Pemberton Icefield Snowkiting
Snowkiting below Longspur Peak
April 20-21, 2024
Eric and Branden
The Pemberton Icefield has some of the largest terrain for snow kiting in the pacific northwest. With low-elevation snow melting out now I’m seeking out high-elevation glaciers for snowkiting. In late March I’d snowmobiled solo up to the Appa Glacier on the edge of the Pemberton Icefield and gotten in some good kiting. To get even more training for Greenland I wanted practice with an overnight kiting trip and practice pulling a pulk while kiting. Pemberton looked like a good choice for the weekend with acceptable winds forecast.
The route
Friday night Branden and I drove up to British Columbia and up the Rutherford Forest Service Road to camp at the big pullout at km 5. The snow has melted a lot in the past three weeks. Saturday morning we were able to drive to km 8.5 at the turnoff to a small dam. It appears to be a low snow year in BC. In 2022, which was more normal, the Pemberton Valley Snowmobile Club had groomed the route in to the icefield up until April 15. But this year the last groom was in early March.
Cooling off the sled
We loaded up two pulks, skis, and overnight gear perpendicular to the snowmobile on the back rack. I had never tried this style before, but it kept the weight farther forward to prevent the tail from getting squished onto the tail. And the road was pretty wide so it appeared to not be a problem.
The snow looked patchy and rough with lots of whoops, so we rode Canadian style with each of us standing on one side. This also helped keep the weight farther forward. The first few miles were nice snow, but then we encountered a few miles of patchy gravel with the longest bare section a mile long. I went slow but we still overheated once. We stopped to dump water on the tail and then continued on to more continuous snow. In two places we made very steep descents on gravel and I had Branden get off and walk.
Camp on the Pemberton Icefield
We soon reached the cabin and then the creek beyond. This was the area that had been very melted out in late march and I feared the small snow bridge I’d taken would be melted out by now. Surprisingly, it was still there, barely. But other snowmobilers had found a better way across the creek. They had found a bigger snow bridge, then dug out a snow bank on the side of the creek. It was narrow enough that we needed to take the pulk off the back of the sled to squeeze through.
I sledded through while Branden towed the pulk. Then on the other side I ended up towing branden with a rope while he towed the pulk. We continued up to the head of the Appa Glacier and parked at the pass overlooking the Pemberton Icefield.
From there we skied down to the flat icefield below, then pitched our camp. The wind finally picked up a bit in the afternoon and we got a few good hours of kiting in. We had originally thought about kiting deeper in to establish camp farther up the glacier, but instead decided to just get more kiting in that area.
Kiting Sunday morning
As forecast, a snow storm came in around 5pm and the wind picked up pretty strong. We had brought the 10m and 15m kites, and really should have also brought the 6m kites for the high wind. The wind was challenging since it would frequently drop to zero before getting strong again. The gust-to-sustained ratio was around 7, while ideally it would be closer to 1.5. We couldn’t keep the kites in the air so decided to quit for the day.
I spent a few hours building a big snow wall to shelter the tent, and we cooked dinner and went to bed.
Sunday morning we slept in until the storm rolled out. It had snowed 8 inches overnight and finally let up around 10am. We got in more good kiting until 2pm when the wind died off. I think the wind was associated with the storm, and when the storm left so did the wind.
Sledding out
So we packed up and headed out. We skinned back up to the snowmobile, then dug it out of a snow drift and packed up. The visibility was marginal with low clouds and snow squalls passing through, and navigation was kind of tough on the Appa Glacier. We no longer had our up tracks to follow. Branden took the lead skiing down and I followed behind in the snowmobile. This way if it flattened out and he needed towed I would immediately notice and throw him a rope. Partway down the glacier I started towing Branden, and slowly made it back to treeline. It was challenging in the waning light and visibility to tell the difference between ground and air.
At one point just at treeline I misjudged a slope in front of me and couldn’t keep my balance. The sled rolled over and I jumped off. The skis and pulk on the back slammed into the snow and the rear rack on the snowmobile broke off.
We were able to right the snowmobile and rig up a new solution to strap all the gear on. We then got back into the trees and acrosst the creek. From there we rode Canadian style on the snowmobile. I went slow enough on the gravel sections that we didn’t overheat at all, and got back to the truck just before sunset.
© 2024, egilbert@alum.mit.edu. All rights reserved.
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