Eldorado Basin Skiing
February 15-17, 2025
Nea peak has been on Francis & I’s to-do list for quite some time, and with a full long weekend and mediocre weather down south, we decided to make the drive up to the bridge river area (which at this point is one of our favourites).
This whole zone falls in the tenure of Tyax Heli skiing, with their “Eldorado cabin” sitting right in the middle of the meadows. Francis and I didn’t feel like dropping 8k for the luxury cabin experience though, so we hiked up to the pass the normal-people way with skis on our feet.
Saturday had rather miserable weather, with near whiteout conditions, high winds, and temps down to -14°C. We hiked in from the well maintained “High trail” just west of Tyaughton lake, which surprisingly had enough snow to skin up right from the truck. We made camp high in the meadows, near some trees for shelter from the wind. It was a really cold night and with nothing better to do than tuck into our sleeping bags, we slept nearly 13 hours!
The start of the hike in
Leaving treeline in the blizzard
Looking for a good campsite out of the wind
Francis starting dinner in the little kitchen I dug out for us
On Sunday the 16th, our main objective was Nea Peak. Although there were less winds and slightly warmer temps than the previous day, the whiteout persisted all day, making navigation difficult and disorienting.
We skied over Camel Pass from our campsite, and ascended the south ridgeline on Nea peak, avoiding any steep or convex slopes while we got a feeling for the snow. As we neared 2300m, the wind blown ridgeline became more rocky than snowy, so we ditched the skis and booted to the summit, getting rewarded with perfect ping pong ball views.. !
Given the conditions, we decided it wouldn’t be worth it to ski up to Eldorado, so we abandoned any ideas of summiting any more peaks and instead spent the day enjoying the fantastic powder skiing near camel pass. The snow was dry and fluffy, and we skied an incredible line from alpine to treeline, floating through some magical meadows and open trees. We found no signs of instability in the snow other than a few isolated wind loaded pockets, and no signs of recent avalanches.
As the sun set at camp that evening, we got our first peek at the sun through the clouds, and were rewarded with some slightly less miserable temperatures for sleeping.
Leaving our camp behind for the day
Skiing through the blizzard, camel pass behind me
Slightly less clouds as we traversed towards Nea peak
Francis crossing more mellow slopes on the way to Nea
Nea peak ahead of us, the true summit still hidden in the clouds
Francis crossing more mellow slopes on the way to Nea
Some sketchy skinning.. probably worth walking at this point
We took off skis around here. Less and less snow as we went higher.
Myself hiking up towards the summit
True, true whiteout as we went higher!!
Me on the summit! No views to be had haha
Still in whiteout conditions as we descended from the summit..
The end of the whiteout was very abrupt! The cloud line sat right around 2200m.
Enjoying some amazing turns off of Nea peak (lower down)
Skinning back up for another lap!!
Clouds clearing, finally giving us some views as we got back to camp
Epic sunset!
Epic sunset!
I woke up around 1am and peered out the tent to find the most amazing cloud inversion with the moon! This was the best photo we could get of it..
On Monday morning, we got up a little earlier, making the most of the conditions finally improving. We toured up to Cinnamon Peak which was only a short 15min hike from our camp, and then skied a full 300m vertical down to the meadows. This run was indescribable. It was like skiing any world class resort, except with no lifts, and not a single other ski track. I felt so happy I could have cried!
I now understand why people drop the big $$$ to go Heli skiing.
We then toured up to Evola Peak, making another few fantastic ski runs and then back to camp before noon. What a morning!!
As we packed up camp, the sun finally hit us for the first time all weekend, which coincidentally also heated up the snow. Our ski back down to the car was a little sticky, but I still soaked up every last minute of floating through the sparkling trees.
We took skis off about 3k from the car after getting one too many core shots, and walked back with big smiles on our faces. We made it to the car for 2pm, and were home in Vancouver for 9pm.
10/10 weekend, and an area that I will 100% be coming back to. The skiing was world class. Sorry Tyax, we enjoyed your land a little too much
Myself leaving our campsite for some more skiing!
Heading up to Cinnamon Peak
Francis breaking trail for us since I did a good chunk of the effort yesterday 🙂
Views of Mount Sheba (one of our favourite peaks!) from the summit of Cinnamon
The amazing cloud inversion from the previous night stayed through the valley.. so beautiful!
A summit pano that Francis took from Cinnamon. Lots of awesome views around here!
Now skinning up towards Evola Pk.
Views from the summit of Evola
The sun coming out on some more untouched powder as we arrived back to camp
Slightly sticky but still fun powder turns as we skied home.
The ski potential in this area is practically endless. I wish I could have stayed another 2 days to ski more!
Core shots to end an awesome trip… lol. sigh….