Category Archives: Snowshoe

Zoa Peak 20/03/10

Snowshoe,

Ben at Zoa Peak:
“A group of six hikers set out for Zoa Peak just minutes after the spring equinox. The stars were thus nicely aligned to provide us with some great conditions for our trip. The location of the trail proper was a bit elusive, but we passed a couple of helpful folks from Chilliwack that pointed us to the most direct route. We spent less than half an hour in the forest before the views started opening up, and we had a whole wide ridge-top loaded with soft snow on which to tromp around and explore. Thanks to everyone for joining to
make this a trip to remember.”

Zoa Peak Mar. 20, 2010

Mt Laughington 14/03/10

Snowshoe, ,

Rob M. on Mt Laughington:
“A late start (late TR as well) and following a “prospector” through a brief 4×4 adventure after the Foley Creek FSR, placed five of us into a parking lot filled with BCMC vehicles. The BCMC skiers went down the lower Airplane Creek road while we switchbacked in snowshoes to the upper road. We stopped every twenty minutes to chat up the tango line of peaks to the north – the usual suspects – Lady, Knight, Baby Munday, Stewart, Still and Welch. Dean was the only person amongst us having spent time on Munday and Stewart, but that’s not the reason why he was our designated canary on the snowbridges. The snow pack was heavy, soft and deep so it took us a couple of hours to cover 4 km. We caught up with the skiers’ tracks at this point and soon ran into all 12 BCMC skiers skinning up an elegant line to the peak. A considerable amount of BCMC/Wanderung shared DNA led to a long exchange and catching up leaving both groups a little short of their objectives. We ended up turning back at the sub-summit. It was a fairweather day here, but one of us had to be back in Vancouver by 5:30 pm where the rain was coming down in sheets.”

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Garibaldi Lake 06/03/10

Snowshoe,

Rob M. at Garibaldi Lake:
“A delightfully challenging time was had by all, on this storybook day in Garibaldi Park. There were pods of hikers from many Vancouver clubs. Five of us set off on the Barrier stair-master for about 3 km, when crampons and snowshoes were donned for the slippery slope. Susanne, ski equipped, and I relented 1 km later. Just past the Taylor junction we went to breathe in the Barrier vista at its lookout. From there we gingerly descended into its gulley and out onto its lake. The lakes vistas were awesome. We followed some tracks across Lesser Garibaldi and gained the summer trail north of the creek. About 1 km later we descended directly onto Garibaldi Lake and immediately began to soak up its allure. Before the lake walk we ran into Club Treaders returning from the Burton Hut and on the return I ran into Jon and Chris heading up to Mount Price. Back to the parking lot, we kept mostly to the summer trail all the way to the local for a hoist.”

Garibaldi Lake Walk

Garibaldi Lake 06/03/10

Overnighter, Snowshoe, ,

Chris M. camping at Garibaldi Lake:
“Originally 5 but we joined with another 3 doing the same trip and caught a beautiful first day. We were able to drive to the parking lot. The trail up was icy in spots. For Saturday afternoon Jana & Peter explored and found a snow cave to sleep in, Andrew & Virginia watched sunset from Clinker Peak, Tracy (& Brenda?) went for a walk across the lake while Jon & myself played frisbee on Mount Price. Dinner, wine and chat in the shelter. Peter/Jana dominated at Uno. It was overcast and lightly snowing when we left the next day.”

I. Black Tusk.

Wedgemount Lake 06/03/10

Snowshoe, ,

Dan at Wedgemount Lake:
“A hike that adds up to more than the sums of its parts does not happen very often. In our case today the personalities gelled; selflessness and team work abounded; and a young novice hiker transcended her relative inexperience and triumped over 1,600 m of cumulative elevation gains using crampons, snowshoes, and poles in trying conditions – all for the first time!

Weather conditions were ideal – perfect, actually – with a high of 12 C at sun-drenched alpine and windless. Seven of us: Bala, Ben, Biggi, Blair, Dan, Irina, and Scott headed up early and found ourselves at the lake just past 2 pm. With the hot sun burning our bare skin, one tube of sun screen was found and generously shared amongst all of us.

A group of us headed up to the Wedgemount Glacier to explore, taking hundreds of photos, and indulging ourselves with various hijinks. When the turnaround time was reached, we dithered but finally dragged ourselves down the mountain, bum-sliding the long, steep gully just over the Wedgemount Lake saddle with glee. A fantastic day of hiking it was!”

Flatiron 28/02/10

Snowshoe, ,

Irina on the Flatiron:
“Eric, Ahmad, Chris, Cara, Erez and Tareq joined me for this trip to Flatiron in the Coquihalla. Despite drizzle following us from Vancouver, it turned out to be a wonderful day in the mountains complete with great views and excellent company. No snow tires were needed on the Coquihalla. We put snowshoes on right from the start and initially followed the marked summer trail. The bottom part of the trail is well-packed and would be fine with crampons as well.

First following new and old ski tracks, then breaking trail, we were in the open in under an hour and continued south along the ridge, enjoying occasional breaks in the clouds. Due to above zero temperatures, the snow was quite heavy but not icy. Saw two small avalanches run down the steep NW side of Needle peak and felt happy we were a gully away. Multiple avalanche traces on Needle and Yak peaks. With plenty of time to spare, we often stopped to chat, laugh and indulge in the surrounding views; at the end of the hike my GPS read that we spent 2 h 40 min standing and 4 h 10 min moving.

From the bowl below the final ascent to Flatiron, five of us went around the cornice on the left side, while two took the route on the right along the rocks. Met up at the communications tower for lunch in a sudden complete white-out; didn’t linger for long there, but as we got down to the ridge it cleared up again and became much warmer, so we took our time jumping small cornices and playing snowball fights. Debated for a bit whether we want to scramble part of the way up the Needle Peak ridge or follow the ridge SE, but decided on rather getting home earlier. Got down to the car and anxiously turned the radio on to learn that Canada won the gold medal match. Woo-hoo!

Huge thanks to Cara+Chris and Eric for driving 400 km in a day.”

Little Diamond Head 20/02/10

Overnighter, Snowshoe, ,

Rob M. at Little Diamond Head:
“Anyone who’s been to Elfin Lakes knows what a drudge it is vis a vis the Lions slogging road. Thinking of it as half way to Little Diamond Head was different. From the near empty Elfin Lakes Hut we headed high towards the South Columnar Peaks then traversed an easy gradient across the face of the peaks just below their avy runouts yet above the gulley traps. The Gargoyles’ saddle is roughly half-way to Little Diamond Head. From there it was 120 m of whahoooo glissading down the north side of the saddle – but knowing we had to make up for it in spades on the other side.

The views from the north side of the saddle were quite spectacular and I regret having left my camera behind, relying on my cellphone for all the pics. The temperature fell suddenly from banana daiquiri to super sized slushy. The snowpack developed a thick tile surface above the deep moist powder making the ascent arduous with a full pack. Having succumbed to the blue sky white snow syndrome we dug in our camp a little late in the evening at the base of Little Diamond Head. We each had different reasons for a fitful sleep – a gale force micro-system that rocked the Elfin Lakes cabin “all night long” a month ago kept me awake with weather paranoia.

Waking up with Mount Atwell at our doorstep took a while to digest. We ate less than a snack and then quickly summited Little Diamond Head taking in a jaw dropping 360 view. We soon also started up the west ridge of Mount Atwell. Straddling the cornice tops with a few hundred meter drop on either side wasn’t the worst of Atwell – it was knowing that the high temperature was weakening the snowpack under our feet. Next to us were two avy’s flowing down Atwell the size of Park Royal. A tree bomb had set off a size two plus avy off the Columnar peaks covering our earlier tracks. You could never get enough of this eye candy but we did return to our gear – packed up, filled in our camp site – 18 km back to the parking lot. The most difficult part of the hike was finding space in a pub. We caught the last period of the first US vs Canada game at the brewpub with a mixed audience – you know the rest.”

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Mt Harvey 18/02/10

Snowshoe,

Erez on Mt Harvey:
“After deciding to change the destination from Slollicum Peak to Mt. Harvey, due to higher avalanche risk in Slollicum, Graz, Ben, Scot and I met up at 8:00 and drove to Lions Bay to hike up Mt. Harvey. The trail is well marked, but one needs to take care to find the exit from the logging road to the actual trail which is easily missed. The exit is on the left of the logging road just as the road narrows down and become more overgrown, it has a board on which the word “Harvey” is engraved. Snow started at about 1000 m, but this is only approximate as I didn’t check my altimeter. The snow was pretty hard and icy, crampons would be ideal, snow shoes with a good grip have also worked for me, but were not as comfortable. The snow on the ridge is a little softer but still does not really require snow-shoes. The weather was great and we had some beautiful views of the Lions, Brunswick, Howe Sound, Vancouver, and even Mt. Baker in the distance. It was a good trip with good company.”

Mt. Harvey

Mt Seymour 06/02/10

Snowshoe,

Rob M. on an evening snowshoe to Mt Seymour:
“I had forgotten the appeal of an evening snowshoe where the visual hike is dimmed and conversation comes out suddenly from the dark. Without the big picture wrapping all around us we were kept in the moment of the snow beneath our feet. For the most part the snowpack was hiking boot enabled. With some aggressive and skilled toeing and heeling we made it to the first pump without incident. The view from Brockton Point was a nudge and carrot to carry on to the summit. The final push, while daunting at first, was approached with a spirited energy that paid off with an unlimited view of the city lighting up a low ceiling with a few starts twinkling through the canopy. The Seymour evening really lit up when two Wanderung newbies – Nadia and Shannon – offered up a warming beverage followed by sweet chestnuts and Eugene’s Belgium chocolates. With a soporific warm glow on, we floundered our way back to the parking lot. Trying to find a reasonable pub turned out to be another episode. The Raven’s Head was choc-a-bloc with wrestling fanatics. We caravaned through an industrial area around Arcteryx based on an old email someone read about a pub being in that neighbourhood.

After settling and tucking in we had a lively conversation about… silence.”

Seymour 2

Panorama Ridge 23/01/10

Snowshoe, ,

Robert C. on Panorama Ridge:
“Four of us were determined to reach Panorama Peak, a destination that I thought might just be too much for this time of year, especially after seeing Rob’s photos from Garibaldi a few weeks ago. However, with low-moderate avalanche warnings and the prospect of sunny skies, we headed out starting at the trail head at 7:30 am. The road to Rubble Creek parking lot is quite passable with a 4X4 and high clearance. The trail from Rubble Creek to the top of Taylor Meadows was quite easy and typical. A set of ski tracks at about the 8 km mark set us on a fork and diversion to the campground instead of the typical summer route. We managed to break trail through Taylor Meadows with occasional ski tracks. Without markers on the trees it was difficult to find the junction for Black Tusk/Panorama Ridge so we ended up traversing the trail to Black Tusk. However the much steeper terrain provided views that I never saw on the regular summer trail to Panorama Ridge. As a result, we almost did two hikes, one to the ridge of Black Tusk and the other to Panorama Peak. It was a steep descent back to the bowl between Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge but well worth it. Then we started the ascent up to the peak of Panorama. Through the whole trip we experienced deep blue skies to cloud that provided for a variety of great photos. The climb to the peak was the exact opposite of what I expected. I was expecting that we would be waist deep in snow but because it’s so windy up there, it makes it hard packed for the most part. For those that have hiked with me before, you know how much I love this hike. I get goose bumps just thinking about the entire trip. I also thank everyone for taking turns breaking snow and route scouting. This was made possible only because of this teamwork! See you all again. Hopefully our tracks will stay for the next hike :)”