Three Bears Mountain
April 12-14, 2025
With a gorgeous spring weather window, and Francis’ approaching birthday, we were both keen to take a day off to get some time in the sun. There’s a fairly new spur road that makes the approach to the misty icefield area easier, and we took advantage of being able to drive right up to snowline.
The majority of the approach day was spent hiking through the forest. The ridge provided surprisingly few views right until the end, and by the time we laid eyes on Greymantle & Goldilocks peaks, my legs were already pretty beat.
We’d initially had ambitions to make it all the way to the glacier, but a full 14km day with no down hills and a heavy pack was tiring enough for the both of us. It’s a good training trip for the rest of this season I suppose! With dwindling energy, I dug out a gorgeous campsite for us in the meadows while Francis hiked up the mellow slopes of Bluemantle peak. We enjoyed a lovely sunset over the distant glaciers, and an early bedtime.
Leaving the truck, fully loaded with gear!
Skis on, skis off, skis on for a bunch of river crossings
Leaving the road and heading up into the trees
Francis heading through the pretty trees
Lots of nice sunlight as we hiked through
Leaving the forest
First views of the mountains!
More skinning up the ridgeline
Francis enjoying the views on a snack break
Bluemantle peak behind me
Francis hiking towards our campsite
Dinner in the little kitchen I built
Tent setup – Francis still hasn’t noticed the birthday balloon!
There it is!
Tent views
On Sunday the 13th, our goal was to summit Greenmantle Mountain, with a bonus of Three Bears and Greymantle if we had energy. We ascended the 400m or so of vertical from camp to the start of the glacier, using a previous party’s tracks to balance on a still firm and slightly icy crust.
The first views of the Icemantle glacier were epic! It stretched deep into the valley below the peaks, and I marveled at its smooth surface. It was immediately obvious from our vantage that we didn’t need to ski down on to the glacier to get to Greenmantle though, and that doing so would waste a lot of energy in having to hike back up again. We instead began traversing along the southern edge of the glacier, staying high along a bench.
As we approached the underside of Three Bears Mountain, we began to wonder if it would be easier going over it rather than underneath it – since the connecting ridge between the two mountains looked to be quite low angle on our topo maps. With this reasoning, we made another change of plans, and instead hiked directly south up to the shoulder of Three Bears.
Having gained this slope, we now laid eyes on another glacier which would have been entirely hidden to us otherwise! We crossed over this one, and gained another slope, giving the large cornice above us a wide berth. We then followed a short ridgeline, leading to the summit soon after.
Three Bears Mountain was HEAVILY corniced, both from the summit, and looking down its western ridgeline. We took off our skis and climbed the final bit of it in crampons in order to stay on solid rock and not airy, dangerous snow. The views of the Misty icefield to the south and west were fantastic from our vantage point, although we weren’t able to see north due to the steep cornice at our backs which we had no interest in being on top of.
Heading up the ridgeline, avoiding cornices on our right
Skinning towards the Greymantle glacier, some tracks from the previous party are visible.
Finally at the glacier!!
Francis following me up to the col below Three Bears
The upper glacier was quite beautiful!
Francis skiing up it.
Following a strange corniced wind scoop feature to the ridgeline
Hiking up.. the wind scoop & glacier behind me
Francis with skis off, hiking the last little bit to the summit. It’s not obvious here, but it was mostly too steep and icy to be skinning in this section.
Francis with skis off, hiking the last little bit to the summit. It’s not obvious here, but it was mostly too steep and icy to be skinning in this section.
Francis hiking up to the summit, notably avoiding the snow and massive cornices which aren’t obvious from this angle!!
A better look at the cornices from the summit. No thank you!!!
Despite a reasonably short day so far, it was obvious from the summit that we wouldn’t be able to use Three Bear’s western ridgeline to get to Greenmantle. The rock was broken and loose, and the snow heavily corniced around steep cliffs and wind scooped snow. If we still wanted to summit Greenmantle, we would have to retrace our steps to Greymantle glacier and continue with our original route underneath Three Bears.
It was incredibly hot out by this point, and we sadly made the decision that we wouldn’t be able to do Greenmantle with our remaining time and energy. We instead took a nap and a long snack break, enjoying the views and the peace of being up in this remote corner of mountains.
Francis enjoying the views towards Snowcap peak!
Myself doing the same
Hiking back down to a nice flat area to have lunch.
Francis’ little summit nap
I sneakily attached a balloon while he slept!! haha!
After our nap, the ski run from Three Bears to the Icemantle glacier was incredible, with dreamy afternoon spring snow. I sort of felt like I was skiing on the moon with how wide the upper glacier run was! It’s not often an alpine ski run is this continuous, and for the first time in quite some time I could actually feel my legs burning.
We stopped at the col where we’d initially come from, and Francis decided to add in Goldilocks summit to the day. Had we not skied in this direction, we now realized that we maybe could have done Greenmantle after all, so Goldilocks was something of a consolation prize. Not fussed about peakbagging though, I took my ski boots off and iced my hot feet in the snow while he continued hiking towards the Goldilocks ridgeline. I would have accompanied him if he was crossing into more avalanche terrain, but the route to Goldilocks summit from our col followed a gentle slope, and only another 100m of elevation gain. I could also see him the whole way 🙂
He said the views from his summit were fantastic, but I was very content with my glacier views and sunny rest stop. We both get what we want out of these trips I suppose!
Skiing down towards the greymantle glacier. incredible!
More skiing. weeee
Greenmantle on the left, Bluemantle on the right. From the col.
Francis on his way up to Goldilocks
My lovely little rest stop
Francis returned from his solo adventure
Very cute guy with his balloon don’t ya think <3
There was only one more uphill slope to get back to the ski run above our camp, but it was a really steep one. It felt super sketchy on the way in with a crusty traverse over decent exposure, so we opted to take the skis off and boot up it. This quickly proved to be our biggest mistake of the day. Although the skis may not punch through the crust, we certainly did in boots, and quickly found thigh-deep unconsolidated powder.
I started trailbreaking first, and found myself frustrated and exhausted after only 20 or so steps. Francis took over, and showed me a technique where you break the crust first with your knee, then step into the powder underneath. He still only made it about as far as I did before we swapped out again, but the technique did help us conserve some energy as we pushed our way up the slope. Once at the top, we sat down on our bags and took yet another snack break to recoup some energy before skiing back to camp.
The ski down to the meadows was also hilariously miserable. As the day began to cool down, a sun crust formed quickly. While we initially laughed and crashed in the snow, unable to make turns at all with our lightweight skis, it soon became less funny when we realized how much farther we had to go. The snow became worse and worse as we descended, and we soon took to making shaky traversing sweeps down the hill and then kick turning to do the same in the other direction. Looking back up at our tracks from camp, they were probably the most embarrassing turns I’ve ever made! It looked like a wobbly and very ugly skin track, criss crossing the slope the whole way down. What a shame!
Francis boiling snowballs for dinner
Sparklers!
And of course chocolate 🙂
And of course chocolate 🙂
To make Francis’ birthday a little more special, I brought a few tiny little treats for us. My joke was that I’d call this: “How to throw a birthday party for less than 100 grams!”
The balloon I tied to his bag all day was entertaining, though it popped during our many crashes on the final slope. For dinner, I also brought along a small candle, and a couple sparklers which we lit as the sun set. Francis had a good laugh over them, and our joy was perhaps the best gift of all.
The ski out on Monday morning was uneventful. We left skins on through the entire undulating ridgeline which can be quite the challenge on downhills. By the end though, I felt pretty confident making gentle turns with my heels unlocked and the unnatural resistance of the skins! We made it back to the top of the service road in great time, which I’m thankful for because I had no desire to deal with more evening sun crust.
It was mid day, and the turns down the open road were full of smushy spring snow. It was wonderfully cool again with a breeze on my face, and we managed to ski right back to the truck minus one or two sections of walking on dirt. I love a good ski in & ski out mission!!
Francis on the ski out, now with the green balloon
Lovely textures back on the ridgeline
Gliding back thru the forest!
Back at the truck!
Views of skihist above lilloet lake on the way home. Soooo beautiful!