Mamquam Massif to Elfin Lakes Ski Traverse
- Jessie McAuley
- Apr 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 28
Over the years, I have thought that skiing from the Mamquam Massif to Elfin Lakes via the classic Supercouloir makes for a logical ski traverse. In 2021, Ryan Allderman and crew completed the traverse in around 19 hours with good snow in Supercouloir and an accidental wrong turn down Zig-Zag Creek. On April 18th, 2025, Nick and I decided to do the traverse with what seemed like good conditions for fast travel.
We left my truck at the Watersprite trailhead around 7:15. After 30-40 minutes of unpleasant slogging along the old roadbed, we reached Paranoid Creek. Paranoid Creek can be quite a hassle to get across depending on the snow levels. Thankfully, we found a strong(ish) log and shuffled our way across with no problems. From here, we switchbacked and boot-packed through the forest until reaching the treeline. This took around 40 minutes, efficient considering the deadfall and funky snow levels.
Once in the alpine, we began the long climb to the Mamquam Icefield. We passed below the Darling group, which Nick compared to the Aiguilles Rouges above Chamonix. Small but impressive faces with many 200-300 meter couloirs. There is no gondola straight to the base with cappuccino waiting on the summit. This is both unfortunate and fortunate depending on what you think about European mountain culture. We passed a large group of snowshoeing peak baggers destined for Mount Mamquam as we reached to top of the climb. We ripped skins on the icefield and began a long and gradual descent across the icefield to Trick Peak.
Trick Peak is a rather obscure summit at the north end of the Mamquam Icefield. We figured that we might as well go to its summit since we were in its vicinity. We had hopes of descending its North Glacier, which would lead us directly to Supercouloir. Unfortunately, we soon realized it was a significant cliff and decided to ski corn back down to a col, then wrap around the west side of Trick. This was maybe slightly longer with an initial 200m corn run, so I was not upset. We traversed under the west side of Trick on rock-hard snow to the Trick-Spire Col.
From the Trick-Spire Col, we were able to skate directly to Supercouloir. My suspicion of the snow quality being poor was correct and then some. Given that the line is not steep, we decided to continue. We sideslipped and hop-turned our way down Supercouloir. Towards the bottom, we had to descend significant amounts of re-frozen avalanche debris. Needless to say, I will have to make another trip to Supercouloir in the future to ski it in better style.
As we ascended out of the tight valley, I was quite impressed by the size of the avalanches from several days prior. 3-5m deep crowns with enormous debris piles. We hastily skinned out of the valley to the Lava Glacier. From the Lava Glacier to the finish, we slogged in the sun. Temps were around 15-20 degrees. Nick and I both felt happy not to be out for much longer suffering in the heat.
We cruised down to the Elfin Lakes parking lot where my mom was kind enough to pick us up. The Mamquam-Elfin Traverse is very worthwhile. It is an opportunity to explore the lesser-traveled southern pocket of Garibaldi Park. However, I would suggest sacrificing more efficient travel conditions for powder or chalky snow in Supercouloir. The traverse may take longer, but the skiing would be much more rewarding. Nick also thought up another interesting idea: linking both Mamquam and Garibaldi summits, then skiing out via Brohm Ridge. This would extend the day by at least 2-3 hours.
Stats from the day
6:44:52
39km
2850m Gain
I also made a short POV video that you can find on my YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJckpyYJjto&t=9s
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