First trip of 2021 and I did it with Marina who is a bad ass female ultra trail runner. We have tried to line up a few trips in the past but nothing really worked out but this time it finally happened.




The weather was calling for clearing later in the day so we didn't have to start too early. The only problem with the conditions was the fact that it had snowed over 60cm in 2 days leading up to this trip. This would prove to be bad news as you will see in the youtube video above. We started snowshoeing up the green run called Horseshoe which is allowed by the ski resort. Even the ski run was packed powder so right then I knew where were going to be in for a day.




We arrived at the top of the ski run and found the start of the Poland Lake trail. There was no broken trail so off we went. The only thing I can say good about the trail breaking was the fact that it was light, but it was insanely deep. It was basically plowing and making a trench to get to the top of Grassy Mountain.





After alot of effort we summited Grassy and timed it fairly decent as the clouds were just starting to break up as the forecast called for, after a quick snack we stayed up on the ridge and made our way over to Bojo the highest one of the 3.




Meandering through the forest, doing a few ups and downs and still plowing through the snow we took turns doing the trailbreaking until finally arriving at the summit of Bojo.






The weather was constantly getting better and I still had abit of gas left in the tank so we descended the South slopes of Bojo heading to the valley floor where we would decide on either just hiking out the valley back to the ski run , or heading up Mara.



When we arrived at the valley floor, my energy levels were getting fairly low, I had done a good portion of trailbreaking on the way up, and even heading down was hard work. I talked it over with Marina and said we have lots of time and I"m not worried about getting lost but the only way we do Mara is if you take over for a good chunk of the trailbreaking up Mara. She's got the stamina and endurance being an ultra trail runner, but still learning the trailbreaking technique aspect of it. She was keen to put in the work so up we go for Mara.




The forest was open and the grade was steep but not too steep. We grunted our way up to the West ridge of Mara where we were greeted to sunshine and views of Hozomeen.



Working our way along the ridge was straightforward with no roadblocks, until we topped out on Mara.



The trip down off Mara was fast in the snow, our track down angled to where we would pop out of the forest onto a nicely groomed ski run on the lift that wasn't running. A nice chill walk back to the truck completed our 3 peak loop. I would later post this route on the Facebook hiking group pages and around 20 people in total from different groups would go use the well made track we put in. Power of social media. Sharing is caring!