Zosia Zgolak and I skied to Molar Meadows in
Alberta's Banff National Park on 5 March 2022. This fairly
straightforward ski tour is described in Chic Scott's Ski Trails in
the Canadian Rockies. Although there are opportunities for
making ski turns in the vicinity of the meadows, most of the approach
along Mosquito Creek is relatively flat. As such, we opted to use
light touring ski gear for this trip.
Starting from Mosquito Creek trailhead (along Highway 93, 24.0 kilometres
north of the junction with Trans-Canada Highway), Zosia and I started
with a quick visit to an impressive icefall not far upstream of the
trailhead kiosk. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to continue
skiing upstream past the icefall, and we had to backtrack to the
trailhead kiosk to take the official trail which climbs steeply for the
first few hundred metres before levelling off. Despite having an
already broken trail to follow, our ski to the Mosquito Creek backcountry
campground seemed slow and labourious mostly because of me.
Recovering from a leg injury, Zosia still easily outpaced me throughout
the day as I struggled with both a nagging sore ankle and my grip wax.
Beyond the campground, Zosia and I had to break trail through about
fifteen centimetres of fresh snow covering an old track which followed a
tributary of Mosquito Creek to the southeast. Ironically, we made
better progress here after electing to strap on our climbing skins.
After passing a signed junction about two kilometres from the campground,
we began to climb more steeply while zigzagging up a forested slope.
We eventually broke out of the trees and reached a high point of sorts at
the edge of Molar Meadows. On this sunny day, the scenery at Molar
Meadows did not disappoint, but just when Zosia and I were beginning to
wonder why there was nobody else here, a horde of skiers began appearing
behind us. The first two skiers to follow us up turned out to be a
Polish acquaintance of Zosia's and her partner while close behind them
was a large ski group which numbered more than a dozen people.
Although it would have been nice to explore Molar Meadows more, the
lateness of the day prompted Zosia and me to turn around once we had our
fill of socializing with the other skiers. The descent from the
meadows to the valley was challenging, at least for me, with light
touring gear. Zosia danced down the forested slope seemingly
effortlessly while I had a couple of inevitable wipeouts. The ski
out the valley felt long and tedious because there are a lot of annoying
little uphill sections along the way. In contrast, the final steep
and narrow descent to the trailhead kiosk was fast and terrifying.
Zosia managed to make it all the way down on her skis, but I was not too
proud to pick up my skis and walk down the final steep section.
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Zosia checks out an impressive icefall not far from the trailhead. |
Quartzite Peak, Ramp Peak and Mosquito Mountain stretch
across the horizon as Zosia skis up Mosquito Creek valley.
Although Molar Meadows invites further exploration,
Sonny and Zosia make this their turnaround point (2297 metres) for the
day.
 |
Zosia heads back down into the valley. |
Mosquito Mountain dominates the north side of Molar
Meadows..
 |
Zosia gets a good view of
Bow Peak (right)
as she skis out Mosquito Creek valley. |
 |
Total
Distance: 17.9 kilometres
Round-Trip Time: 8 hours 2 minutes
Cumulative
Elevation Gain: 579 metres
GPX Data |
