Category Archives: Overnighter

Mt Frosty 10/09/09

Backpacking, Overnighter, ,

Tracy on a frosty night on Mt Frosty:
“Ten people turned out for the Mt. Frosty overnighter: Chris M. (the organizer), Tracy, Brenda, Lana, Dorothy, Lucy, Jeff, Daniel, Paige, and Sebastian. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, but decidedly nippy out as we started from the Lightning Lakes parking lot. The plan was to camp in the larch meadows, but when we reached the aptly named Frosty Camp at 12:30, we discovered it was bitterly cold and made a group decision to set up there, since we’d be able to have a fire there. After setting up camp, we continued onto the beautiful golden larch meadows. The trail was quite slick due to ice; crampons would have been nice but everyone made it in their boots.

Once in the meadows, unfortunately Chris had to turn back due to increasing flu symptoms. A few others decided to join him on the journey home, having seen what a cold night it was going to be. Chris kindly waited while everyone continued with the rest of the group to the Frosty summit. After taking in the stunning 360 degree views, we turned around; some back to camp, some back to the car with Chris.

Chris left us a plethora of treats to enjoy: wine, cookies, and Thanksgiving ham. We shivered around a campfire that barely seemed to give off any heat at all. Huddling close together, we enjoyed Chris’s treats, except for the ham, which we saved for breakfast. There was some debate over who would sleep with the ham to keep it from freezing. In the end this job fell to Jeff, I think.

We estimate it reached -15 C overnight. In the morning we hustled out of there, looking forward to getting warm. A stop at the Chilliwack airport for its famous pies finished off the outing quite nicely.

Many thanks to Chris for organizing, and so sorry he couldn’t be there to shiver in the cold with us.”

Golden Ears 19/09/09

Backpacking, Overnighter,

Heather on Golden Ears:
“Bob, John, and Heather did a shorter overnight trip, leaving Saturday afternoon and hiking 5.5 km up to Alder flats to camp. From there, they left the tents Sunday morning and hiked to the peak of Golden Ears, enjoying blueberries and watching the clouds come and go. The peak was clear of clouds with partial views to Pitt Lake and some of the mountains to the north. However, other clouds obstructed Mt. Robie Reid and the Fraser Valley, so the views weren’t quite as stunning as they could be. Unfortunately, the trail was the most littered with garbage of any provincial park that I’ve been in. This included the emergency shelter being a complete mess, and random garbage and graffiti everywhere else. Too bad. Sunday’s total distance, 18.5 km, took us 11 hours with a few nice breaks. A bit of a slog as a hike… I have previously done it in one day by mountain biking 6 km up the east canyon trail, stashing the bikes, crossing the river, and bushwacking up to the main trail, and I think I prefer that strategy to the 24 km slog.”

Locomotive and Face Mtns 29/08/09

Overnighter, Scramble, ,

Tim on Locomotive and Face Mountains:
“Tim and Alex scrambled Locomotive and Face Mountains. The Hurley River Road is rough but very doable in a LC 2WD. The hike to Semaphore Lakes is an easy 60 minutes. Locomotive is a tiring but easy 5 hr scramble. The route described in Matt Gunn’s book is fine. But there is a slight variation (turn left at the upper lake to avoid the snow slope) that is less work and more fun. We ran into the celebrated Mick Range at the trailhead and he suggested this variation. The view from the top is very good. Current haze from wild fires reduces visibility. Face Mountain is a more difficult 7 hour scramble. But the payoff is superior. It is an exciting climb with some challenging terrain. Matt Gunn’s book provides a very good description that, if followed carefully, keeps you out of serious danger. Helmets are essential. The summit is a steep slab with a very scary cliff on the other side. The view from the top is almost unbeatable. In particular the Train Glacier is an amazing expanse of ice with a rather nifty waterfall at the snout. Both peaks are surprisingly snow free at the moment.”

Helm Creek 18/07/09

Backpacking, Overnighter, , ,

Heather in and around Helm Creek:
“Tyler, Ted, Bob and Heather did an overnight trip in Garibaldi park. We took Saturday to hike into Cheakamus Lake, have lunch and a quick dip, and then start the ascent up the slopes toward Helm Valley. As we had some extra time, we decided it might be nice to try and find Corrie Lake, which was estimated at 1/2 km off the trail (a beautiful blue lake that can be seen from the peak of Whistler). We made it, but the hour and a half of bushwhacking and the unbelievable mosquito clouds would not convince us to do it again! (We decided we were training for Chris Nott’s call-outs…) Camping at Helm Creek was beautiful but another incredible battle with mosquitos – full-on Goretex and mosquito nets only slightly delayed our escape into the safety of the tents. Sunday was a scenic 25 km hike up the scenic Helm Valley to Panorama Ridge – incredible views of Black Tusk, interesting cinder cones & valley floor, stunning colours of Garibaldi Lake and all the surrounding glaciers and mountains, and the most vibrant wildflowers blooming everywhere. A quick dip in Helm Lake was a refreshing stop on the long hike back to the car.”

Whistler 18/07/09

Day hike, Overnighter

Pablo at base-camp Whistler:
“7 of us went to Whistler Friday Night for 2 days of hiking. It’s nice to have a base camp on Whistler. I woke up late and I found my breakfast served. We started hiking Singing Pass at around 9:30am and we just make it on time to take the last Peak to Peak Gondola forth and Back, we even got the silver one back from Blackcomb. We went down to the village, went shopping, and then we went to the beach for a swim, and after we had a BBQ dinner before they closed the Village Gondola at 8:30pm. Thanks Mike for cooking. Some of us even did a small night hike to the village nightlife before going to bed for the next hike Sunday to Joffre Lakes.

Singing Pass-Musical Bumps took us 7 hours including lunch and time for taking 599 pictures. The snow is almost gone. We didn’t see any bears but we found several Marmots instead. We did Joffre Lakes in a more moderate pace. The Glacier is melting fast and going too close is getting dangerous because of the ice falls. Lots of mosquitoes and bugs.”

Brandywine Mtn 06/06/09

Backpacking, Overnighter, Scramble, ,

Chris M. on Brandywine Mountain:
“The 4×4 access road was snow free, unlike the top part of the trail. Glad to have bypassed it. We followed the last branch and quickly entered the meadows. Except for the creek, it is still covered in snow. A collaborative effort in route-finding got us up to the ridge where we set up camp. A site meant for the gods – the views in all directions were fantastic, especially since we seemed to be in a pocket of blue sky. We camped on snow, but rock outcroppings provided a nice place to relax and eat. We went for the peak in the morning with 3 of us reaching the 2213-m summit. Fairly easy scrambling involved. Easy descent and nice drive back to Vancouver by 3 pm. Thanks to Erin, Dorothy and Stacey for making this an excellent experience.”

The View

Phelix Creek 15/11/08

Backpacking, Overnighter, , , ,

Chris at Phelix Creek:
“Andrew, Cara, Gloria, Lucy, Midori and Ribeka joined me on a rather wet trip up to the Brian Waddington hut in Phelix Creek. The Blackwater Road was in good 2wd condition with minor potholes and a small amount of slick mud. The Phelix Creek Road is rough 2wd for a couple hundred metres before it becomes fully 4wd at the remains of a rock slide – park 2wd vehicles at a sign warning about mudding about 200 m up the road. We all piled into Andrew’s Jeep and drove to the end of the road (almost as fun as the Lone Goat trip). The trail is well marked with reflective orange metal tags and snow patches started early (1200 m). It took almost 3 hrs to hike / slog / snowshoe to the hut (only 4 km). There was up to 2-3 feet of snow in places but the lake was slushy and not yet frozen (1700 m). Temperatures never dropped below freezing even at night and it rained / drizzled almost continuously. The cabin is outfitted with only a small (size of a large pot) portable white gas heater which did little but fill the hut with fumes so it was soon extinguished. The hut was clean and, because the surrounding hills often have high avalanche danger, provided with much reading material (check out the outhouse log book) and many sets of playing cards. By morning about 6″ of snow had melted off and several people headed up the valley for a bit of exploring before we headed back to the trailhead. The hugely variable freezing level makes this time of year tricky to go hiking.”

Lone Goat Cabin 25/10/08

Backpacking, Overnighter

Chris at the Lone Goat Cabin:
“Gloria, Joss, Lucy and I all piled in Andrew’s Jeep for a trip up to the sledder’s cabin in Lone Goat valley. The Hurley was in decent condition with about 2 inches of snow at the pass. The Lone Goat spur leaves the Hurley immediately after the bridge over the Hurley River and is in rough 2wd shape for a little over 1 km after which high clearance 4wd and a complete disregard for your paint job is required (5 foot alders growing out of the centre strip). Andrew enthusiastically threw his vehicle at pretty much everything. Maps show a main road paralleling the river and a road forking off up Lone Goat valley but in reality, the main road has disappeared and you don’t have to make any turns to go up Lone Goat. We parked at around 4 km before the alders really started to crowd the road. A rough winter rough is marked leaving the road near the pulled bridge near the end of the road. There’s a mix of sporadic flagging (yellow, blue, pink, white, etc) but the route regularly breaks down to a pure bushwhack (including alder, boulder fields, wet meadows and avalanche debris). It took 5 hours up (including a bit of confusion in finding the cabin – we walked past it initially). Patchy snow from about halfway up and continuous near the cabin. The cabin itself is outfitted with a good stove and solar electric lighting and benches for sleeping 4 plus floor space for another 3. No thermometer but I’d guess just below freezing in late afternoon to -8 C in the early morning. In the morning, we climbed a 2400-m peak north of the cabin (Andrew and Joss summitted). We encountered snow drifts of up to 3 feet of powder in places but there was plenty of flowing water even at 2100 m. After lunch, the trip back to the car took only 3hrs (probably because we picked a better line).”

Blowdown Cabin 18/10/08

Backpacking, Overnighter

Chris at Blowdown Cabin:
“It was an impromptu reunion of the Halymore-Melvin trip with Cara, Dean and Quirine joining me. The Blowdown Road was sloppier on flat stretches and near the spurs at 1 and 2.5km (you will get muddy) but there are no new waterbars (see trip report for Blowdown-Van Horlick Divide for more on this road). It looks like there hasn’t been any recent snow in the area. At 1600 m, any snow was in sheltered pockets. On south-facing slopes, continuous snow didn’t start until 2200 m or higher. At the cabin (2000 m in a sun-sheltered bowl) there was only 4-6 inches of dry, crusted snow. But temperatures were low – not much above freezing in the early afternoon and -6 C at 7:30 am. The trail to the cabin isn’t flagged well so with the snow covering the upper parts of the route, we frequently lost and regained the trail. The meadows were only partly frozen (i.e. still wet) and there was still flowing water in some places even above 2200 m. Log crossings and boulder fields were either frosty or wet so pretty treacherous. The cabin was, in the words of one log entry, ‘pimped’ and mouse-free. Found out that Dean can bust out some crazy dance skillz. Thanks for a cherry trip, guys.”

Blowdown Creek 009

Overlord Mountain 27/09/08

Backpacking, Overnighter, Scramble

Ahmad on Overlord Mountain:
“What amazing views from Overlord! The ascend was harder than I expected. Top of Refuse Pinnacle was covered by fresh snow and its slope lured us to traverse it. It seemed it was possible from looking at it from a distance and the topo map. We traversed a long way on a series of small gullies and ridges with many loose rocks till we reached a point, we found that it was hard to continue. We decided then to climb up to its top which was a hard climb but then we were relieved to find that its narrow top ridge was a much better option. The snow made it slippery but I think if it was dry, it would have been easier. The rest of the way was easy. It took us 4 hours to go up and 3 hours to get down from Russet Lake. I also find Whirlwind Peak provides nice views and it could be a destination by itself if you don’t have the luxury of time. It is also an easier option than Fissile Peak. On Saturday we met a few small groups camping on Russet Lake including two former members from Wanderung. The four of us had an excellent weekend. No ice axe was needed to get on Whirlwind ridge. Thanks for Tim and David for their information and tips.”