Tom shared:

  • How to prepare for the Wapta and Bow-Yoho traverses
  • The physical demands of traveling on the Waputik Icefield
  • What makes ski mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies so great
  • Accommodation in backcountry huts
  • What weather conditions to expect
  • Day-to-day activities on the trip
  • Stunning photos and videos from his adventures

The Waputik Icefield of the Canadian Rockies has a legendary reputation as a paradise for ski mountaineering. This melding of glaciers along the Great Divide boasts an excellent hut system, perfect terrain for hut-to-hut traverses, and easy access to expansive ski mountaineering objectives. It’s a classic for the country, about as Canadian as maple syrup, moose and Mounties.

In this one-hour session, ACMG and IFMGA Mountain Guide Tom Wolfe introduced two brilliant stars of Waputik’s snowy constellation: the Wapta Traverse and the Bow-Yoho Traverse.

Both trips chart a course through demanding but dazzling terrain that offers peak bagging and powder skiing galore. But the fun doesn’t stop when the skis are off. After an unforgettable day of hunting turns on vast glaciers, there’s no better way to unwind than in the comfort of a backcountry hut, where a roasting fireside dinner and a toasty drink soothe the weary traveler.

For experienced skiers who are comfortable on black diamond resort runs, hut-to-hut traverses in the Rockies are the next step on their path to serious off-piste shredding. So if you’re ready to take your skiing to the hair-raising thrills of the Waputik backcountry, check out this free webinar and hear from a professional guide with decades of experience in the heart of the Rockies.

Webinar host

Tom Wolfe
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

Tom Wolfe is a mountain guide based out of Canmore, Alberta in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. He started Sawback Alpine Adventures in 1995, initially running mountain hiking trips and later, as an IFMGA certified mountain guide, leading ice climbing and ski adventures throughout the Canadian Rockies, on sail-to-ski journeys in Norway and beyond. Tom worked as a heli-ski guide in northern British Columbia for close to ten years, juggling shifts heli-skiing with weeks at backcountry ski lodges. Eventually Tom settled on his first love, guiding ski touring trips, and has never looked back.