Snowshoeing To An Old Mine

Back when I spent the winter of 2023/24 somewhere in northern Canada, I came across an old silver mine on a steep mountainside in a picturesque valley. However, since it had snowed heavily in the previous weeks, several large avalanches had occurred on this mountainside, which destroyed almost all the trails.
Because of this, we had to use snowshoes to reach our first destination: an abandoned building with a ventilation pipe leading into the mine...

Enjoying the view of the valley from the building containing the ventilation shaft

Unfortunately, the ventilation pipe dropped almost vertically after a few meters, and we hadn't brought any climbing gear, so we had to keep hiking to find an alternative access point. It didn't take long before we came across an entrance that had almost collapsed, leaving only a small space to squeeze through; still, we decided to check it out.
The first section was flooded, but since it was later in the winter, a thick layer of ice had formed. However, as we continued deeper into the mine, this layer grew thinner and thinner until there was no ice left. This prevented us from going any further since none of us had brought gear suitable for handling ice-cold water.

Edit (Spring 2024): I returned to this mine and managed to explore more of the tunnels deeper inside the mountain—after wading through waist-deep water. I added the pictures to the slideshow...

So far, we hadn't been very successful in finding anything really interesting, so we decided to try to reach one last mine entrance much farther up the mountain. However, reaching it was dangerous because the avalanches had made it difficult to get a grip on the steep, icy mountainside — even with the crampons on our snowshoes. As we reached the halfway point, the slope grew even steeper, and one misstep could have led to a long fall down the mountain, potentially causing serious injury or death.
Luckily, after a long climb, we made it to the entrance, which was open and free of water.

After exploring the whole area, we made it back down the mountainside without any major issues. Once back in the valley, we decided to check out one last building down by the lake, which also belonged to the mining site...