Via Ptarmigan Lake. Not the best skiing, hence the 1-star rating. Nonetheless, a fun ski-assisted, mildly technical winter scramble in ski boots!
Logistics
Park at the Fish Creek parking lot at Lake Louise Ski Resort (Skoki Lodge Parking).
Trip Report
The route begins up the Lake Louise ski-out from the Fish Creek parking lot, and continues along the Skoki Lodge trail above Temple Lodge. Above, we are reaching Boulder Pass (approximately 2 hour skin from parking lot).
Reaching Ptarmigan Lake. Fossil Peak on left (FP) with access to Skoki Lodge below it. Heather Ridge on the right (HR), with Anthozoan Mountain (A) and our target, Brachiopod Mountain (B). Approximate route to summit in Red. Unity Peak can be reached via Redoubt Lake by passing below Heather Ridge on the immediate right of picture.
Reaching the base of Brachiopod Mountain. Approximate route up in red, with ski-descent marked by arrow. Much of the ascent was a scree-slog, and much of the descent was a wind-crust (West facing slope), but was a relatively safe objective for the hazardous conditions.
Below the summit slab of Brachiopod.
Snow and ice covered slab added a degree of difficulty to the ascent, especially in ski boots! Rigging up a quick anchor for a belay up the slab, above.
More somewhat technical ski-boot slab climbing to reach the summit. We rappelled off the nut wedged under the ice-encrusted rock shown.
Summit shot, with Fossil Mountain and Tilted lake shown below.
Stats
Times and distances are round-trip.
