Tag Archives: Mt Sproatt

Mt Sproatt, 20 Dec 2015

Day hike, Snowshoe,

Colleen C. on Mt Sproatt:
“An intrepid crew of five joined me in an exploratory trip up Mt Sproatt. All of them not merely undeterred by my warnings of cloudy weather, deep snow and tough trailbreaking, but full on embracing it!

Knowing the challenging day ahead, we were well prepared with colourful toques, thermoses of tea, layers galore, headlamps with fresh batteries, GPS, maps, compasses, walkie talkies, avy gear and cookies. Due to the heavy snow conditions and limited daylight hours, we didn’t make the summit but we gave it a good shot and enjoyed a full day in winter paradise. Given the slow slog that is breaking trail uphill, it was about 5 hours up and less than an hour down.

I asked everyone for a memorable moment from the day:

Colleen: Take nearly two metres of pristine fresh powdery snow. Add one snowshoer who’s determined to move through it by any means possible. Result, invention of new sport, snow swimming!

Estafan: The highlight of the day was when my foot decided to go down a hole in the snow above a small creek. I thought it fell into the creek but it didn’t. I’ve got to hand it to Fred the Energizer Bunny for pulling me out of that rabbit hole with such ease!

Darcy: The trees were draped in snow like a village of ghosts. It was challenging but rewarding to climb up steep slopes of snow, wading through waist deep whiteness.

Stephen: The best part was listening to skiers on Whistler Blackcomb narrate their super-exciting day on the slopes over the walkie talkie. My attempt to spice things up with a turkey joke didn’t get any response though. Tough crowd.

Chris: My favourite part on steep snowshoe trips is always coming down. And there were some great drop-offs on this trip to ski over. I probably broke my snowshoe foot plate on one of those descents. You can get replacement bindings at MEC but they don’t stock them – you have to order them. Hopefully, I will get my replacement in time for my holidays!

I didn’t get a quote from Fred, but I know the rest of us won’t forget pushing his car halfway up a looong hill!

Thanks everyone for contributing to a fun trip. Special thanks to drivers Fred and Chris.”

Mt Sproatt 16/05/09

Day hike, Snowshoe, ,

Ahmad on Mt Sproatt:
“We were lucky in many ways of how our hike turned out. We headed first to Whistler Olympic Park. I was surprised by how little snow existed there at altitude 850 m. The forest looked too thick to be bushwhacked and the snow conditions looked bleak. We headed then to an abandoned gold mine which I thought would be better approach as it was located at 1000 m and it was on a more direct route. We parked at about 960 m where the snow line started. We were then pleasantly surprised to find a road that took us all the way up to the ridge (it is possible that this is drivable to about altitude 1250 m in summer. I also think that this road is used by snowmobiles in winter). Soft and slushy snow on the ridge took a big toll of energy from us. It was not sunny but it was definitely a hot day. We got to 1 km away from the peak at altitude 1720 m but we then decided that it was not really worth it to complete the hike. Instead we headed to a false summit at 1750 m and we called it a day. I am very sure that we could have made it.”