MARCH 18, 2023
MT MATIER STATS
Elevation 2783m high from sea level
Prominence 1241m
Elevation gain 1527m
Mount Matier is located in Joffre Provincial Park 26 km east of Pemberton in southwestern BC. Driving along the Duffey Lake highway and about 8 km past the Joffre Lakes parking lot, we parked our car in the pull out next to Duffey Lake highway. Karlie and I prepared our packs and strapped on our snowshoes and off we went into the woods at 10:15am.
The snow line began from the start of the trailhead of Cerise Creek Summer Trail but packed down, so it was easy for us to follow the ski and snowshoe tracks. After snowshoeing for about 2 kms, we reached the boulder field covered in snow. Views from here opened up, some clouds hanging above. We continued to snowshoe on the Winter Access Trail towards the snow covered Cerise Creek and arriving at Keith’s Hut around noonish.
Since the weather was nice all weekend, many skiers were out and the Hut was jammed packed. Would say there were around 40-50 skiers. So Karlie and I decided to camp outside and we found an open area just right off the ski tracks towards the frozen lake. We got our shovels out and started clearing the snow away for our campsite.
We were debating whether we should summit Mt Matier on the same day or the next day. After much thought, we decided that it would be a good idea to plod up the same day since the weather could change the next day and we didn’t want to wake up early in the morning.
So at 2:30pm, we strapped on our snowshoes with our lightened packs and began to go up passing Keith’s Hut onto the Ridge to Motel 66; about 1.3 kms from the Hut.
Once at Motel 66, we went down and up onto Anniversary Glacier. It got colder the further up towards the col. The sun was over on the other side of the col, so we were in the shade until we reached the saddle and base of Mt Matier.
There were many ski tracks along the col. So we followed the one that seems to be more packed in and leading towards Matier. We were plodding up slowly and the afternoon sun was nice to have.
At around 2600m, we ditched our snowshoes and started to boot pack up 200 m the rest of the way to the summit. Boot packing was solid and was easy to follow. No crampons were needed even though we brought them along.
We made it to the summit of Mt Matier just before 6pm. Sunset was around 7pm. We spent about a good 20 minutes on the summit with pictures and indulging the sunset views. The sun was slowly going down and it was cold and windy. So we geared up and started plowing down with the sunset.
As we gone half way onto Anniversary Glacier, the sun has already set and we were snowshoeing down in the dark. We got back to our campsite at around 8:30pm and relaxed in the hut with other fellow skiers.
