Little Ring and Conscience Peaks

Little Ring Peak (7,044ft) and Conscience Peak (8,333ft)

April 23, 2022

Eric, Steven, Elise, Derek

70 miles snowmobiling, 7 miles skiing/climbing

The Pemberton Icecap is a huge expanse of glaciers and snow just west of Whistler and Pemberton, British Columbia. Numerous 7,000ft and 8,000ft peaks stick up out of the ice cap, and the area reminds me of Ellesmere Island with such amazing scenery. The peaks are up to 30 miles or more from the nearest road, and are not often climbed. The most sensible means to access the icecap is by snowmobile in the winter or early spring.

The Pemberton Valley Snowmobile Club maintains a trail to the edge of treeline, and from there the glaciers are flat enough that they are not too difficult to cross on a snowmobile. The area is very popular with snowmobilers, and the trail to the edge of treeline is regularly groomed throughout the winter and early spring. By late spring and summer the snowmobile trail melts out and is not driveable, and the glacier gets in worse condition.

Last weekend Steven and I had snowmobiled up to the Pemberton Icecap and climbed Longspur, Apa, Famine, and Torah peaks as an overnight trip, but we still had a few other peaks in the area we missed. The forecast for Saturday looked promising and we decided to return. We would learn from our previous experience, though, and do things a bit differently.

Last time we had to park the sled at the Famine-Longspur col and ski beyond there since the fuel guage was reading half full by then. This time I’d bring a spare fuel tank and we’d also try to find other peakbaggers with snowmobiles to accompany us. It’s always a good idea when you’re really far in to have multiple snowmobiles. That way if one doesn’t start it’s possible for everyone to get out on the other either riding or getting towed. The peaks we were interested in are over 30 miles in from the road, which would take a while to ski out if the sled didn’t start.

We would plan to do a day trip this time to take advantage of the short weather window. It’s a bit risky to get caught on the icecap in a whiteout, so the forecast needs to be pretty solid before venturing up there.

Our primary objective was to climb Conscience Peak, on the western edge of the icefield. This is the peak in the area that is the farthest from a road, and would be quite difficult to access in the summer. Our secondary objective was Little Ring Peak. This would require snowmobiling even farther south along the icefield. Little Ring would be the technical crux of the trip. It looks like Devil’s Tower, and is surrounded by cliffs except for a short narrow section on the east face. This section generally has a huge cornice overhanging it, though, complicating the route.

There are only a few recorded ascents of Little Ring. Those parties waited till later in the season when the cornice had fallen, but by then the route is melted out to crappy rock. Other parties reached the base of the cornice earlier in the season but turned around there. We planned to bring ropes and snow gear and hopefully climb around it if possible.

Friday night I drove up after work and made it to the parking lot near the edge of snowline on the Rutherford Creek Road by 10pm. The snow had melted out a few hundred feet farther since last weekend, but it still made sense to park at the lot.

Saturday morning Steven, Derek, and Elise arrived and we got loaded up and moving by 7:30am. A half dozen other trucks were pulling up then, and starting to unload sleds. There was even one forester towing a trailer, so I guess I could have made it with my forester and trailer.

We soon reached continuous snow, but it was icy. Derek and Elise had to stop frequently to cool down the sled with snow. Mine didn’t have any trouble, though. I’d recently installed a rack on the back, and was able to pack it with ice filling the gap beneath the backpacks. I also had two sets of scratchers, and a longer tunnel, which all worked to cool it down more efficiently. We eventually made it to the cabin at the edge of treeline and continued up onto the Apa Glacier.

We stopped occasionally to take pictures, and continued up to Mumbai Peak then turned left and dropped down to the next valley. Last weekened there had been a snow bike abandoned at the base of this slope, but it was gone now, hopefully recovered by its owner.

We cruised up past the west face of Longspur to the Longspur-Famine col, then dropped down the other side. This was now farther than we sledded the previous weekend. We stopped briefly at a small ice cave, then rounded the corner and headed up to the southwest. Derek led the way up a steep powder slope and I tried to follow. I was going too slow, though, and eventually got stuck in the powder. We dug a bit, then Derek and Steven pulled on the skis while I tapped the throttle, and we eventually got out.

Up higher we came to another, even longer steep powder slope. I tried to maintain more speed, but this time had a bit of trouble balancing with all the extra weight on the sled, and we tipped over and jumped off. Steven and I rolled the sled over and I got back on and pointed it downhill. I rode back to the base of the hill, then pointed up Derek’s tracks and made it up solo. Steven met me at the top of the hill and we tried a different riding technique.

I’d previously had steven sit in the back and I had stood or sat in the front. This worked fine on roads, but not in steep, more technical terrain. So we instead tried Derek’s technique. Steven sat in the front of the sled holding the mountain bar while I stood in the back leaning over him to hold the handle bars. This gave me much more freedom to jump around to balance, and I didn’t get stuck or roll over any more.

Unfortunately a whiteout soon set in, and navigation was slow. We stopped frequently to check the GPS, and eventually sledded up out of the clouds to near the base of the south ridge of Conscience. We parked the sleds there and continued on skis and snowshoes. We roughly followed the south ridge until it got very steep, then ditched skis and kicked steps up to the summit.

We were back in a whiteout then, and hung out hoping it would clear. This was a satisfying peak to tag since it was so remote. We hadn’t found reports of other people climbing it, but I’m sure people sled in and ski it from time to time.

The whiteout never cleared, so we plunge stepped down the snow slope and then skied back to the sleds. From there we followed our tracks back southeast, then turned due south to hit the main icefield. The whiteout got thicker then, and we slowed our pace down. It was a bit intimidating just heading into the clouds when we couldn’t tell the difference between ground and sky. I was worried we’d probably just have to turn around and bail on Little Ring if this continued. We inched down slowly, and eventually dropped back below the clouds.

Visibilty increased, but the lighting was still low and it was tough to tell if the snow above us was flat or dropped steeply. I’ve read some people take laser pointers with them and point at the ground ahead to see how the terrain behaves, and this would have been an excellent idea.

We proceeded slowly to the south, taking turns in the lead. It was amazing how easy being the second sled was. With tracks to follow there was no uncertainty in the terrain, but in the lead it was very difficult to read the terrain. We soon made it past the turnoff to Torah Peak, where Steven and I had skied to last weekend. We continued farther south until we reached the edge of the glacier where it started to show signs of getting broken up.

We decided to park the sleds there and continue on foot. Last weekend we’d met some sledders that had continued down this way and had done a traverse to Brandywine. So we knew the route would work, but it would likely be too tricky for my abilities.

Steven and I skied down to a melted out stream at the bottom of the glacier while Derek and Elise continued on snowshoes. On the other side we skinned up, with Steven and I taking turns breaking trail. We followed the drainage to the northeast face of Little Ring, and made it to a few hundred feet below the summit before the terrain got too steep for skis. We ditched skis and snowwhoes there, then Steven and I took turns kicking steps up in crampons.

I kicked steps up the final bit to a small snow ledge under the slightly overhanging cornice. The cornice spanned nearly the entire northeast ridge of the peak, but there was a narrow gap on the left edge that was uncorniced. A narrow steep snow slope led left of the cornice but above a cliff, and went through the gap. This would be our planned route.

Steven volunteered to lead and I would belay. I made a solid two-ax anchor and belayed steven out. After traversing about 30 ft he left an ice ax anchor and then kicked steps up to the side of the cornice. At the top he tied the rope to a picket-ax anchor, then I tied my end to my anchor. Derek then put a prussik on the rope and climbed up using the prussik for belay. Elise continued in the same way.

I finally went up last, with steven belaying me to the top. We topped out around 5:30pm, which was getting a bit late. But it made for great lighting on the surrounding peaks. The skies had cleared enough that we made out Conscience in the distance, and Famine looked very impressive to the north. I whipped out my sight level to make certain we tagged the true summit, and we got a bunch of good pictures.

I didn’t want to linger too long, though, since I knew sledding out in the dark above treeline with potential whiteout would be very tricky. So I went back to near the edge of the cornice and started building a snow anchor. I used Steven’s picket as a T-slot anchor and backed it up with two plunged ice axes. The picket would take all the weight, with the ice axes slightly slack and acting as backup. The plan was we would rappel off all the pieces until the last person, who would rap just off the picket. If the picket held for the first few people then we knew it would be trustworthy enough to remove the ice axes for the last person.

I took out my second 30m rope and we tied them together. I volunteered to go first and test the anchor. I slowly rapped to the edge of the cornice then crossed the lip and did a free-hanging rappel back to some stashed gear at the base. I got down and then Elise was next. As I was rappelling Derek paraglided off the summit, which sounded super fun (and a bit scary). He would make it back to the sleds much sooner than we would.

Elise rapped next, then Steven. We quickly packed up the ropes and headed down. We downclimbed facing in a bit, then plunge stepped down to the skis. Steven and I made fun turns down, stopping frequently to take pictures. Elise made it down with a combination of snowshoeing and plunge stepping. As we got to the bottom of the valley Derek had reached the snowmobiles and started riding towards us. He continued up the route to give Elise a lift back, while Steven and I skinned the last hill back to the sleds.

By then it was 7:15pm, and sunset was fast approaching. We quickly packed up and started riding. I led the way, and we could go much faster this time just following our old tracks. At times I had the throttle fully squeezed, trying to go as fast as possible to beat sunset. Sledding back up to the crest of the glacier my low-fuel light came on and the fuel gauge red completely empty. But I continued and then when we went down on the other side it read 30% full. It’s difficult to trust the gauge unless the sled has been completely flat for a while.

We rounded the corner of the north ridge of Famine and continued back up to the Longspur-Famine col. The lighting was getting lower and Derek and Elise continued on ahead. I could no longer go max speed since it was so difficult to see, to I continued more slowly. We rounded the last hill up to the south ridge of Longspur, then continued down the other side. By this point my front lights were illuminating the dark snow, and that helped a little bit.

Finally we got low enough that the visibilty slightly improved. I breathed a big sigh of relief once we got back to the edge of trees and the cabin. Below the cabin the snow was slushy and there was no risk of overheating, but the whoops were much worse. I think a lot of sledders had gone in when it was softened up that morning, and the road was now very bouncy.

A few miles below the cabin the whoops shook all our gear off the back of the sled and we had to stop. My fuel guage was reading empty now even when pointed steeply downhill. I kind of wanted to push it until it was absolutely zero fuel and I couldn’t go any farther. That would let me know the exact range of the sled. But with the spare fuel tank having just fallen off it made sense to save time and just dump the spare fuel in then. I dumped the 2.5 gallons in the sled, then we re-strapped the packs and skis on the back.

This time the fuel guage showed 30%, as expected. We took our time riding out, and finally got back around 9:15pm. I had steven get off just before the end so I could give the engine a few last revs, then I rode it back into the truck bed.

As with last weekend, there was again nobody left in the lot. We were soon loaded up and driving out, and I made it back to seattle around 4am.

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