Peyto Hut is the most Northern of the Alpine Club Huts on the Wapta Icefield. A popular destination as part of the Wapta Traverse it sees less visitors outside of ski season.
We originally were planning a late season summit of Mount Thompson from the Western slopes. Which required us to stay overnight at Peyto Hut. Unfortunately the weather had different plans. We woke up to a foot of fresh snow on the ground and whiteout conditions on our summit day. The only thing to do was bug out.
This was my 3rd time traversing the trail from Bow Summit to the Peyto Glacier. This time I actually got to the glacier. Other times I had less time or a different destination. On this trip we found that there are actually 3 routes around the Peyto Creek Canyon on the way to Peyto Glacier. In the winter only 1 route is safe due to avalanche hazard. 2 routes head up the right side of the glacially carved rock surrounding the canyon that Peyto Creek flows through. One is a scramble route that I followed on my trip to Caldron Lake. The other is a hike up the morraine. This time we chose the route on the left side. A little hairy. It involves some crappy rubble to hike through. It does have a great view of the canyon itself that the other routes don't have. It may also be the fastest way in to the Peyto Glacier. A thoroughly enjoyable trip. The whiteout added some excitement to the trip

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