Date: April 10, 2022
Location/Route Map: Kananaskis (Smith-Dorrien)
Elevation: 2220 m
Elevation Gain: 495 m
Distance: 4.7 km
Rating: Class 1
Avalanche Terrain Rating: Simple
Notes: Getting lost in the forest is the only danger you'll face trying to reach this lake. Venturing around to the south side of the lake, however, exposes you to avalanche hazard from the steep cliffs and slopes above. Use caution and choose your route carefully. Big masses of snow can move far and fast!
GPS Track: Download
"Hidden Warspite Lake" is just a super creative name I came up with (LOL) for the little lake that's nestled below Warspite Ridge's sheer north face. The Warspite Lake label is already taken for the little body of water down to the northwest, but since this lake is even closer to its namesake, Mount Warspite, other names simply don't make much sense. I doubt it's often visited, as it's "hidden" quite well 😉 and has no signs of trail leading to it what-so-ever. After scrambling up Limestone Mountain and Ridge in the morning, we ended in a complete blizzard around 3pm and decided we'd try to hunt for some of the fresh snow. After driving to multiple different possibilities, we quickly realized that much less snow had fallen than we initially anticipated...It was probably around 6pm when we finally decided to go back to the Black Prince area (having fond memories from the previous week), and hope for the best. Unfortunately the approach to get to the "good stuff" is significant (considering our late start), and we quickly lost interest and started up the moderately dense, forested slopes to climber's left of the approach trail with no real goal in mind...
Hidden Warspite Lake Route Map (see link in desciption - or click here - for interactive version).
After leaving the Black Prince Parking lot and crossing the creek on a natural snow bridge, we only followed the approach trail for about 300m, before heading up, through the forest, on the left.
Looking back at our skin track...I guess there's a bit of powder :).
We weaved our way up through the forest, our path decided by wherever there were the least trees! The hope was that we would then be able to follow our skin track on the way down, and it would take us to the most open terrain to ski...
At one point, my dad was checking the aerial map on his phone (to look for sections with sparse trees) and we discovered a small lake in the general direction we were headed. Having had no real objective when we started out, knowing that this lake existed boosted my motivation, and gave me a goal to work towards.
This brown bark really stood out!
Looks like there's something ahead...! (Note the cliffs visible in the gaps between trees.)
We soon emerged at the clearing granted by "Hidden Warspite Lake", with Warspite Ridge towering above its southern bank!
Close up of the impressive Warspite Ridge!!
Comprehensive view of the lake and its surroundings. This was quite a surreal place. It felt so quiet and peaceful, and as if we were the only people for miles.
We decided to spend some more time in the beautiful area, and skinned across the lake to check out the other side. To our surprise, we noticed a couple other skin tracks on the lake. We didn't see any on our way up, so that was weird...¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Photo credit: Dad
Looking back to "Hidden Warspite Lake" and the complete whiteout beyond.
Skinning up slopes on the south side of the lake.
If you plan to venture on the south side of the lake, you probably want to keep a safe distance from the sheer cliffs above...Although they may look that way, those cornices are not small!!
Another look back to the cliffs. If those cornices were to fail, I'm sure they'd cause quite a chain reaction on those steep slopes below...
We continued heading southeast, up tame slopes, and soon reached a plateau.
An unnamed peak makes a partial appearance to the northwest.
The plateau.
Wow! That's a little brave...Note the skin tracks switch-backing up the slope! Maybe it's not as steep as it looks, but wow! As we were now approaching 8pm, further venturing was not an option for us. With the sun setting rapidly, we hurriedly packed up our skins for the ski down.
Having noticed a gully that presented a good line for descent, on our way up, we assumed this drainage would lead to it, and started down. Note: The following are a collection of very poor quality screenshots from a couple videos we took in the dying light...Enjoy ;)!
It turns out that the upper drainage does not connect to the descent gully...but after a short traverse to skier's right, we quickly discovered it and finally got to really ski!
Me, enjoying a few powder turns down the gully. Photo credit: Dad
Same as above. Photo credit: Dad
Looking back to the few seconds of paradise, before a much more eventful (not in a good way!) descent...
Once we reached the lake flats, my dad opted to switch back to skins for the stretch of flat ground between us and the forest, while I was too stubborn and simply trudged on in ski boots, skis in hand. Note the difference in tracks, lol.
Check out this incredible picture ;P! Lot's of things happened before this, none of which were taking pictures...After reaching the north end of the lake, we started a very dark ski ride down (tall trees really don't let much light in!), and unsurprisingly, soon lost sight of our skin track...We found ourselves stuck in some extremely dense bush, with no signs of familiarity, and barely any light to see by. Our only option was to take off our skis and bushwack through the dense wall until we reached more open terrain. Lucky for us, we were eventually able to rediscover our skin track, and let's just say that we were a little more cautious from there on out! The remainder of the descent was more-so just trying to stay alive, rather than enjoy the skiing.
A look at where we randomly decided to leave the broad approach trail a few hours earlier...Our adventure may have ended a little bit sour, but it was an adventure alright, and offered us a unique view of a rarely visited, let alone known of, alpine lake. Oh, and we can't forget about those 10 beautiful powder turns! It may not have been much, but it was something ;)!!
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