The first day of the trip was just as I imagined it to be. Long, tiring and uneventful.

It started with me waking up at 3am (after a 3hr nap) and driving to Spruce Grove to meet my partner Bob. The drive up highway 2 to Edmonton was straight as an arrow and was as exciting as watching snow melt.

Upon arriving at Spruce Grove at 7:30am, we quickly threw our gear into Bob's Caravan and took off for Jasper which was around 3hrs away. After a quick takeout at Subway, we made our way to the Jasper Hostel to pick up the key to the Cavell Hostel when Bob commented on the dry roads leading up to the Jasper Hostel. To confirm my fears, the hostel attendant commented on how the last group walked up to the hostel due to the lack of snow.

Luckily for me at least, there was enough snow on the road for me to ski up. Here's a view of the trailhead.

Here's a typical view of the road to the Cavell Hostel which would be the first stop of the trip.

I drove up this road back in 2005 to check out the Angel glacier and all I remembered from back then was that it was long and featured almost no views.

It was no different the second time around. It kind of reminded me of the drive up to Spruce Grove earlier in the day. Just long with little or no views but at least it had snow!

As we got higher, we could see Mt. Edith Cavell in the distance but for some reason, it didn't seem to get any bigger no matter how far we travelled.

Finally! After around 14km of slithering and walking, we made it to the hostel. It took us around 3.5hrs in total which was great since it allowed me to get a lot of rest.

Here's a view of Mt. Edith Cavell. The Angel Glacier can be seen at the center but it's hard to distinguish with all that snow.

The hostel was actually composed of 3 separate buildings. A kitchen cabin and 2 sleeping cabins - one for women and one for men. Each building had a wood burning stove inside.

As you can see by the marking on the door, this is the kitchen.

For this trip, I decided to use a light telemark setup consisting of 2 buckle Garmont Excursions and a pair of waxless double cambered Atomic Chugach skis with Rottefella Chili bindings. The skis can be seen jutting out of the snow.

The kitchen was fully equipped with propane stoves and lighting. Upon entering the kitchen, we quickly started the wood burning stove to warm up and made our first dinner for the evening.

Bob had some bangers and mash while I had a peppercorn steak with mash.

Since we were the only ones staying for the night, we decided to crash in the kitchen instead of the sleeping cabins. We figured it'd be a waste of wood starting up another stove to heat up a huge sleeping cabin for 2 people. Judging by the mattresses and pillows found in the kitchen, we weren't the only ones who thought that way.