Driving the Icefield Parkway in winter as a ice climber is like a kid in a candy story, constantly stopping, eyeing up all the dream lines.

Today, January 28th, 2017 was a clear, sunny day making for amazing views. Sadly there was a strong Chinook like wind blowing through the parkway both warming things up and heavily loading the slopes above many of these world class routes. "Maybe next time" was a common dialog as we'd discuss these routes before us.

With the weather on our minds it was a surprise to see a car parked at the base of Polar Circus, the crown jewel of the Parkway.

We couldn't resist the urge to spy in on these fellow climbers and see where they were on route. While walking up the road from where we parked I had to keep my head down to help penetrate the strong headwind. It was this time I heard a high pitched shreak from my climbing partners Ryan and Ian... "Avalanche"!!!

I couldn't believe what was before us, a large avalanche filling our sights ripping right down the infamous Polar Circus. As my brain slowed things down to take in what was happening I could only think how we were bearing witness to these climbers real life horror story.

Ryan snapped things back to real-time as he charged back to the van with me and Ian quickly following. At this point we had nothing but a white wall in front of us with no visibility of the route or Cirrus Mountain behind it. We quickly sped off down the road a couple hundred meters, staging ourselves well out of the path as we had legit fears it was going to rip right down and across the road.

We still could not see the route but one thing was clear, This avalanche we estimated to be a class 3 in size surly was not compatible with life, prompting us to immediately seek help. Luckily there was a road work crew not far away and they were able to call into Parks Mountain Safety.

Knowing help was on its way we went back to the base of Polar Circus and starting using my camera to try and spot them... There they are! A lone figure mid way up the second to last pitch. WIthin a minute of spotting the loan climber The slope overhead of Polar Circus erupted once again, this time much smaller yet still a notable sized avalanched came crashing down on them.

We later heard the tale of survival from Quentin Lindfied Robert who was run out over his last ice-screw when he felt the the ice start to shake and the sound of the avalanche approaching. 15 seconds later, just enough time to hunker in under his tools the first avalanche struck him.

Once the first avalanche passed, he went into survival mode, building a V-thread and clipping it which is when the second avalanche hit.

Luckily through all this his partner, Nick Black stayed sheltered belaying from the left side of the pitch.

Once the second Avalanche had subsided Quentin and Nick egressed at mach speeds making it back to there car in just over a hour where we had stashed two cans of beer for them both. Quentin later told us those beers tasted heavenly... I can only imagine!