Phelix Hut: A White Easter
It was 8pm on Thursday evening, and we were still undecided on what we would be doing on the Easter Long weekend, Friday to Monday. I guess we are kind of last minute people. That’s actually one of the privileges of owning a car – we can decide where we want to go, when and with who. A long look at various weather forecasts concluded that sub-par weather was coming from all directions. Our friend Anne was also looking for something to do, for three days. Finally we decided that given the bad weather, a trip to a comfy hut was in order, enter Phelix. We picked up Anne at…
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Tetrahedron: A Stagette Party in the Backcountry
On a sunny Saturday morning nine of us headed to Tetrahedron, on the Sunshine Coast to celebrate Pascale’s upcoming marriage, on a girls only trip, also known as a Stagette. I was excited by my late pick up time of 7:55am, especially due to the fact that Gili left our nice warm bed before dawn. Sometimes it’s nicer to be on a relaxing easy going trip than on a slog fest. Of course, I was also happy to go on a trip with a bunch of cheerful people and to explore a place I haven’t been to before. We met with the rest of the crew at Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal.…
Mt. Breakenridge: The Mountain at the End of the Lake
The seed for this trip was planted five years ago. Maya and I were cycling up the east side of Harrison Lake, a majestic turquoise jewel. It was a beautiful spring weekend, and we kept on admiring the snow capped mountains of the Chehalis Range, on the other side of the lake. But my eyes were drawn to another mountain, at the opposite end of the lake, easily visible despite being 60km away. Last weekend I finally made it back, to stand at the top of that pointy white giant, the same one which had appeared so far and out of reach. I woke up at the ungodly hour of…
Marriot Basin: Another Perfect “Weekend”
Last week we started our “weekend” on Monday which made perfect sense since the weekend was rainy and wet and then suddenly on Monday the sun showed up for a couple of days making it a wonderful opportunity for a trip to the mountains. For a while now we said that we’ll try to “cherry pick” the timing for our trips according to the weather and not according to the weekends. This is even better when going to places that are crowded during the conventional weekends, such as Elfin or Marriot Basin. So when Vancouver was getting ready to start the week we left early enough to avoid the traffic…
Iago Peak: When Everything Falls Right Into Place
There are those rare days in skiing that are a combination of both perfect sunny weather and excellent snow conditions. Last Sunday was one of those days, so we were off to the Coquihalla for some backcountry skiing. It was our third day in a row of skiing, but each day was of a different type. On Friday we skied downhill on Cypress. It was the first day of spring and probably the best skiing conditions we have had up there the whole season. On Saturday we went to Cypress again, but this time for some really nice and relaxing cross country skiing. It snowed the whole day and the…
Elfin Lakes: A Different Kind of Weekend
The Elfin Lakes Hut is often crowded, to the point where there are people sleeping on the floor, and one finds it difficult to sleep since people are constantly coming and going. All that is needed to avoid the crowds is a small timing change: instead of Saturday to Sunday, we made our weekend Sunday to Monday, and lo and behold, we had the hut almost to ourselves. Except for a surprisingly quiet group of teenagers from the older version of the scouts, who actually ended up sleeping in a roomy snow cave which they dug out the back of the hut. One of their guides slept under a shelter…
Death Valley National Park: Cycling in a Desert Wonderland
It started out as a crazy idea. We were looking for something to do over the two week Christmas break and a few factors had to be taken into consideration – sun, warmth, blue skies and preferably bicycles. I once heard about cycling in Death Valley and just threw it in the air as an option. Gili made it possible. The idea of driving 20 hours each way did not appeal to us, but then again, neither did the other options like staying in rainy and gray Vancouver, or finding a flight at the most expensive time of the year. Checking the temperatures for Death Valley area left us no…
Sloquet Hot Springs: The Thirty Something Trip
November. The month of desperation. The month in which we change our clocks backwards and let darkness set an hour earlier. The month of rain, as the Guns n’ Roses song goes. It’s also the perfect time of year to visit some local hot springs. I have to admit that when the weekend got closer I was less than enthusiastic about leaving the comfort of our cozy apartment. It seems that by November I am more than ready to adapt to the urban life style almost completely. But Pascale and Ignacio were keen on going and Gili too. So eventually I was convinced and off we went early Saturday morning. Ignacio drove, which was…
Mt. Seymour: A Few Favourites
Mt. Seymour is probably my favourite hike on the North Shore. When we parked the car, I realized I probably share this sentiment with many others, but despite the full parking lot we didn’t see that many people on the trail (where did they go?!). The thing about this trail is that it provides excellent “bang for the buck” – one ends up on a mountain top, but most of the elevation gain is done by car, and it takes only a short while to arrive at the First Pump and the glorious views of the snowy and volcanic Garibaldi Massif, Judge Howay, and Mt. Baker (sometimes). This also provided…
The Chief: Escape from the Fog
The fog engulfed us for over a week. I woke up each morning just to see a dense grey cloud outside our window, with no sign of the sun. Yes, it led to a mysterious atmosphere: I imagined stalkers lurking, waiting for their prey, and was almost run over by a few cars while riding my bike around town. However, after a few days the fog got kind of old, and we considered praying for the sun to come back. In the end, all that was necessary was a short drive out of town to Chief Stawamus, also known as The Chief. During an inversion, cold moist air hangs low…
