A traverse of Rainbow Mountain beginning at Whistler Olympic Park and ending at Alpine Way in Whistler. The route up was via Hanging Lake and the southwest approach to the mountain. The descent was via the east glacier and Nineteen Mile Creek road.
Participants: Nicolas Jimenez, Paul Kubik, Bill Maurer
We've been taking advantage of the moderate avalanche conditions this year to knock off a few projects. The descent of the east glacier of Rainbow Mountain has beckoned for about twenty years so it rose to the top of the list. During the winter season the last couple of years, the avalanche risk was typically in the Considerable range. This year the hazard is largely in the Moderate range. We found the hazard Low to Moderate on the approach and descent. I don't think I'd want to descend the east glacier with a Considerable rating. There are steep pitches with cliff bands and ice fall. There is lots of hangfire on the walls above. Near the top there is possible windloading. Good visibility is also necessary. As mentioned in Baldwin's guide, there is a cliff band at 1800 metres that can only be passed on skiers right. Inviting slopes entice you above the cliffs so a good altimeter reading should be made before descending. If a slide took you here, you would be carried over cliff bands.
On this day, we had good snow stability and clear weather with no wind except in the high col and summit. The altimeter was accurate. Snow conditons for skiing were reasonable but not optimal. There was recent snow but the near surface conditions were highly variable. There was some blower powder, wind buffed powder and lots of sections of near surface layers possibly due to high freezing levels the previous week. There was one wind loaded section on the upper plateau that released when cut but this was the only instability we encountered. We found that following the tracks of a guided party of a day earlier was a good strategy on the descent. Everytime we tried to deviate from the line we found terrain obstacles that forced us to backtrack to the guide's line. If there is one thing to be said in the negative for the route it's that you cannot ski a clean line straight off the subsummit of Rainbow that is at the head of the east glacier. You must descend from the high col (2250 m) on Rainbow to the north and on the plateau wrap back around to the east to get back to the fall line.
Looking NE to Mount Currie.
Looking east to Weart.
Around 2150 metres near the top of the east glacier.
The descent route to Nineteen Mile Creek.
Nicolas.
Bill.
Bill skiing.
Nicolas skiing.
Near the bottom of the steep skiing. The rock band at 1800 metres is in photo centre.
Wedge Mountain and the Rethel Creek approach in centre.
Thanks Paul, for posting this!
Three of us (Silke Gumplinger, Stephan Bernhard, Peter Gumplinger) repeated this trip yesterday, March 23, 2014. There is nothing really I can add to Paul's description and evaluation of the route. You'd want low or moderate avalanche conditions. We had heard that skier's left was the best route down from the high col so we skied the extreme skier's left side near the rocks at the top. This was a bit more steep than the line Paul and his party took - judging by their photos. Between these two options there is a steep convex roll-over that looks more intimidating from above than it actually is. There is an obvious bench after the initial slope that leads to skier's right and the passage way at 1800m. But this is still no place to be in poor visibility.
There was an impressive huge wind fin on the upper plateau before the broad col into the East-Glacier. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it. It also blended into the plateau as seen from the summit. The fin had steep sides (both) and was steeper the further skier's right and higher you traversed. In retrospect, we could have skied the fall-line slope below the summit and then crossed the flat plateau. Doing that will deposit you to the very skier's left where we ended up skiing anyway.
This is a great trip for strong and fit skiers. It also sees not that much guided traffic. The E-Glacier descent is actually not marked on the map the heli-ski companies use. The ascent is nice now where snow machine traffic is mostly restrained to the areas outside the Whistler watershed (Hanging Lake is outside). We saw two snow mobilers enjoying the sun next to Rainbow Lake, well inside the boundary but they seem to avoid going on the lake. There were also two snow mobile tracks from the day before on the lower West Slopes of Rainbow - again well inside the boundary. However, compared to previous years there was no snow machine traffic or signs of traffic higher on the ascent.
Peter would you mind filling out the 21 mile creek user survey. We're very short on data this year.
Done - with photos! - I'd like to add that the extend of infringement we observed was a pleasant surprise. Still, the noise when you stop for a breather on Hanging Lake was deafening. It sure would be nice if we skiers could get some peace at this one place in the alpine along the entire Cheakamus divide. I hear Brew Lake hut is also often visited by snow machines. BTW, there were also snow mobile tracks in 19 Mile Creek basin above tree line. They come in from Soo River across the divide.