Mount Matier - Northeast Spur, June 2004
The peaks that comprise the Joffre Group - Joffre Peak, Mount Matier and to a lesser extent, Mount Hartzell, Mount Spetch and Slalok Mountain, are popular ski-touring destinations in the winter and make for excellent mountaineering objectives later in the spring and into summer. Knowing this and with fond memories of the Spearhead Traverse still fresh in our minds, Eric and I hatched plans for our next Coast Mountains adventure installment; this time somewhat more removed from the familiar Whistler Valley corridor. Originally intending make the trip in May, we envisioned a 3-day ski-touring extravaganza on the Anniversary and Matier Glaciers with climbs of Matier's Northwest Face and Joffre's Southwest Gully (Aussie Couloir) thrown in there for good measure.
Alas, the weather wouldn't cooperate, and so our plans were put on hold while we pursued other silly, local objectives. Finally, the weekend of June 19 - 20 promised good weather. We didn't hesitate to seize the moment, though some minor changes to our original plans were in order. Given this year's mediocre snow pack, early melt and poor consolidation, it was decided that skis/split should be left behind. We also finally settled on making the approach via Cherise Creek, rather than the more popular (but longer) Joffre Lakes. Lastly, we modified our original itinerary, choosing instead to climb both Matier and Joffre in a day out of my in-law's North Vancouver residence. (more...)
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