- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Duffey Lake Road, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Marriot Basin: Time for some Spring Turns
Last weekend we headed to Marriot Basin with Lisa, Julian and Colin. After strapping the skis to the roof in a jumble of ropes and bungee cords, we drove three hours to the trailhead. While we were getting organized, a rental car pulled over, also full of VOC’ers, but going to Mt. Rohr on a day trip. We headed up the logging road, admiring the views of the Joffrey group behind us, the fresh snow, and mostly the warmth and sun. We entered the forest, and were happy to follow tracks from the day before. We emerged from the forest, crossed a small frozen lake and soon found ourselves at…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Brew Hut: Another Misadventure to Brew Hut
Easter long weekend requires an adventure, it’s not every week that we get a four day weekend. Gili and I signed up for the trip to Brew hut organized by Philippe LeBillon a few weeks in advance. We were hoping for a nice weekend in which we’d skin up to Brew, enjoy some spring skiing and warm up in the hut at night. As usual nothing really worked out as planned, especially when a trip to Brew is involved. When a group of us gathered in the clubroom on the Wednesday before the trip, Philippe opened by saying that the weather didn’t look too good and maybe we should reconsider…
- Backcountry Skiing, Birkenhead, British Columbia (and nearby), Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Phelix Hut: Pre New Year’s Trip and Blisters
We decided to spend four days at the Phelix Hut. We woke up early for the long drive – about three and a half hours north of Vancouver, past Pemberton, and up a logging road. Luckily this logging road is plowed semi-regularly, and it was in easy driving condition. On the way in I heard on the radio that the temperature at Pemberton was -13c, and of course we were going to be about 1500m higher than that… We were happy to find a vehicle parked at the trail head, since it meant that we would have a broken trail to follow. The first part was along a logging road…
Goat Mtn: A Sad and Important Lesson Close to Home
Some winter days in Vancouver are beautiful. The sun is shining (but not warming) and the visibility is almost endless. It usually comes with very low temperatures (for Vancouver), but at least we can say that it is not always raining here, even in winter. Saturday, December 5th, 2009 was one of those days. Unfortunately, the impact of such low temperatures is that snow turns into ice, which is quite a common problem on the North Shore Mountains. Since skiing on ice is not one of our favourite activities, Gili and I decided to go hiking that day. Since we were planning to go to the “Banff Mountain Film Festival”…
Red Pillar: Discovering the Mountains of Vancouver Island
I thought there were no glaciers on Vancouver Island. Perhaps our last trip on the Island, to Mt. Albert Edward, should be blamed: we arrived to the summit in thick fog, and could barely see each other, not to mention peaks and glaciers. Like many others, from then on I assumed Vancouver Island was mostly trees, with perhaps a few pieces of rock sticking out here and there above the treetops. This time the weather called for sun, and a close look at a map of Strathcona Provincial Park revealed many large glaciers close by. We packed our backpacks on Friday and took an evening ferry to Vancouver Island. We…
Webb and MacDonald: Two Mountains in One Gorgeous Weekend
Two weekends ago we drove out to Chilliwack Lake campground and starting hiking along the trail to Radium Lake. The trail follows Chilliwack River for about 2km, and then heads uphill along Radium Creek. There are annoying km signs on the trees which made the trail drag on. We had lunch somewhere in the trees and arrived to the nondescript Radium Lake, which seemed a bit swampy. There were two teenagers there, probably boy scouts, one of them wielding a long machete. We filled up about 3 liters each here, since we weren’t sure we’d be able to find water higher up. We continued uphill, finally breaking out of the…
Mt. Sloan: Another Stormy Labour Day Weekend
On the September long weekend we set out in the direction of Mt. Sloan, despite a weather forecast that caused the plans for the traditional VOC Mountaineering Camp to go to the wind. Faced with a forecast like that, after so much sun, perhaps we wouldn’t have gone hiking either, but we had made plans in advance to go hiking with our friends Jan and Warrick Whitehead and my brother Tal (visiting). We woke up early, and drove past Pemberton and onto the Hurley River FSR which was rockier than usual. We marvelled at Maya’s talent at sleeping on bumpy logging roads. At the turnoff to the Ault Creek FSR…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Hiking & Scrambling, Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Garibaldi Neve Traverse: Just Jump! (A Summer Crossing)
Last weekend we went on a two day trip with the Varsity Outdoor Club, organized by Christian Veenstra, the head of the club. The plan was to cross the Garibaldi Glacier, making a horseshoe traverse around Mt. Garibaldi. This trip is usually done in winter, when the crevasses are covered by huge amounts of snow, making route finding much easier. In summer, finding a route through the maze of ice falls and gaping crevasses is not guaranteed. More about this below. We met up at the Diamond Head parking lot, waited for a few straddlers, and started hiking up the wide trail to Elfin Lakes. We stopped at Red Heather…
Coquihalla Mtn: and Jim Kelly Peak Too
Two weekends ago we drove up the Coquihalla highway, past the old toll booth (deactivated last year), and up a wide and good gravel road (Tulameen FSR). At the junction with Illal FSR I for some reason thought to try and drive the last 3km despite the cross ditches. After going about 300m and maybe 5 ditches we decided this wasn’t the best idea, but there was no room to turn around. I managed to drive in reverse a bit to a place where I could just barely turn the car around. On the way out we heard a loud psssstt sound and I thought we had a puncture, but…
Downton Creek: Hot Weekend and Fires Close By
On the August long weekend (yes, three weeks ago!) we went to the Downton Creek area for three days. We were there at the end of August last year and got chased down by a freak snow storm and very low temperatures. This time it was sunny with blue skies until we got into the alpine and it started pouring with no warning. We thought – this place is cursed! We found a boulder to hide under for half an hour, during which it rained and even hailed for a bit. Finally the sun came back out and we hiked up to a small lake, right below Linus and Faulty…
