Washington Rails: Rails-to-Trails Over the Border
On the first weekend in June Gili and I headed to Washington State. We had just bought a new (used) car the previous week and it was time to start using it. It was also sunny and quite warm which is always an advantage. We headed to the border early Saturday morning and crossed with almost no waits. We drove to a town called Sedro-Woolley and started to ride from there along the Cascade Trail till another town by the name of Concrete. What we discovered is that this trail is very popular and gets a lot of use from the local community for cycling, hiking and mainly dog walking.…
Mt. Baker: Which is Harder, Climbing Mt. Baker in a Day, or Crossing the Border?
For a while I had been waiting for a midweek window of good weather to climb Mt. Baker. Finally the forecast was showing some sun, but finding partners was a scramble. I asked everyone I knew and posted online in several places. Luckily, Charlie Beard was in town, after his two-month volunteering trip to the Arctic was delayed by a week due to large amounts of snow. The only catch? We’d have to be back relatively early, since Charlie was catching a flight north the next day, early in the morning. We decided to drive to the trailhead the evening before, and get a good night’s sleep there, and then…
Galloping Goose Trail: How to Avoid Traffic and Ferry Waits on Long Weekends
For a few months now Gili and I don’t own a car. It doesn’t affect us at all during our midweek life as we don’t use a car in the city anyway, but when it comes to weekends it a bit more challenging. During the skiing season we managed fine either by catching a ride with other people or filling up a co-op car with merry VOC’ers. However, now that cycling season has started it is more of a problem to fill a car with bikes and people, and also as much as we love the VOC, it’s also nice to be just the two of us. As May long…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Brew Hut: or How My Finger Almost Fell Off
A few highlights from a trip to Brew Hut a few weekends ago: After a grey and drizzly morning, the weather cleared in the afternoon, just as we were breaking out into the alpine. There is so much snow, that the orange trail markers in the meadows are almost buried. A piece of our Brew Hut fell off a while ago. Roland located stronger replacement pieces of flashing in the scrap pile of a metal shop. I towed two of these pieces up, which will hopefully be installed by a work party in the next few weeks. Towing the flashing was easy on the logging road, although by the time…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Sphinx Hut: Beginner Friendly on Easter
The trail up to Garibaldi Lake was at first bare, and then treacherous ice. In several places people had slid off the trail and obliterated it, making travel on skis annoying. Half the time I was wishing I had crampons. The group moved reasonably fast but gradually slowed down as the beginners ran out of energy. Crossing Garibaldi Lake we had great views of the peaks above the hut, still about 5km away: Castle Towers, Phylis’ Engine, Mt. Carr and the Bookworms (L to R). Arriving at the Sphinx Hut, some of us were wondering where the hell the hut was. There has been so much snow, that the Sphinx…
Marriot Basin: Secondary Shoulder Season
A few weekends ago we headed to Marriot basin with Pascale and Ignacio, their friend Michelle, Marius and Adriana, and Piotr who joined last minute. When Pascale contacted the Alpine Club to make a reservation for the hut, they said that the hut was closed due to the outhouse being too full. After promising to carry out our poop, they said we could still go. Of course, all the people who just go up there without making a reservation, and perhaps without paying, wouldn’t have known about this. We were surprised to find another car full of VOC’ers at the trailhead. I had emailed Ran to ask if he and…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Garibaldi Neve Traverse: Neve Say Never
I organized a two day traverse of the Garibaldi Neve which ended up attracting 14 people with a good mix of experience and speed. We set out on Saturday morning, in a minivan that we had borrowed from the car coop. The road up to the Diamondhead Trailhead is notoriously dangerous in winter, but in spring it is often bare. We drove up to the chain up area, and from there noticed that the road had some white fluffy stuff on it. Ben suggested putting on the chains, but there is always that voice that tells you that you might be able to go a bit farther without the chains……
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Coquihalla, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Nak, Yak and Thar Peaks: Nak n’ Cheese
Last Sunday we headed to Nak Peak for a day trip that I organized through the VOC. A Nak is a female Yak, by the way. On the way it was raining hard, and I was starting to wonder if we were going to suffer in the rain. We had three cars that arrived within 10 minutes of one another, and after not too long we were on our way up. The snow was hard, and the route heads straight up through pleasant glades (well spaced trees). Higher up we passed through a grove of rime covered trees, like natural sculptures. We arrived to the Yak-Nak col and took a…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Duffey Lake Road, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Mt. Rohr: Beginner Friendly Mission
As we made our way north to the Duffey Lake Road, news of the cars that had broken down filtered through various cellphones. Ryan’s car’s battery was dead. They got Craig to drive over to Piotr’s place, so that they could pull out Piotr’s jeep’s battery and install it in Ryan’s jeep. However, the battery was too high, so the hood had to be strapped down to keep it closed. In the process of driving over, Craig discovered a major problem with his mother’s car, so he had to stay in the city. In the meantime Marius drove over to pick up a few passengers, in case they wouldn’t manage…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Coquihalla, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Iago Peak: Beginner Friendly Day Trip
I sometimes hear it claimed that there aren’t any good backcountry ski day trips from Vancouver. This is simply untrue, the only caveat being that one has to drive quite far to get to them. We managed to fill three cars to capacity, despite some passengers bailing and others joining in at the last minute. This was termed a “beginner friendly” trip, but it quickly became evident that out of 14 participants, the number of “beginners” was no larger than three, and all were good skiers. The first part of the trip was along an old logging road which leads up to Ottomite Mountain. We left the road a bit…
