Northern Monashee Horse-Shoe Ski-Traverse

When we guided the Northern Monashee Ski-Traverse north-west of Revelstoke BC for its first time in 1993 we felt that this traverse might be the true Haute Route of Canada, large glaciers, incredible ski-peaks and absolutely outstanding skiing. Exactly the same terrain as found on the famous west Alp's Haute Route.... the only difference is that we have not been able to find a single other person except our skiing friends on the Northern Monashee Ski Traverse. We had a total of 11 guests when we guided the first ever ski-traverse of these beautiful mountains NW of Revelstoke BC, in late May 1993. The trip was an absolute success. We knew that this would become a classic SME Ski-Traverse that we needed to keep offering to our enthusiastic skiing guests.

In the meantime we have guided the Northern Monashee Ski Traverse 11 times with several variations. However, there are several peaks, located east of the many classic ski-lines of this grand ski-traverse that have not yet been included in our Traverse. The 2012 ski-traverse takes us up to these peaks and their large alpine terrain. We will start at Hat Peak elev. 2882 m and ski an impressive horse-shoe shaped route, involving steep and technical terrain. The final ski run (Cornice) will lead from the outstanding summit of Imagination Peak elev. 2480 m. down a scenic glacier to a charming meadow at elev. 1600 m, directly above Lake Revelstoke. A ski-run in the Northern Monashee mountains, many of you have admired from across the valley while skiing at Durrand Glacier.

It is our prime goal to avoid the challenges of carrying heavy packs.... We want our guests to be able to fully enjoy the beautiful mountains, their incredible terrain and all the superb skiing on long glaciated runs with lighter packs. This is why Selkirk Mountain Experience has a helicopter drop-off for each camp with all needed food, fuel and the entire kitchen. Of-course this style of a ski-traverse allows us to enjoy much better food, home baked tortes and beer at each camp. How much better can it get !!! This keeps our packs much lighter as we only have to carry our personal items such as a medium weight sleeping bag, part of the lightweight tent (two guests per tent) and your lunch for the day.

For this programs Selkirk Mountain Experience has two guides who are thoroughly familiar with this ski-traverse and all the logistics of guiding a Selkirk Mountain Experience ski-traverse. Lead Guide of this ski-traverse is Ruedi and the second guide will be Dan Madell, a senior SME guide who has guided for several years at Durrand Glacier, the Alaskan St.Elias - Wrangle Range and also in many parts of the European Alps.

SME puts enormous value on efficient and, at all times, reliable radio-communication with the outside world and our office in Revelstoke, while skiing with guests in such remote ski-traverses. For this the guides carry two-way radio communication, which operates via our radio repeater, located on the summit of Tumbledown Mountain (elev. 2755 meters) in the Northern Selkirks.

Join us on this horse-shoe Ski-Traverse.

Ruedi Beglinger
I.F.M.G.A certified Guide

Detailed Program

Please call or e-mail our office to receive a hard-copy of the detailed program which includes all needed information for your ski-trip with us. For this we do need your mailing address. Unfortunately we are not able to e-mail the exact detailed program.

2012 Dates and Prices

Date: Sunday, May 20th to Saturday, May 26th, 2012 (7 days)
Meeting place: Sandman Inn in Revelstoke BC, May 20th, 2012 at 06:30 AM
Number of Guests: max. 10 (2 guides)
Cost: Cdn $2,200.00 plus applicable tax

Included in the price:

Taxi to helicopter staging area
Helicopter service to set-up all camps and end of tour camp collection
Helicopter flight from helicopter staging area to the start of the ski traverse
Helicopter flight from the end of the ski-traverse back to the helicopter staging area
Taxi back to Revelstoke
Tents, kitchen
All breakfast, lunches, afternoon snacks, dinners during the traverse
Fully certified mountain guide service
photos from the tour

View the Canadian Traverse skiing photo gallery >>

Guide

Ruedi Beglinger will be your guide on this ski-trip. He has extensive experience in guiding mountaineering and skiing expeditions in Canada, Alaska, the entire Alps and other parts of the world. Ruedi has been certified by the Swiss (SBV) and the International Guide Association (IFMGA) in 1977. He is an active and professional member of the Canadian Mountain Guide Association (ACMG), the Swiss Mountain Guide Association (SBV) and the Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA).

For your safety the guide carries the following items

Two-way radio with all local radio-repeater frequencies programmed
Complete first-aid kit
Basic repair kit
ski-mountaineering rope
Crevasse rescue gear
Evacuation gear for injured people
Avalanche rescue gear
All topographical maps of the area
GPS, compass and altimeter

Ability level:

This program takes place in steep and very rugged high-alpine terrain, which has many crevassed glaciers, glacial seracs and other natural skiing challenges. Some of the ski-ascents and ski-descents lead through exposed and technically difficult terrain where safe and efficient ski-techniques and ski-discipline are required.

For this program each guest has to be an accomplished alpine skier who can ski, efficiently and safely, steep mountain slopes (as found on Black Diamond downhill ski runs in major ski-areas of North America) and in all kinds of snow conditions with a heavy pack of about 25 lbs. Whatever snow-conditions this tour has to offer, we ask that all guests can safely and efficiently ski a perfect fall-line under good control and link a minimum of 30 short-radius turns. Further it is important that every guest can safely control their skis in difficult terrain and can execute efficient and safe kick-turns in steeper terrain as found in "black diamond runs", side-slip on skis and execute efficient plow-turns.

It is important that everybody on the tour enjoys good health and has no difficulties to acclimatize to higher elevations.

Every guest has to be physically in good shape. We recommend that everybody is doing active out-door endurance sport (ski-touring, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, biking, long distance jogging etc.) on a regular basis and during the entire year. It is important that you can comfortably ski-climb with a pack of about 25 lbs. for an entire day of 8 hours and that you can cover daily ski-climbs of up to 1400 vertical meters (4600 vertical feet).

It is important that you are able to follow instructions given by the guide.

Further we ask that you have skied with Selkirk Mountain Experience in previous programs, either at Canada's Durrand Glacier or on any other program in Canada, Alaska or the European Alps. This will give you the valuable opportunity to get to know your guide, how Selkirk Mountain Experience runs their programs in achieving the set goals and in reaching a high level of safety.

If you have any questions regarding "Ability Level", please do not hesitate to contact Selkirk Mountain Experience.

Booking Conditions

Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. requires a non-refundable 50% deposit of the total program cost in order to confirm your booking.
After you receive our confirmation we ask that you send full payment no later than ten weeks prior to the program starting date.
If full payment is not received ten weeks prior to the starting date of your program, Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. reserves the right to forfeit your full deposit and sell your spot to the next person on the waiting list.
Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. strongly suggests that you buy travel cancellation insurance that will cover all your paid costs in the event that you have to cancel your program (personal illness, family emergency, work-related cancellation and any other possible reason).
Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. reserves the right to cancel any program for whatever reason. In this situation Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. will refund all paid money. However, Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. is not responsible for any further expenses incurred in preparation for the program.

Waiver of liability

All guests who ski with Selkirk Mountain Experience Ltd. are asked to sign the form RELEASE OF LIABILITY, WAIVER OF CLAIMS, ASSUMPTION OF RISKS AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT. We ask you to read and sign it and send it together with your registration back to our office. If you have any questions please feel free to phone our office at 250 837 2381 or email us.