredictable and anything can happen in a place like Rogers Pass, expect the unexpected. This is a generalization of conditions that are often encountered.
After you’ve checked the forecasts, checked in with the Rogers Pass Centre staff and determined that it’s a reasonable proposition to tour up Connaught for the day, you’ll soon come to the Grizzly Bowl Slidepath. People do head up the valley even when there is a threat of Grizzly Bowl and similar non-frequent paths releasing, I wouldn’t recommend this as it’s very advanced & risky traveling.
Most people don’t know this but you are exposed to the Grizzly Bowl, shortly after you cross the bridge, as soon as the route enters the “opening” past the bridge. Check it out next time you’re up there, the opening is from a monster slide many moons ago that turned the corner and ripped into the forest.
Frequent Flyer slide path
Although the exposure to slidepaths begins at that opening and soon after, from The Hourglass area and The Chromosomes, often, the first major decision of the day comes at the Frequent Flyer. The name gives it away as it avalanches frequently and is known for burying the Balu Pass Trail. There have been some close calls with this path. It’s good to be certain about snow stability before proceeding.
Note that how you approach safely touring up Connaught is largely dependent on current conditions. Do not take this write up as a “How to ascend Connaught every day”. Everything depends on conditions so you’ll want to assess them carefully and adjust your plans accordingly.
In other words, there’s no need to take a low route for Frequent Flyer every day, especially if the concern is more from the Cheops side of the valley.
If in doubt about snow stability, there’s a low route option for Frequent Flyer, but this must be carefully considered if it’s even worth it.
Image Parks Canada - Annotations added by Douglas Sproul
The Frequent Flyer start zone is cross-loaded heavily by the Connaught wind funnel. To get an idea of the funnel, look at a map and imagine the ‘usual’ southwest flow of air, constantly struggling to get up and over the pass, all the while being accelerated by the highway corridor.
It crests Balu Pass then has free-reign to begin its hasty journey eastward, wreaking havoc along the way. First stop: Connaught Creek. This wind is the reason that certain areas of Connaught have a significantly less snowpack than neighboring slopes.
A not-well-known tactic for managing the Frequent flyer is to take a low line either close to or even on the other side of the creek. See the images for the why. After the Frequent Flyer, the exposure lessens (usually) until the STS area. Sure, the entire valley is basically an avalanche path but most times, the only paths you’ll need to consider carefully are the Frequent Flyer and the STS Couloir/face.
Taking a low line through Frequent Flyer. Note the debris just above the skiers, this was a small avalanche. Lower lines are also possible as seen on the right of skiers
STS
So now you’re on your way and you’ve past the FF, usually, the next major decision points comes at Waterfall and STS. If you are concerned about the STS area and are headed to Ursus Trees area, Video Peak, Bruins Ridge, etc, then there is the option of setting uptrack up the avalanche path just after the Dispatchers Bowl Path/waterfall.
This uptrack is definitely not as good as the standard route of Hospital Gully (can be difficult) but it works and keeps you from being exposed to the bulk of the STS area. If you’re headed up towards Balu Pass however, you’ll have to walk under the STS area.
The only comment that I’ll make here is that if you do decide to continue, do it quickly, even in so-called stable conditions. Below the STS is not a good place to linger, even if the avalanche hazard is rated lower than Considerable, the STS is a popular run with many people doing cornice cutting/control work before entering the couloir.
Whew! You’ve made it through and you’re on your way to Balu Pass. Keep an eye out for skiers coming down Niccy’s Notch, North Bowl, Hospital Gullies, 8812 Bowl, etc.
Connaught Creek
So you wanna shred the Frequent Flyer?
Frequent Flyer (FF) is a high-frequency avalanche path. If you intend to ski it, you must know that anything that comes off while you’re descending, will likely hit the Balu Pass Trail uptrack. Can you see where I am going here?
I left the FF out of the 1st Edition of the book and map because of the hazard that people skiing it could pose for people on the uptrack. The avalanche track is steep and confined, there will be no warning for anyone on the uptrack, these are extremely fast moving avalanches that the FF spits out.
The author doesn’t recommend skiing the FF, but this info is presented in hopes to explain the situation better and make people aware of the possible consequences. Most of the avy paths in Connaught Creek do not share the same characteristics of FF, there’s lots of other stuff to shred.
Frequent Flyer start zone
A note on trimlines
A trimline is simply the edge of an avalanche path where it meets existing forest, etc. I can remember at least one day that our group was so frightened of the STS that we made the effort to uptrack slightly above the Balu Pass Trail, up on the trimline of the path.
It’s obviously not as easy as down on the trail and if you’re even considering this as an option, the best decision is probably to go somewhere else but it does work and in theory; will offer more protection than being on the trail and if you try hard enough, you could quickly climb up into the small trees on the trimline, better than nothing I suppose.
It sounds ridiculous but if you’re ever back in Connaught when the shit’s hitting the fan, you may just find the trimline more appealing than the trail. Note that these paths can produce very large avalanches and no trim line is historically safe from avalanches. Very large avalanches can create new trimlines and even paths.
Looking up Frequent Flyer from Balu Pass Trail
Balu wall-to-wall
Many people consider the terrain of Balu Pass to be safe. Just as a side note for historical purposes, I’ve seen Balu Pass rip wall-to-wall, all the way to the ground. And yes, that was in winter! That was the winter of 2001 (the year of none). Thankfully, a rare snowpack for Rogers Pass.
The raven
In 1997, I did the CAA Level 1 avalanche course at Rogers Pass. It was a great week with lots of highlights and amazing skiing but mixed with a nasty surface hoar layer. After skiing one day, most of our group was in the bar of the old hotel.
There was a young guy in the bar who was not a part of our group. He was drinking and talking and more talking...Eventually, one of the members of our group started getting concerned when he was going on about his buddy and how long he was taking to get to the bar. After a few questions, it had been discovered that it had been a pretty long time that he had last seen his friend.
To make a long story short; a guide was skiing out of Connaught Creek at the end of the day with a guest. Like all good guides do, he stopped to have a quick look around while his guest caught up. His eyes scanned the mountainside and immediately noticed a large crown in the fan of The Hourglass.
His eyes were drawn to movement and he noticed a raven on the avalanche debris. Odd, he thought as he watched the raven apparently doing some kind of dance. Like it was just sitting there getting its jive on. A few moments passed and his brain put the pieces together:
“THAT’S—NO—RAVEN!”
To say that kid was lucky is an understatement. It was near dark. Of all the people, the one that spotted him was a guide, highly trained in rescue. And to think of the chances that the guide just felt like stopping at the foot of The Hourglass...lucky!
The victim had triggered a large slab that was a 1.5 metres deep and ran into the creekbed where he was buried with only one hand (the raven) sticking out of the snow. He survived! Our class went and did a fracture line profile on the crown the next day with obvious results.
The Chromosomes on Cheops