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The Little B's in the Land of the Pharaohs!
Report Submitted by Little Bs
(trip) Date: Saturday Mar 18, 2023
Submitted: Monday Mar 20, 2023 at 16:49
Participants:
The Little B's and Dad, the Blades and their guardian
Discussion:
Friday afternoon, while engrossed in our favourite movie 50 Shades of Pink, Dad said we were going to visit the pharaohs in Egypt tomorrow. And something about knives. Crazy! Everyone knows there's no skiing in Egypt and it hasn't had a pharaoh in 2,000 years! Figuring it was just one of his Dad jokes we ignored him and went back to our movie. But at 0630 Saturday morning, off we went. We soon realized our mistake. In fact, we were going to ski Egypt Lake and Pharaoh Creek with our friends the Blades from Canmore!
https://www.skierroger.ca/showimage.php?id=1411&pic=1 .
This route involves a car shuttle between the start at the Sunshine Gondola Base Station and the end at the Redearth Creek trailhead. We started off from Sunshine at about 0900 in clear skies, calm wind, and -9C. Earlier that week we had attempted a tour in the Johnston Creek / Hillsdale Meadow area, but had to turn back short of our goal due to a snowpack consisting entirely of facets that had us crashing through to ground. The same snowpack was present here if one went off the trail, until we reached 1900m where it finally became supportive. Knowing we had a long way to go, we intended to maintain a good pace, but quickly succumbed to chatting with people en route and an incident where Dad sank to his hips in a patch of isothermal snow! .
At Healy Pass we tried using our selfie stick to take a photo of us and the Blades - photo #2. It didn't turn out well so Dad took one of us instead - photo #3. And looking toward Assiniboine - photo #4.
From the pass we had a gentle run toward Pharaoh Creek, where we entered a magical land of mossy trees and snow mushrooms - photos #5-7. Our route merged with a couple of old snow-covered tracks that led us to the Egypt Lake Warden Cabin where we took a well-deserved break. - photos #1, 8, 9.
From there, we followed the tracks toward the Pharaoh Creek Campground where the magical scenery continued - photos #10-11. Initially, because of a supportive crust, it was just as easy to break trail out of the tracks as in. However at about halfway to the campground it had warmed up enough to break the crust down. Luckily the tracks were still supportive so we continued on top of them. But our problems were only beginning. The metal plate on the leading edge of our kicker skins -
https://www.skierroger.ca/showcommentimage.php?id=832&pic=0 - were clumping up in the sticky snow. We decided we'd make better progress without them. That worked well for a while, but then the snow became so isothermal that Dad's poles kept plunging through the snowpack whenever he tried to help us along a few short uphill sections.
From the Pharaoh Creek Campground the trail used to follow Pharaoh Creek down to its junction with Redearth Creek. But the 2013 flood destroyed that route. A new trail now climbs about 100m above the east bank, including a few short steep sections. And so we donned our full skins for the first time ever! Luckily they provided great grip because poles were now useless. From the high point, the trail drops 200m over 2km to the Redearth Creek Warden Cabin - photo #12. We kept the skins on, since the slightest deviation from the tracks we were following would have us plunging out of sight into the snowpack! After a short break at the cabin, we continued on the well-groomed Redearth Creek Trail back to the parking lot. After dinner in Canmore we didn't get back home until late in the evening, and slept most of Sunday, which is why we didn't post our report earlier! A special thanks to the skis that set the track we followed and let us continue when the snow everywhere else became isothermal.
For those thinking of doing this route, there is now a well-packed track from treeline below Healy Pass to the Redearth Creek Warden Cabin. But if it's a particularly warm sunny day the track itself might break down. You may have to bivvy until well after sunset so the track can harden up enough for travel. We expect "Democratize AB" is salivating at the thought!
Total distance: 31.30 Km
 Photo #1 Egypt Lake Warden Cabin
 Photo #2 Our selfie stick photo didn't work out well
 Photo #3 Looking NW from Healy Pass. One of us points to the S Pharaoh Peak while the other points to Mt. Ball!
 Photo #4 Looking SE to Assiniboine
 Photo #5
 Photo #6
4 comment(s) posted
Comments:
2023-03-20 at 17:14 - comment by Little Bs
More photos!
 Photo #7
 Photo #8 Egypt Lake Warden Cabin area
 Photo #9 Egypt Lake Warden Cabin area
 Photo #10 Along Pharaoh Creek
 Photo #11 Along Pharaoh Creek
 Photo #12 Redearth Creek Warden Cabin
2023-03-20 at 18:22 - comment by aqua toque
Hi Little B's. Thanks for the informative report and great photos!
Just on question--there's 2 of you right? So who does all the talking?
2023-03-20 at 18:38 - comment by Little Bs
aqua toque - We take turns. Sometimes parallel; sometimes tele.
2023-03-20 at 19:00 - comment by aqua toque
Wow. The two of you are even more amazing than I imagined!
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