A battle of the elements: a waterfall of meltwater lashing against the granite flanks in white plumes. We press our hands and feet against the steel of the via ferrata.
Five walkers standing before a breathtakingly vast glacial cirque with rugged granite flanks and snowfields.
Clouds gather at the summit of Mount Robson, beneath which lie layers of limestone, compressed into horizontal bands over millions of years.
The Bell helicopter hovers barely three metres above the alpine grass, whilst those waiting crouch down, their hands covering their faces. Behind them, spruce trees tower upwards.
A carmine-red helicopter crosses the jagged ridgelines of the Cariboo Mountains, firn fields and scree slopes falling away beneath it in shades of grey.
Hikers cross a strip of old snow below North Canoe Glacier – small figures against ochre rock and the serrated peaks of the Cariboos.
A Bell 407 helicopter on a rocky outcrop high above the Cariboo Mountains – after a two-hour hike, it’s just a few minutes’ flight back to the Cariboo Lodge.
Blue-and-white glacial ice breaks up into sharp seracs, separated by strips of snow that look like seams. Moraine debris flanks the slope – an abstract work of art.
Turquoise-blue cracks criss-cross the shattered ice like veins through marble – a glacier in the Cariboo Mountains is crumbling into a thousand sharp spires.
A white-tailed ptarmigan amongst the granite boulders of the Cariboo Mountains, its blackish-brown and cream-coloured plumage almost indistinguishable from the mottled lichen on the rock behind it.
A white-tailed chick crouches among bell heather, its cream-and-dark-brown down already tuned to the alpine scrub.
Silvery seed threads of a Western Pasqueflower coil into a dishevelled globe, poised to scatter across the subalpine meadows of the Cariboo Mountains at the first breath of wind.
Guide Fridjon stands on a boulder – looking tiny against the white and pink-speckled ice of the South Canoe Glacier’s terminus, which flows out of the mountains like a frozen river.
A view of the Cariboo Valley with Silver Thread Creek, spruce forests and the grey ridges of the Selkirk Range.
The flying fox above Zillmer Canyon as the waterfall dissolves into white mist behind him.
A rainbow cuts through Zillmer Canyon where spray meets wet granite. Water plunges into the gorge far below.
A battle of the elements: a waterfall of meltwater lashing against the granite flanks in white plumes. We press our hands and feet against the steel of the via ferrata.
I brace myself against the reddish-patterned granite of the Zillmer Canyon Via Ferrata. Below me, the Cariboo Valley opens out into endless coniferous forests, with glaciers on snow-white peaks beyond (photo by Jennifer Malloy).
Jennifer Malloy gazes in wonder at the vast cirque below Mount Zillmer. Several waterfalls plunge down the reddish-brown, veined rock face and feed a young stream that winds its way through the scree.
Laughter echoes through the Zillmer Canyon – experienced mountain guide Erich Unterberger jokes with his guests in front of a grey granite face that they are about to scale.
Two climbers work their way through Zillmer Canyon, clipped to the iron path of the via ferrata. Beside them, white water hammers wet stone.
Three climbers inch their way up the granite-grey face of Zillmer Canyon, their orange and red harnesses bright against ochre-streaked rock.
Jennifer Malloy pauses as the Zillmer Glacier pushes white tongues of ice down fractured rock toward a meltwater lake below.
I stay on bare rock, facing a sea of cloud from which the snow-dusted peaks of the Cariboo Mountains emerge (Photo by Jonathan Sprigler)
A helicopter hovers over the white, powdery slopes of the Cariboo Mountains and prepares to land – not far from guide Fridjon, who can be made out as a figure in yellow-green, complete with a blue rucksack.
Three hikers trace the moraine path above Buehler Lake. Still, turquoise water mirrors glacier and jagged ridge — loose ice floes slow the eye before it reaches the peaks.
Drifting ice on the milky-turquoise surface of Buehler Lake – jagged edges betray a recent calving from the glacier above.
Wonderfully refreshing – a swim in Buehler Lake.
Silver meltwater winds through a jade-green valley floor, flanked by anthracite ridges still carrying white patches of late snow.
