Category Archives: Overnighter

Mt Gandalf 21/05/11

Backpacking, Overnighter, Snowshoe, , ,

Ben at the Brian Waddington Hut:
“Despite the dramatic disappearance of the sun this weekend, our group of five met up and headed north with hopes of finding clearer skies. The road to Birkenhead Lake was clear and in good shape all the way to the lake. We turned off at the branch immediately before the gate to the campground and parked nearby, facing 6.6 km of logging road to walk to the trailhead. Along the way we passed up a VOC group heading up with skis on their backs. At the end of the road we had lunch and let the skiers take the lead. The trail was short and very well marked as it winds up the forest along Phelix Creek. It was however challenging in the soft melting snow with heavy packs. Eventually we crested a small rise to see Long Lake and the hut awaiting us at the far side. The weather had been grey all day and it didn’t look like the situation was any more promising up here. The hut deserves its good reputation. The evening was a relaxing mix of cooking, reading selections from the library, and enjoying the skiers’ renditions of old Bob Dylan songs on the guitar.

The next morning the snow was falling and we left the hut to stretch our legs. We had no real expectation of reaching any summits, but we decided to make for Gandalf-Peregrine col and see what things looked like. After a couple of hours we found ourselves at the col having the turn around time discussion. We had plenty of extra time so we decided to invest another hour and take it a step at a time. We began to switch back up the end of the ridge leading to Mount Gandalf. We couldn’t see much but we knew that up there somewhere the white wizard was waiting. Progress was steady thanks to Brad’s trail breaking effort, and before we knew it we found ourselves standing below huge boulders. With less than 100m to gain, we knew we must be close. From here Pavel lead us on a true showshoe scramble as we moved up bare slabs, boulders, and the snow that filled the gaps between, not bothering to stop and remove the snowshoes. One final block split the group into three as we picked our preferred routes over or around the rock. After converging and counting heads, we moved on. Then out of the mist appeared the great unmistakable flake standing like the final stone on some great summit cairn. We were there! Congratulations all around! A huge thanks to Brad, Pavel, Rob, and Darcy for their contributions to this very memorable trip.”

Gandalf peak, 05/22/11

Panther Peak 21/05/11

Backpacking, Overnighter, Snowshoe, ,

Ahmad on Panther Peak:
“I was first surprised by the lack of signage to the park. I expected at least the regular provincial sign that I am used to seeing in provincial parks. Second, I was surprised by the lack of people especially for the long weekend. There are four cabins in the park and I think the park is underrated. We only saw 6 people in total.

I wasn’t aware of NcNair Cabin which was a treat to find near our destination. It seems most people in winter head to Edwards Cabin and some to Steele Cabin. The trail to Edwards Lake was broken but there was again lack of markers but might just hidden in snow. It could be better in summer.

After Edwards Cabin, we broke the trail towards Chapman Lake. The trail crosses Chapman Creek about half way but we missed the turn and we became on the other side of the lake. We reached a creek that we couldn’t cross. We had four options: return to Edwards Cabin, turn back and look for the bridge that we missed, camp where we were, or cross Chapman Lake. We chose the last one. The lake was melting in some sections but we managed to cross it without a problem but I expect it will not be crossable any more soon. McNair Cabin was in good condition and it is located truly in serene location.

Our objective was to summit Panther but I was pretty exhausted from the night before. I also had some concerns of crossing the lake on the next day and the tight schedule for the ferry. I think this is an awesome place to spend an overnight if not more.

Photos, movies, and GPS track on Live Trails.”

DSCN5737

Elfin Lakes 18/12/10

Backcountry ski, Overnighter

Eric at Elfin Lakes:
“Saturday morning began as a cloudy, overcast day. It didn’t get better. Three of us met the fourth in Squamish and proceeded up to the Elfin Lakes parking lot. The road was exceptionally treacherous. The fourth member attempted to drive his Corolla on snow tires up. Unfortunately he became stuck halfway up. While getting unstuck, a large line of traffic got stuck behind us, blocking our retreat. After a car and a truck ended up in the ditch, the park rangers showed up. After the better part of 3 hours pushing cars, chaining tires, and trying to not get swept off the road, the three of us left the fourth to make his own way down. We carried on in a chained up 4×4 truck having no difficulty to reach the upper parking lot. The weather got worse. Lots of snow was hampering visibility. We reached Elfin Lakes hut just before dark. (total of approx. 4 hrs travel from upper parking lot). The hut is very nice and warm. It has propane heat, stoves and lanterns. It also has solar powered LED lights that sort of work. The next morning, we toured over to the Gargoyles and got a couple runs in. Amazing light powder snow, great terrain, but some avalanche risk. We were very thankful to the party that broke an excellent track up to the col through as safe terrain as possible. After lunch we headed back to the truck. The clouds opened up and exposed the beautiful surroundings. After 3 hours we reached the parking lot (on skis, about 4 hrs on snowshoes). Driving down was slow but uneventful. We had heard, and then saw, that a Jeep without chains slid and rolled over the edge of the road. It looked to have plunged 60 feet before coming to rest in some trees upside down. Its roof was caved in and it didn’t have any glass left in the windshield. Apparently a fire truck and an ambulance were necessary. The moral of the story: don’t attempt to drive up without chains. Even if you think you will try, it is likely that you will fail. Turning around is very difficult, and dangerous. Also, if you have chains, try to get up early, to lessen the chance of getting stuck behind a large group of vehicles pretending to be toboggans.

All in all, a great trip for the three of us that made it Elfin Lakes shelter.”

Taylor Meadows 27/11/10

Backcountry ski, Backpacking, Overnighter, Snowshoe,

Chris M. winter camping at Garibaldi Lake:
“We broke trail the entire way. Along the road, up the trail, in the meadows and up the ridge. Around 25 km round trip. Scott and Ian were in snowshoes. I skied. I was so tired I buried my heavy tent at the 4-km marker and decided to sleep in the shelter. We missed sunset. Exhausted, we played cards, went to sleep early and still we missed sunrise. We woke up to frozen ski boots and gaiters. After skinning up the ridge, just as the views opened up, along they came including Robert!? – a Wanderung member who decided our tracks looked better than breaking trail over to Panorama. Smart choice. After stopping with a beautiful view of Black Tusk another Wanderunger, Adrien showed up!! The morning had been a bright blue but the clouds now started to roll in. Skiing down in 2 feet of powder was dreamy.”

Overnight on Skis

Elfin Lakes 20/11/10

Overnighter, Snowshoe, ,

Rob M. at Elfin Lakes:
“We made it to the unploughed upper parking lot. One car had slid off the road into the forest – a bit of bumper and windshield visible – driver frantic on the cell phone. We seemed to be the first, breaking a snowshoe trail out to the hut. Progress was slow and draining. From the high stilted outhouse at Red Heather I could see that the poled winter route hadn’t been set. The narrow trail followed the summer route without any avi risk. We arrived quite late at the Elfin Lakes Hut feeling a little trashed. Sadly there were no tracks leading up Columnar Peak/Gargoyles saddle. Time worked against our intent of tenting out on the saddle, Columnar Peaks or ideally up on Little Diamond Head. The trump card was yet to be played.

With less than two hours of daylight a couple of skiers headed out towards the saddle but gave up breaking trail 1 km beyond the shelter. At the shelter I saw three grommets had broken loose from the metal frame of my MSR snowshoes. That and the oversized winter pack were probably the cause of some shooting pains in my hip. Three steps in 1.5 metre snow from the hut there was a collective feeling that we didn’t consume enough power gels to get us to the saddle.

A half hour later Glen tells us that his bivy setup probably wouldn’t work. The temperature was -15 and dropping – colder with the wind chill and worse at higher exposed elevations. We quickly found a spot in the meadows at the base of Columnar Peaks and began digging out a campsite and talked about what to do if the temperature went south of -20. Two of us ended up sharing a 4 season Hilleberg tent and with a bit of tweaking, everyone survived the night – woken once by the sound of snow drilling our tents; and once by the unmistakable sound of a woomph and a slide coming down the Gargoyles.

We took a mellow, get lost and smell the flowers pace back to the parking lot passing more than 50 skiers/snowboarders on Paul Ridge near Round Mountain. The trail was now a super highway. A pint and burger in town and we were home.”

P1100587

Semaphore Lakes 16/10/10

Backpacking, Overnighter, Scramble, ,

Ben at Semaphore Lakes:
“The time of year was near perfect for a trip to this area. While the lower portion of the trail was very muddy, the ground in the bowl containing the lakes was nicely frozen. There was a light blanket of snow varying from sparse patches in the sunny spots to several inches in the shade of the ridges. It was just enough to add beauty to the alpine scenes without making travel difficult. After establishing camp we made our way up Locomotive Mountain. We followed the gentle southern ridge which cannot be seen from the lakes. The route was mostly snow-covered talus and easy to follow. On the summit, the air was cold and clear, and the views were exceptional. Although the sun set well before we made it back to camp, the half moon was bright on the snow and we had no problems. After a very chilly night we were happy to see the sun crest over the ridge at around 10:00. On this day we went for a nice walk along the ridge to the east, and then meandered our way around the lakes and back to the trail. Thanks to Bill and Mazy for joining me and contributing to this great trip.”

Semaphore Lakes, Oct. 16-17, 2010

Elfin Lakes 18/09/10

Backpacking, Overnighter, , , ,

Malin at Elfin Lakes:
“Six adventurous Wanderung members braved wet weather and vehicle problems on Saturday morning and headed up to Elfin Lakes for the weekend. Light rain fell continuously on our way up to the Red Heather hut, but the showers got less frequent after that. By the time we arrived at Elfin Lakes the sun actually poked through the clouds and we had lunch by the lake. After lunch we left our heavy bags in the hut and headed towards the saddle between the Gargoyles and Columnar Peak. The trail was incredibly slippery, but the hike well worth it as the clouds started burning off when we reached the saddle. From the saddle we headed up to the Gargoyles, where we enjoyed great views of the Diamond Head, Diamond Glacier, Opal Cone and Elfin Lakes. Despite the wet weather the hut filled up completely and it was nice to retreat to the quiet tents. In the morning we headed towards the Opal Cone. Surprisingly we made it all the
way, despite some heavy rain and the washed out trail. We even had some nice views! The bridge over Ring Creek was in place, but people should always check: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/garibaldi/trail_report.pdf for the most current information. Thanks to Rob for the directions to the
Cone and to everyone else who joined me on this great adventure.”

Singing Pass 28/08/10

Backpacking, Overnighter, , , ,

Su-Laine hiking the Musical Bumps via Singing Pass:
“Do this trip soon! Eight of us headed up the steady gradient of the Singing Pass trail on Saturday, towards the meadows where a variety of alpine flowers were in bloom and more had yet to open. Russet Lake had plenty of excellent camping spots. It got cold: we measured minus 2 degrees at night while we were still awake! On Sunday six of us day-hiked to various altitudes on Fissile Peak in glorious sunshine. It’s a tricky scramble and only one of us got to the top, but even a partial ascent gave excellent views.

After waiting out a spell of bad weather at the Russet Lake hut, we hiked out in temporarily less-bad weather along the Musical Bumps trail. I discovered that a scrambling helmet is fun to wear in a hailstorm – you hear the clatter of hail while keeping dry and cozy. The fog cleared and the sun came out occasionally, enough to appreciate the beauty of the region, which included black bears and gregarious marmots. The (free) gondola to the village was scheduled to run until the late evening that day, so it was past 7pm by the time we got to the Dubh Linn Gate pub for dinner. The gondola is scheduled to run until late a few more times this summer (Sept 3, 4, and 5), but call Whistler Guest Services (1-800-766-0449) to confirm.

Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun trip with great company.”

Dima and Valerie

Mt Weart 14/08/10

Overnighter, Scramble, ,

Ben on Mt Weart:
“I have had a recent urge to do something really challenging before the days begin to grow short and weather too uncertain. This trip to Mt. Weart delivered that challenge in full. The abundance of loose rock and lack of snow made this a demanding route. These difficulties were compounded by the sun toasting us at nearly 30 degrees. The route was composed of four distinct segments. The initial portion skirts right along the toe of the Wedgemount glacier and then climbs up the slope on the left side of a creek that is flowing down from a basin above. The route then crosses this basin along a second glacier and ascends a loose slope on the opposite side. It would have been great to see more snow here, but we made do by picking our way up through snow and scree. This slope tops out at another higher and smaller basin/bench where at last the base of the final ridge is in sight. The third part of the route, that is reportedly marked with cairns, is up through the cliffs to the lowest part of the ridge. If there were cairns in the cliffs, they were not obvious. We all picked slightly different lines up and found the top with no problems. There seemed to be plenty of ways to go that were only moderately exposed, but this section would prove to be a bit tricky on the way down. Upon gaining the ridge, we were rewarded with phenomenal views out across the immense Weart Glacier. From here we walked the ridge to the base of the summit and then scrambled our way up the final slope, which consisted mostly of large, semi-stable rocks. It was hard work in the heat of midday, but reaching the summit was a glorious moment and made it all worth while. We had views of…. pretty much everything. A big thanks to Peter, Beau, and Tim for joining me on this very memorable day!”

Mt Weart, Aug. 14-15, 2010

Lake Lovely Water 17/07/10

Overnighter, Scramble, ,

Erez at Lake Lovely Water:
“Rob M., Rob D., Jo-Anne, Tia, Ben, Michele and I spent a great weekend in Lake Lovely Water. There are several ways to get across the Squamish River to the trail head. We used Jay Bicknell’s jet boat service and took a 20 minute jet boat ride which was a very nice way to start the hike. Jay also made sure our adrenaline level was sufficiently high for the hike as he made an almost 360 degree turn in place just before reaching the trailhead.

I’ve read a lot about the extreme steepness of the trail and so I was expecting a difficult hike up. I also knew that not too many people hike it, and so I wasn’t sure it would be marked well. In reality, I found the trail to be quite manageable. It is steep in parts, but there are steeper trails. In my opinion, it is similar in difficulty to the trail up to Garibaldi Lake, which is longer, but less steep. It was also marked very well, and had very little deadfall. We took our time, and hiked for about 4 hours to reach the lake.

The lake indeed lives up to its name and reputation of being the Lake Louise of the coast mountains. Near the lake there is an ACC hut which we were not going to use. We peeked in and found the hut to be extremely well equipped with a gas stove, table, kitchen with cupboards, and even mattresses for the bunk beds. The people staying in the hut were nice enough to let us use its boats (canoe, and row-boat). Instead of hiking to the sand spit where we intended to camp, we took the boats, loaded our bags, and spent 10 minutes canoeing and rowing to the campsite. The snow level was pretty much at the elevation of the lake so part of the beach was covered in snow, but it was so hot outside, that it was actually quite refreshing. We set up camp, and planned what to do next. Some of us wanted to chill-out in the camp site and go for a (very chill) swim in the lake, and the rest of us decided to explore the western end of the lake by boat. The lake is even more beautiful when seen from the middle. At the western end, there is a large nice waterfall, and two of us scrambled up it to reach the point know as the “Russian Army Camp” – a very nice alpine bowl at about 1400 m surrounded by steep mountain faces and glaciers. We hiked down, and rowed back to camp.

The next day our group split up again. A few of us woke up at 6 am to climb one of the surrounding Greek giants. Our goal was Mt. Pelops. We pretty much followed the scrambling route described in Matt Gunn’s book ascending from its eastern face. The route consists of climbing steep snow slopes and a bit of rock-climbing near the end. We did not use ropes; two of us had ice axes and one of us had crampons. I had neither, and even though it was not a hard route, I would not try it again without both. It took us about 3.5 hours to reach the summit at 2000 m. We had almost perfect weather and the views were glorious. We lingered for about an hour up there, had lunch, and descended. Our descent was much quicker as we slid down on the snow most of the way. It took us only an 1.5 hours to return to the campsite. The rest of our group who did not join us climbing Pelops woke up later and hiked up to Niobe meadows which is at the beginning of our scrambling route. All in all, this was an excellent trip with excellent company.”

16 tant lake three