Bow Yoho Traverse March 16-22 2018

Here's a glimpse back at a trip report from 2018, when Tom Wolfe guided a group across this famous Rockies hut traverse over the spring equinox.

This 2026 season Sawback is offering two different Bow–Yoho Traverse Trips: March 15–21 and April 13–18, 2026. If you’re interested in joining us on one of these dates, reach out with any questions you may have, or visit our trip info page to make a booking.

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The Wapta Icefield is an incredible destination for ski mountaineering. It truly has it all: an excellent hut system, perfect terrain for traverses, and easy access to outstanding ski mountaineering objectives. The best time of year is late March to late April, when the snowpack is settled and you can still count on dry powder runs; this trip is right in that perfect window.

The classic Wapta Traverse runs roughly north–south across the expanse of the Wapta and Waputik Icefields, passing by four ACC huts. The east–west crossing, from Bow Lake to Takkakaw Falls and the Highway 1 corridor near Field, BC, is a classic traverse in its own right, but a much more serious one due to the 20 km crossing between the Bow and Stanley Mitchell huts. The new Louise and Richard Guy Hut at Mont des Poilus breaks up this crossing, making the trip safer, more comfortable, and more accessible.

The first documented crossing of the Bow–Yoho Traverse was made in summer 1910 by the renowned Austrian guide Conrad Kain. Kain guided the route in six days from Laggan (present-day Lake Louise) with pack horses to Bow Lake and included a first ascent of Mont des Poilus on July 31, his 27th birthday. (ACC)

The new hut also provides a staging point for objectives around the Des Poilus Glacier zone: Mt. Collie, Mt. Des Poilus, and the exciting steep descent directly to the lower Yoho Glacier are a few of the options that previously required either very long days from huts, or a high camp. Now you’ve got the state-of-the-art Guy Hut to return to at the end of the day! We will spend two nights at the Bow Hut, two nights at the Guy Hut, and a final two nights at Stanley Mitchell Hut.