Mount Seymour: So Close and So Far
The kids had been asking for a while to experience camping in the snow. It was me that needed more convincing. Eventually I agreed to come along, what’s the worst that could happen? Plus I figured I could probably survive one night in the snow. I have done it before, just not recently…
Our friends who live in Victoria were excited to join, though by foot and not on skis. In retrospect, they should have probably had snowshoes, but they managed. The original plan was to head to Red Heather and camp there by the warming hut. But original plans don’t always work out. We were on the Sea to Sky on a warm beautiful spring Saturday to pick up our friends from Horseshoe Bay. Just before the terminal there was a sign saying the road was closed from Britannia Beach due to an “incident”. Oh oh, that can’t be good…
After we met up with our friends we started thinking what to do. We discovered that the road was closed in both directions due to a severe accident and there was no opening time of the road in sight. Luckily we didn’t head straight into the traffic jam. Once we realized that Red Heather was a no-go for that weekend Gili suggested Mount Seymour.
We turned around at Horseshoe Bay and off we went to North Van and up to Mount Seymour. Soon enough we started skinning up the trail. It was the first time for Kai going up on skis and he did great. Gili actually didn’t need to pull him even once. It was quite hot and with the reflection from the snow it almost felt like we were in the desert…
We found a a nice hill to set up our camp on, just after Brockton Point, and settled in for the night. It was still quite early so the kids enjoyed endless fun digging in the snow, building fences, and small igloos. Our friends got into the tent quite early as they were cold, but we stayed out longer to enjoy the beautiful sunset.
If felt quite surreal to be close enough to see Vancouver down the mountain, but it also felt like we were in a different universe, and city life felt so far. Once the night set in it was amazing to see the lights of the city flickering below us.
The night was quite windy and Gili had to go out of the tent at least once to re-build the snow walls he had built before we went to sleep (they had melted out). The morning was a lot cooler than the night before with lots of clouds and no sunshine. Our friends had been up for hours, since they went to sleep so early. They didn’t delay too much and started heading down the mountain. We still had to break camp and get our ski gear together.
Once we were skiing, the way down was pretty quick. The snow wasn’t great though with lots of holes and bumps. It was definitely our last ski run for the season. Back at the parking lot we celebrated the first backcountry overnight ski trip with both kids, and the first one for me in many years. It was close to home and a short trip, but an excellent destination nonetheless. We had a yummy lunch in North Van, and explored the Shipyards area, before driving our friends back to Horseshoe Bay and then back home.
