A Day on The Whales Back

Kar
Feb 21, 2019
5 min read

Evening Ridge/ The Whaleback

Trip: 7 km Elevation gain: 675m

Challenging avalanche terrain: Bring Beacon, probe, shovel for your safety. Take someone who knows the area with you.

Well the day started out as a series of unfortunate events(cat peed in my backpack, slept through my alarm, and forgot to turn the dryer on last night so all my gear was soaked). I had made a plan to head up to Whitewater backcountry with Goody, but did not have her number to contact her that I was going to be a bit late. I almost cancelled, but had no means of contacting her. So this series of unfortunate events ended up with Goody almost leaving without me, but thank god she didn't. The sky in Castlegar was grey and cloudy this morning, but as I drove closer to Nelson it became the opposite. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining. I met up with Goody, and we headed up to the Whitewater area. Goody mentioned to me that since it was a beautiful day, we would do Evening Ridge, and depending on my comfort zone we would try to do The Whaleback. The avalanche risk was moderate, so I agreed to once again stretch my boundaries. We parked 2.5 km before Whitewater Ski Resort in the small parking lot on the left side 10.5 km up Whitewater rd. This snowshoe adventure started off in the trees with a beautiful blue sky, but as we got to the uphill section it unfortunately clouded over. We started up the steeper way to get to Evening Ridge, and Goody joked that she didn't want to count how many switchbacks there were or we probably would not go back lol. The switchbacks were set up nicely to go uphill at a great pace, but not overly steep. It was a comfortable grade for myself, but definitely not for someone brand new to snowshoeing. As we reached the first small hump that some call evening ridge closer to hummingbird pass, we really got socked in. There wasn't much for views, but the trees as we climbed higher were absolutely incredible. We went to the left of the first big hump toward the true Evening Ridge. This part of the snowshoe was pushing my boundaries a bit. The scenery as we climbed higher along the ridge was just stunning. The trees were covered in blankets of snow giving them that super soft fluffy look, and even though it was cloudy the entire ridge was just sparling with new snow. When we reached close to the top of Evening Ridge there was a snow bridge we had to cross between trees that was quite frightening to me, but once we were to the top of the ridge I was so amazed by all the beauty surrounding us I had forgotten about the one scary part. It was a whiteout. So much fog was surrounding us but, you could still see how high we had climbed up from the road, and it was a pretty good distance. Back country skiers typically stop here and find their line to ski down. We stopped for a few minutes to take in our beautiful surroundings, and that was when Goody pointed out where we were headed. I almost fainted. For real, all I could focus on in the distance was the big hump with quite a few cornices on the right side. It looked narrow, and super sketchy. My avalanche fear was in overdrive! I was glad when she said that we should take a look around to see what the best route was, because anymore standing around would've led to me running back down the mountain. We noticed an awesome skin trail put in by a group of skiers, and decided to add a couple switchbacks of our own to the wider areas to make our trek on the way back a bit easier. As we got closer, and closer to our destination I could feel that fear causing my breathe to quicken, and my legs to shake. When we arrived at the cornices I could barely force one foot in front of the other. The skin trail put in was definitely the safest area to travel just barely around these cornices, and the ridge was just wide enough for me to be able to will myself one slow step at a time to make it up. At one point I had almost succumbed to my fear, but looked up and Goody was waving from the top not even 50 feet away. I had to hold my breathe because it was the closest I was to the edge, but I had nearly made it so couldn't turn back now, and I did it. I made it to the top of the bloody whaleback, and it was the most incredible feeling in the world. It was also the best view of the entire day because the wind at that moment just started pushing out the cloud cover. We could see for miles, and what a view it was. I was filled with so many endorphins I could explode. Nothing beats that feeling of accomplishment, especially when facing one of my worst fears(avalanche terrain). We took a few moments to celebrate, and captured quite a few photos of the picturesque views around us. As we headed down from this stunning winter wonderland the sky opened up, and we were rewarded with wonderful views of Ymir Peak from Evening Ridge. The views we didn't get to see on the way up due to cloud cover. The snow was sparkling white, and those fluffy trees were casting amazing shadows against that gorgeous crystal snow, while the sun shone through. We couldn't have had a better day spent up on that ridge. I barely recognized the snow bridge on the way down after climbing up and around those cornices lol. I couldn't stop taking pictures the entire way down because of the beauty of the day. Once we got to safer terrain is where the fun began! My second favorite part of snowshoeing after the scenery. Freestyle snowshoeing. As we free shoed our way down(kind of like skiing through fresh powder but in snowshoes), we tumbled, tripped, and floated through that soft powder arriving back at the bottom in no time at all. I will forever remember these moments, because they are so beautiful, and every part of the life I have always wanted to live. I thank Goody so much for allowing me to stretch those boundaries, and my sisters for always being down to adventure. Here are the photos of the most amazing day with great company spent in a true winter wonderland.