Black Prince Glades Route Map (see link in desciption - or click here - for interactive version).

Starting out, along the Black Prince Lakes Trail, which initially follows along the right side of Smith-Dorrien Creek, before crossing it on this bridge. We later found out (on descent) that a shortcut exists in winter, where one can simply skin across a natural snow bridge, straight down from the parking lot.

Heading west, up the wide trail on the other side of the creek. Although covered in a fresh layer of snow, the trail is obvious and easy to follow. It gently gains elevation for about 1km, before losing a good 40m (looks like the skins will have to come back out on the way down...), eventually hitting a junction. We ignored the trail branching off to the left, and instead continued straight, down the trail we were already on.

After following the trail for about 350m past the junction, we left it, headed up though open forest to the right, and would soon reach a narrow drainage. (Arrow points to our final destination)

After ascending the drainage for approximately 300m, we noticed a good place to exit, and ascended a short, but steep, slope on climber's left. (You don't want to get caught following the drainage too far, as the banks steepen, making an exit more troublesome.)

Look at all this snow!!!

Once out of the drainage, the slope eases off significantly. We made our way in a northwestern direction, up through the fairly open forest, already dreaming about the ride down.

Soon the slope steepens once more (this time for good), and the switch-backs begin. The bulk of the elevation gain is still in front of us!

Looking through a gap in the trees, to an outlier down Mount Kent's long, south ridge.

The angle of the slope continued to increase as we climbed.

A clearing grants a more comprehensive view of Mount Kent.

Mount Black Prince rises impressively to our left as we climb. Unfortunately the grey lighting sucked away any contrast, making for quite a dull view :(.

Climbing, climbing, climbing...As we made our way up the glades, we took the line of least resistance, switch-backing when it was convenient.

Mount Warspite (left) and Hermione Peak (right) rise in the distance, with Warspite Cirque nestled below. Warspite Ridge sits far-left.

Although not the highest point of the ~7.5km long ridge, this peak is considered the official summit of Mount Kent. The highest point rises almost 300m higher, at the far, north end of the ridge, but has been separately named as Kent Ridge North.

Our ascent had been relatively grey up to this point, but we enjoyed this brief splash of sun to add a bit of contrast to the views!

Mount Black Prince's massive, east face is finally illuminated by the sun.

Zooming in to some frozen waterfall's clinging onto the vertical face.

Some more beautiful lighting on the stunning Mount Black Prince!

Eventually we reached a dense wall of trees that would have been quite awkward to bushwhack through, and decided this was as good a place as any to call the top. Our GPS read 2240m at this point.

Cloudy view from the "top".

Woah, check out that snow, frozen in motion! Nice shot dad ;)! Photo credit: Dad

The snow quality did not disappoint, and the glades were an absolute blast to ski!

You're not getting this kinda snow at the resort!...But what you also don't get at a ski resort, is lost! LOL. We were having too much fun that we completely left our skin track behind, and eventually found ourselves above a steep, densely treed slope! Definitely didn't see that on our ascent...We started traversing to skier's left, losing as little elevation as possible, and rediscovered our skin track after about 200m. Photo credit: Dad

Round 2!

Nice to have a track to follow this time ;)! The skin track was already becoming quite solid with four people having been over it...Yup, I said four! We saw two fellas following it up on our run down, but I guess they only did one lap, as we didn't see them again.

No skiing is free! You either gotta work to pay for a lift ticket, or physically climb up the mountain. I think I enjoy this kind of work a little bit more ;).

Back to the fun stuff ;)!

I can't believe I just started backcountry skiing this year! This snow is unreal! Photo credit: Dad

Just looking at these pictures makes me want to go back :').

One more time! Round 3!

Hey! That's kinda neat!

More tracks.

The distant Opal Range is revealed, with Mount Blane and The Blade (center-left) rising over Kent South Peak (far-right).

Remember how I talked about the dense wall of trees and awkward bushwhacking earlier...Yeah, well this is it! The two fellas who had followed our skin track had decided to trudge on, past where we had stopped. Thinking that maybe they knew something that we didn't, we decided to follow their track for our final lap...

Well that's interesting...Just a few meters above "the tree wall", they decided to call it a day and skied down. Strange.

Not wanting to have suffered through that short, but nasty, bushwhack for nothing, we decided to push on, and were once again breaking trail.

Soon the terrain opened, became quite steep, and the wind picked up as we passed the tree line.

A few switch-backs higher, and we decided to call it a day ourselves, at the last, lone tree. The wind was howling up here, pounding against the slope, and creating quite a wind slab situation! Knowing that the ski quality would not impress, as well as for obvious avalanche safety concerns, we knew that it wasn't in our best interests to continue any higher. (Our GPS read 2331m)

Final view of Mount Black Prince.

Looking across the big, open slope, to some dark cliffs looming above.

Comprehensive view down the valley as more stormy weather rolls in.

There's no better way to get down a mountain!

I love skiing :). Photo credit: Dad

If only every day could be like this. But then it wouldn't feel as special, now would it?

Another circled tree!

More skiing :). Photo credit: Dad

Wanting to make a stop at Warspite Lake on our way down, we aimed in its general direction (you can see it from the "top") on our ski down. As we neared the bottom, the forest thickened, and we had to watch out for small creeks funnelling down to the lake! The activity definitely changed to survival skiing as we neared the shores...

We soon emerged at Warspite Lake, who's clearing granted us this incredible view!

Gazing up to Mount Black Prince, which towers over 1100m above!

Comprehensive view up to Warspite Ridge (left), Hermione Peak (center), and Mount Black Prince (right)!

Hermione Peak rises angelically above Warspite Cirque.

Unique snow formations on the frozen lake.

Unique snow formations on the frozen lake.

Unfortunately the skiing was over once we reached the lake, and we had no choice but to put skins back on as we headed east, around the lake. We soon intercepted the Warspite Lake Trail (the one we by-passed earlier), and followed it down a short distance to where it joined with our ascent trail. All that remained was regaining the 40m we lost earlier, followed by about a 1km, 100 vertical meter descent. Although this final descent might justify taking off the skins, we'd done enough transitions already, and decided to just leave them on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Mind you, we had to take them off once we reached our car anyway...So it probably would've made more sense to just make the transition earlier. Oh well! With that being said, this has gotta be the best skiing I've experienced to date! Maybe you just appreciate it more when you physically have to work for it, or maybe the snow quality in the backcountry really is that much better...All I know, is that we got three incredible runs of fluffy, untouched pow and basically had the whole area to ourselves! If I'm in the area again after a fresh dump, you know where to find me ;)!