Backcountry Skiing at Akimina Pass in Waterton

I had been wanting to visit Waterton Lakes National Park for a while now but getting there always included a long travel time. I was surprised it is only 2 hours from Fernie and the drive takes you over the Crowsnest Pass and through some rural Albertan towns. Few people backcountry ski here but with some quick research I had found a route and figured I would get more information at the visitor center also. Apparently in April they pave the section of road in Glacier National Park but not the road connecting Waterton to Glacier until June so you always have a few options depending on the time of year

I have been driving the Crowsnest highway tons around Hope BC and few times as far as Nelson/Castlegar but this was my first time going over Crowsnest Pass itself

Path to Kootenai Brown cemetery at Lower Waterton Lake

Bear's Hump trailhead

Visitor Center

Great chat with the park staff at the front desk who also happened to be the author of the red field guide. She had extensive knowledge of the zone.

Traffic jam on the Akamina Pass road which is the only 1 of the 3 road systems that is plowed in the winter. The road going to the US border at Glacier National Park is intentionally not plowed so they do not have the staff the border crossing

Parking at the Lower Prairie trailhead. The gate was closed past here and I think that is normal for winter. I agree this is good for the Alpine Club of Canada since it forces people to carry their own food and gear to the hut instead of having road access and bringing more than necessary which can lead to waste

Evidence of the big 2017 Wildfire

I turned off the road and into the forest trail from here and was going to either turn around at Akamina Pass or carry on to 1 of the 2 lakes in the area. This route to the junction was made for horses so I figured it would be fine to ski

The junction for Forum Lake and Well Lake. There is also a loop you can do in the summer which connects both of these with a significant ridge. Apparently there is a 5m scramble which is sketchy and best done clockwise with going in the direction of Forum Lake first.

Akamina-Kishinena Ranger Station

Forum Falls

Visibility opening up for a short while

Somewhere before this point, I crossed the transition from the burned trees to the green trees that survived the fire. It was quite the sudden switch and the route was much easier to navigate in a straight line through the burned section. My GPS was also not working optimally so I kept zig zagging through the dense trees and probably took double the distance in that small section. I ended up getting frustrated with the GPS and used my compass following a southern bearing to the lake

Forum Lake inside the bowl with the steep cliffs above. The lake was hard to see in the low vis but it was clear lots of sluffing snow and wet loose avalanches kept the snow at the lake level in an irregular pattern

I ended up skiing this creek to stay further to the east and skip a section of the road. Snow conditions were amazing for late March in the zone with a few inches of soft dry powder on top of a very firm crust so you could initiate turns easily in the dense burned out trees as well as skate ski on the wide flat sections