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The Alpine Club of Canada

Dogtooth Traverse

Join us on This Unique Adventure Through the Purcells

The Dogtooth Range parallels the Columbia River to the east and is bordered by the Spillimacheen and Beaver rivers to the west. Although there are no built trails, the whole trip takes place above treeline on broad ridges and through endless alpine meadows. Ninety percent of this hike is along game trails, so the opportunities for wildlife sightings are very good.

Over the course of 10 days, the group will traverse the entirety of this spectacular range covering 60 km from 12 Mile Creek to Quartz Creek with 4500 m of elevation change (~8 km and 600-700 m elevation gain per day). While all meals are provided on this trip, you are responsible for carrying it with you. Fortunately, we are able to stash some of it at the (almost) halfway point near Gorman Lake to resupply.

All good traverses start at the finish. From Quartz Creek, once meals are distributed, and vehicles are secured with chicken wire (to keep the hungry porcupines at bay), a shuttle will take the group to 12 Mile Creek where the adventure begins. The first few days will follow the spine of the ridge, camping by small alpine lakes and giving continuous view of the Bugaboos and Vowells to the West and Rockies to the East. The next few days will lead the group through the McLean Creek basin and Canyon Creek, which comprises of three large alpine basins. Halfway, the group will make a pitstop at Gorman Lake to restock on food and fuel. The remainder of the traverse will pass Dawn Mountain and Moonraker Peak on the way to Grizzly Creek. Once again following the spine of the range, the group will descend to Quartz Lake, then follow Quartz Creek back to the vehicles.

Mountain Hardwear sponsors the General Mountaineering Camp and we thank them for their assistance.
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BOOKING INFORMATION

Date:
JULY 21ST – 30TH, 2023

Price: $2,100 + TAX

Before registering, please review our Waivers and Liability page.

MORE INFORMATION

Please try to register online before calling. If you are having issues please try to have your emergency contact information and course questionnaire filled out before calling.

OR Call: (403)-678-3200 ext 213

Terrain
  • Cornices
  • Crevasses
  • Trees, tree wells, and tree stumps
  • Creeks
  • Rocks and Boulders
  • Variable and difficult walking terrain
  • Impact or collision with other persons or objects
  • Encounters with domestic or wild animals
  • Contact with poisonous flora or fauna
  • Loss of balance or control
  • Slips, trips, and falls
    Hazard Mitigation
  • Our ACMG certified guides have experience and training to manage this risk
  • Radios and/or other communication devices
  • Your guide will be carrying bear spray if an encounter is possible
Communication, rescue, and medical treatment
  • Communication can be difficult and in the event of an accident rescue and treatment may not be available
  • Adverse weather may also delay the arrival of treatment or transportation out of the field,
  • Alpine weather conditions can be extreme and change rapidly without warning making travel by helicopter, dangerous
  • If an injury occurs in challenging terrain movement to an evacuation point may be slow
    Hazard Mitigation
  • Your guide is trained in both backcountry first-aid and rescue techniques
  • Emergency response plans
  • Satellite communication tools
Other
  • Slips trips and falls indoor or outdoor
  • Infectious disease contracted via direct or indirect contact, including but not limited to influenza or Covid-19
  • Equipment failure
  • Negligence of other persons, including other guests
  • Negligence of the guide Including failure to to take reasonable steps to safeguard or protect you from or warn you of risk, dangers, hazards, oh participating in ACC activities
    Hazard Mitigation
  • Your guide is trained in both backcountry first-aid and rescue techniques
  • Satellite communication tools

Hike, hike and hike! The aim of this trip is to experience pristine wilderness in the way of ridges, alpine lakes, and a seemingly endless array of wildflowers.

Day 1:
Meet your group at the Bluebird Cafe in Golden, BC, then convoy to the Quartz Creek parking area. There, a shuttle will meet you to take the group to 12 Mile Creek, the trailhead for this trip. Once on the trail, the group will begin ascending towards the ridge, pitching camp along the way.

Days 2 – 9 (general itinerary):
0700: Make breakfast, clean up camp (remember to leave no trace!), and pack your bags for another day of hiking.
0830: Departure! Depending on the plan for the day, the group may do a day trip or keep traversing the range in search of the next campsite.
1630: Return to camp or set-up camp in a new location
1800: Dinner time!
1930: Free time to journal, read, share stories or play a card game.

Day 10: Pack up camp for the final time before making the final push back down to the vehicles at Quartz Creek.

This camp is designed for novice multi-day hikers or strong day hikers.

While not there is nothing too technical about this traverse, it definitely warrants some prior experience in the backcountry. With ten back-to-back days of hiking and navigating scree slope’s, you should be an experienced hiker and have a pretty good fitness level going into the camp. We definitely recommend that you do a few hikes during the leading up to this camp, unless you’re looking for a grueling start to your season.

Please note that there should be four to five hours of hiking each day with approximately 8 to 10 km distance to travel. Some days there will be no elevation gain and our biggest day will be 750m. This traverse has been designed to provide lots of time to enjoy the landscape.

Food

All meals will be provided by PeakEats based in Canmore, AB. You will need to pack your own bowl, mug, utensils, and favourite adventure treats (if you want). Prior to the trip, your guides will store half of the provided meals in a cache roughly halfway along the trek. Everyone is expected to help with cooking and clean up for the meals.

Since the group may camp in sparsely treed areas, we also have bear-proof food bags that can be borrowed as well.
The ACC will provide all fuel and stoves for cooking to make sure the group doesn’t carrying in too much extra supplies.

Accommodation

The Dogtooth Range will be hosting your accommodation this trip. If you do not have access to a backpacking tent, we have 5 three-person tents that we can lend to participants. Please not that theses are regular length tents, so they may be a little short for taller folks. Contact the Mountain Adventures Coordinator if you would like to borrow one.

We will not be setting up tent partners for this trip. However, if you have concerns about the sleeping arrangements please let us know.

Guiding

This camp is guided by Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) certified Hiking guides. Our maximum 6:1 guiding ratio will ensure that everyone gets the support they need to undertake this impressive trek.

 

 

Nathalie Drotar

Nathalie came to Western Canada from her native Switzerland for the first time as a nanny when she was young and fell in love with the people here – their humor and kindness – the pace of life and what seemed to be a country with limitless opportunities. She came to visit every 3 years or so before deciding to emigrate and actually doing so in 2008.

By then besides following a career in the office world, she had always been sportively active and was finding balance in running (Nat’s ran 4 marathons) and mountain biking in the summer and skate-skiing in the Jura mountains and in ski-touring the Alps in the winter. After arriving in Western Canada she got in touch with the ACC – Alpine Club Canada – Calgary section to meet people who would help her discover the Canadian Rockies.

Fast forward to 2019 when Nathalie is now Canadian citizen (dual Swiss-Canadian citizen), an ACMG – Association of Canadian Mountain Guides – Hiking Guide with over 10 years’ experience as a volunteer leading back-country trips for the ACC Calgary section. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Eric Brooks Leader Award – alongside her husband! – and in 2019 the Silver Rope for Leadership Award. Nathalie loves giving back to the community by mentoring young women to become trip leaders and pursues her outdoorsy, multi-sports lifestyle any time of the year: in the summer you will find her mountain or road biking, hiking or backpacking, rock climbing or mountaineering. In the winter, you can find her cross-country or skate skiing, ski touring or ice climbing.. all of this with her active husband, friends or ACC members.

 

Lenora (Lenny) Carbonetto

ACMG Hiking Guide
CAA Active Member
Wilderness First Responder

Lenora grew up in Eastern Canada living in Montreal and Kingston where she was first exposed to the mountains on family hiking trips to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and skiing in the Laurentian’s. Her first exposure to the Canadian Rockies was a wide-eyed summer spent working as a housekeeper at the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge on the Icefields Parkway, where she spent all of her free time poking around the peaks near Bow Lake. It was a job transfer with a bank four years later that brought her back to the Rockies, this time for good
During an AST-2 course in the Kootenays, in 2012, she met her first ACMG Mountain Guide who piqued her curiosity in the guiding industry. Lenora has now been a member of the ACMG since 2015 and the CAA since 2017. For her, the Rockies continue to be a place of wonder, love, respect and exploration, as well as a place where she finds inspiration and her most genuine connections with others. Lenora is also currently working on her second undergraduate degree in Psychology.

We sell Tugo® Travel Insurance suitable for both ACC Adventures and personal trips:

INCLUDED WITH YOUR CAMP FEE

  • 10 days of professional guiding at max 6:1 ratios by certified ACMG hiking guides
  • All meals from Dinner on Day 1 to Lunch on Day 10, Drinks are not provided
  • Return Shuttle to trail head
  • All Group Gear

PARTICIPANTS MUST PROVIDE

  • Transportation to and from the trailhead
  • Lunch for Day 1!
  • Personal gear (see gear list)
  • Personal drinks (Coffee/Tea/Juice ect)

ORGANIZING FANTASTIC ACC ADVENTURES FOR OVER 100 YEARS

  • Local Knowledge – based out of Canmore, AB, we know the Rockies region and the best local caterers, guides and porters
  • Dedicated resources – full-time office staff, ACMG guides and group equipment on-hand to ensure your trip runs smoothly
  • Not-for-profit – any money we make on camps and courses is reinvested into providing services for our members and the mountain community