Bow Hut – Peyto Hut. 6km. 300m altitude gain – 150m altitude lost. 4hrs.
We were laughing as we got up this morning. Only 6km! With only 300m elevation gain! This was a rest day! So we slept in until the hut was nearly empty, and by the time we finished breakfast (for me: pancakes, porridge, some beef jerky and a snickers bar… two full days of fully loaded skiing can make a girl hungry) we nearly had the place to ourselves.
It was a beautiful sunny day as we meandered up the slope back up onto the glacier from Bow Hut. Our pace was slow and casual as we stopped to snack and take photos as often as we wanted – ah, luxury.
We tossed up the idea of making a side trip up Mt Rhondda, but decided against it due to… well, laziness perhaps. And the fact that this was supposed to be a rest day, we were kind of looking forward to spending an afternoon lazing around.
It didn’t take long to finish all the climbing we were going to do that day, then it was a gentle, mostly flat cruise across the icefield.
It wasn’t long until the valley containing Peyto Hut popped into sight. We cruised down towards the hut, enjoying the turns down this gentle slope.
After another final cruel uphill (what is it with these huts? downhill all the way there, but just a final 100 metres to actually reach the hut, which means you have to reach the terrible realisation that you have to stop and put your skins on, when all you want to do is reach the hut and sit down)… but after another final cruel uphill we were relaxing at the hut – which had a patio! It was also lovely and spacious inside, with enormous windows, and noone else there!
We spread out our things to dry, lazed in the sun, took a series of very silly jumping photos, and perused some of the reading matter we’d availed ourselves with from the hut. As it eventually started to cool down a bit, and we probably needed to get out of the sun anyway, we made a move to the table just inside the hut.
Lazing around and having a slow dinner, we admired the view and read the hut log. We learnt about the annual April visits of the Gay Christian Telemark Association and wondered if they would be coming this weekend. At 7pm another couple turned up at the hut, so we no longer had it to ourselves, but it was still a quiet relaxing evening, as we sat planning to ski up a peak tomorrow.
