Via Lizard Lake hiking trail. Fantastic snow quality made up for the tight and steep approach.
Parking
Park at the Island Lake Lodge parking lot, just past the Mt. Fernie PP boundary.
Trip Report
Begin the route by heading west along the cross country ski trail from the parking lot. We mistakenly took the road on the way up, which required us to bushwack back to the trail. Stick to the XC trail instead.
Branch off the XC trail at approximately 49.493N 115.117W and follow the signed hiking trail towards Lizard Lake. Depending on the snowpack conditions, you may have to do a sketchy creek crossing. Traverse along the creek until you find a safe place to cross, then continue up the hiking trail.
A nice, wide trail with a skin track was a welcome surprise on the other side of the creek!
The skin-track soon disappeared as we continued up the Lizard Lake trail, but there were handy markers along the way. Depending on snow depth, these markers may be hidden so do your best to stay on the ridge. As with most hiking trails on skis, the approach was steep and tight. Tough work!
Reaching Lizard Lake and Liverworst Pass, above. We decided to ski the east-facing slopes off Liverworst Ridge, with our approximate ascent route marked in red above. Great tree skiing in this area.
Skinning up the face through the trees.
Continuing along Liverworst ridge until we came across a cliff band. It looked like there was a way around the cliff, but I did not have enough confidence in the snowpack to make the steep traverse below the cliff. There are some great looking chutes leading off to the right of the above photo down into Steep Mother bowl.
Jenny happy with the turns!
Stats
GPS route above in blue. Make sure you stick to the XC trail for a quicker approach from the parking lot. You can also reach this bowl by traversing over Fish Bowl from FAR.
Times and distances are round trip.
awesome blog Cody!
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