Hermit Meadows

We were at Hermit Meadows over the long weekend with Mark, a former colleague of mine. We didn't really have any specific objectives in mind and just wanted to spend a couple of nights out and perhaps get up onto the glacier below Mount Rogers.

Brenda and I made the same trip last year and have fond memories of being forced to dig out a tent platform with a pot from our cook set. With the big snow pack this year we made sure to bring a shovel this time. In the end we could have used two or three. There was still 2-3 meters of snow in places. It took hours of digging but it was well worth it to have a nice dry (albeit cramped) platform to pitch the tents on.



We had a good dinner, drank lots of tea, and watched the sun set on the mountains across the valley, but we were soon chased into our tents by the cold wind.

We woke to a nice morning with a mix of sun and cloud and made our way over Tupper Ridge and onto the glacier.



Just for kicks we climbed a steep snow slope to reach the top of a sub-peak beside Mount Rogers. It's the double humped feature in the center left of this photo:


Here's Mark trying to decide whether or not he's having fun (he was):


Another night out and then back down to the car where we found one of Brenda's most favourite things in the world...a cool bug!


Leave a comment if you can you help us identify him. I should have put something else in the photo for comparison because he looks tiny. Actually his body alone was about 2-3cms long.

Bowron Lakes Canoe Circuit

Just back from a 6 day canoe trip to the Bowron Lakes. The trip was organized by a great group of guys from Edmonton. My connection to them was through Ross McEwen. I know Ross from the time when we both lived in Montreal. The timing was perfect since I was leaving the company that I was working for and starting a new position elsewhere. The trip fell in between nicely.

The park is situated on the western slopes of the Cariboo Mountain Range about 700km north of Kelowna. It was a loooong drive and I took the opportunity to christen the new (old) VW van by sleeping in it on the night that I drove up.



I arrived on a sunny Friday morning to find the happy pre-trip chaos of Ross, Darcy, Gary, Daryl and Mario mixing equal parts of packing, drinking, and general hilarity.

There is an unreal amount of administrative bureaucracy to go through before being allowed to depart from the staging area. There are information sessions, videos, and gear weigh-ins ad nauseam. Looking at this map, the trip begins in the top left corner and then travels clockwise from there. The places we camped are circled in red.



The circuit itself is 110km long with about 10kms of that being portages. It's very much like a canoe trip in Algonquin Park except that the mountains are...well, mountains...with snow capped peaks, avalanche runouts, and weather that changes in an instant. The portages are also much easier with well maintained trails that are designed to be used with canoe carts. This makes a huge difference in the amount of weight that you can carry (think giant smoked hams for the non-veggies and lots of booze). We saw moose, baby moose, eagles, ospreys, and bear. Got cold, hot, wet, and very dirty. So overall a great trip!







On the drive out Darcy and I passed two grizzly bears playing in a meadow near the road just outside of Wells. We pulled off onto a side road to watch from the van. We were amazed as they made their way directly towards us, play-fighting and running and loping around. Eventually they were within about 20 metres of us when all of a sudden an RCMP truck pulled up behind us, blasted its siren, and then parked directly between us and the bears. An officer jumped out with a rifle and started throwing rocks at the bears and yelling "Go on! Get out of here you stupid bears! Yargh!!". The bears stood up on their hind legs, hesitated a moment, and ran off in the other direction.

It was pretty dramatic. He explained afterwards that the bears are a real menace so they actively deter them when they get near the edge of town. The rifle was loaded with rubber bullets.

We had a fantastic meal at a little restaurant in Wells and then a highly entertaining evening in the slightly larger town of Quesnel. It gets a bit foggy from here but I do believe that we made quite an impression on the local populace. Highlights include karaoke in the Caribou Bar, endless sambuca shots courtesy of Daryl, and a new dance invented by Mario in the Quesnel Bar that features several people forming a line and paddling around the dance floor to heavy dance music.

I slept in the van parked in the Ramada parking lot.

More photos from Darcy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/darcy.lalor/BowronLakesJune2007

Google killed Picasa so here are more photos on Google Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/GkxCNj916oU7rwBJ8

Mission Creek

Okay this barely counts as a trip report but we've been a bit lazy lately so I gotta post something.

Last fall Brenda and I paddled two different sections of the Shushwap River between Mabel Lake and Mara Lake. At the time the river was teaming with big red sockeye salmon.



We really enjoyed ourselves and resolved to do more paddling in the area. Unfortunately renting a canoe and then returning it during business hours was a major hassle. So on Saturday we bought a used canoe. Nothing fancy -- a 16' frontier and a bit of a monster really -- but I've always wanted a canoe and this'll do for now.

The world was our oyster! Where to go canoing? Mission Creek seemed the obvious choice. Mission Creek flows out of the hills east of Kelowna and winds through the city and into Okanagan Lake. Brenda was a little dubious about the idea but she was a good sport and we went for it. We left one car at the lake and then drove about 12km upstream and put the canoe in.

Um...the river was really flowing. I mean it was seriously moving. To make a long story short by the time we were 500 meters downstream (which was pretty damn quick) we'd taken on a good amount of water and were soaked to the skin. The water is anything but warm this time of year let me tell 'ya.

A return to shore was promptly arranged and we came to a crunching halt on some shallow rocks, somewhat chastened. Our poor canoe must have wondered just what kind of a future life was in store for it.

We'll go back in a few weeks after the spring run-off.

Monashees

We drove up to the Monashees on Sunday morning. The plan was to drive as far as possible on the logging roads and then to ski into Monashee Lake and spend the night.

It should be noted that this was Brenda's idea. She's beginning to make a habit of picking wacky spring destinations and this one continued the fine tradition! We needed the logging roads to be clear enough of snow that would could drive to within a reasonable distance of the trailhead. But then we also needed there to be enough snow remaining for us to ski as soon as we left the car behind. Somewhat conflicting requirements.

The road remained completely snow free except for one section of deep and really dense snow. Of course by now we've taken off the snow tires so at first the little CRV huffed and puffed but just could not get through. Eventually we used our avalanche shovels to clear two tracks and also put the tire chains on (once we remembered that we had them in the car with us) and that did the trick.

With the patch of snow behind us we were home free!


Or not...


I think we can fit through...


Um...perhaps we'd better take a measurement here.




Rats. Not going to happen. This is where we needed to get to...


And of course at this point it started to rain. And it was cold. And the prospect of walking several kilometers (at least) with skis on our backs just so that we could maybe, possibly, perhaps find enough snow to ski...

Well, let's just say that forward momentum was lost at this point.

We did see a bear though. And there was bear scat everywhere.

And I dunno if this was some bear's first dump after hibernation or what but either way I say that this was one big bear.


(And no the bear didn't pass Brenda's GPS through it's system, it's just there for comparison purposes.)

Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea

Yesss!

Wapta Icefield

The Wapta Icefield traverse is the classic Canadian Rockies hut-to-hut ski tour. The icefield straddles the continental divide on the Alberta-BC border north of Lake Louise. The traverse is typically done from north to south starting at Wapta Lake or Bow Lake and continuing southwards to an exit at Sherbrooke Lake near Field on the Trans-Canada Highway. There are four ACC huts along the route -- Peyto, Bow, Balfour, and the Scott Duncan. We planned a slightly shorter traverse over 4 days and 3 nights with stops at the Bow, Balfour, and Scott Duncan huts.



Alas, the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men...

The Bow is a really well designed hut with separate sleeping and living quarters connected by a short passage way. I'd been here a couple of years before in October for some early season skiing. That time we'd carried our skis on our backs and been forced to hop from rock to rock up the canyon since we were ignorant of the summer hiking trail that stayed above the canyon! This time we arrived in good time but in crap weather so we had a leisurely afternoon and evening playing cards.





The next morning we made our way up onto the glacier and headed towards the Olive-St.Nicholas col. At first the visibility was really poor and at times it snowed heavily and the wind howled. We aimed vaguely in the direction of the col and hoped for some visibility. Eventually it cleared just at the right time and we found our way over the col and to the Balfour Hut without too much trouble.

Above the Bow Hut


Brad at the col


The Balfour Hut with the St. Nick-Olive col to the right of the peaks in the distance


The next leg of the traverse travels over the Balfour High Col to the Scott Duncan Hut and is apparently the most difficult part of the traverse. According to the guidebook "advanced route finding skills" are required, especially in poor weather, which is exactly what we woke up to the next morning.

To make a long story short, some in the group weren't comfortable attempting to go over the pass and we were forced to backtrack to the Bow. I was bitterly disappointed. I think we should have at least put ourselves into a position where we could make a dash over the top if the weather broke. It wouldn't have been much worse than heading back to the Bow! We were forced into the classic navigation technique of one person breaking trail and the next person in line holding a compass on a bearing and calling out "left!" or "right!" as the first person drifted back and forth in the mist. Good fun that.

Brenda setting waypoints at the Balfour (with slippers!)


We spent another night at the Bow and thank goodness we did because the next day was nice and clear. We had a few really nice runs above the Bow Hut before heading out.



After that we once again shouldered our still heavy packs and tottered off down the canyon, across Bow Lake, and back to where we started from three days earlier. Next stop - Lagan's for coffee!

Sapphire Col Traverse

Sunday's weather forecast was brilliant so we headed to Rogers Pass on Saturday night with Fred and Junko and stayed at the always weird Glacier Park Lodge Hotel. The plan was to meet Steve on Sunday morning and try the Sapphire Col traverse.

The traverse begins up the Asulkan Valley as if heading towards the Asulkan Hut except that rather than trending left after the "mousetrap" area it heads up climbers right towards the Dome. After crossing an expansive glacier you work your way to Sapphire Col where there is a small climbers hut. From here you drop down a short but steep slope to the Lily Glacier and an exit via Loop Brook and Bonney Trees.



Confident of good weather we woke up bright and early on Sunday and opened the curtains to reveal...

Heavy snowfall. Doh.

About 5cm had fallen and it was still coming down heavily.

We shuttled a car to the Loop Brook parking area. By now the snow had eased off a little so we figured we'd give it a go. At worst we could make it to the col and return the same way we came rather than dropping over onto the Lily Glacier.

Our perseverance payed off since it turned into a beautiful day. In fact of all the times we've slogged up the Asulkan Valley during the winter I think this was the first time that we'd been able to actually see anything!

The Asulkan Hut is located just above and to the right of the highest patch of trees in this photo.


We experienced the full gamut of weather conditions on the way up. One moment it was partly cloudy. The next it became overcast and difficult to see anything only to be followed by a break that would leave us absolutely cooking in the hot spring sun. Minutes later we were scrambling for jackets and gloves as a cold snow squall blew through freezing us to the core.

The pyramid-like peak in this photo is Mount Castor. Sapphire Col is at the end of the right skyline.


After 6 hours of steady climbing we arrived at the col. We ain't fast but we do get there eventually. After clearing a snow drift away from the front of the hut we ducked inside to get out of the wind and have a bite to eat. The log book was pretty beat up and I couldn't find the entries from my two previous visits here (remind me to tell the story of how Brenda almost burned the hut one time!). There's something special about finding your own handwriting from years ago in a log book, but I find there's also something a bit unnerving about it as well -- tends to make on very aware of the passage of time. Perhaps just as well that I couldn't find them.



The decent onto the Lily was a bit dubious with the new snow tending to slough off in the midday sun but we all got down safely and marveled at the spectacular view. It's great to ski in places where you've never been before and to see some of the old familiar sights from a unique perspective.

The run down the Lily and into Loop Brook was really good -- long, gentle, and wide open for hundreds and hundreds of meters. We were surprised to find such good snow so late in the day and so late in the season.









A sure sign that the ski season is drawing to a close. Booo.


Here's the GPS track in Google Earth and a couple of short videos:



Fred


Me


All in all a great trip. One we'd been thinking about since last year. A quick Backhand of God at The Burner on the way home capped a fine day out. Thanks to Steve for all of the camera work.

Sorcerer Lake Lodge

Just back from Sorcerer Lake Lodge where Brenda and I spent a week with the old crew from back east. It was simply a wonderful trip -- the weather was perfect, the snow was plentiful, and the company second to none. It was so good to see all of our old friends again and it was really hard to leave them when it came time to say goodbye at the end. We're already looking forward to next year's trip in 2008 and are hoping to return to Sorcerer again in 2009.

The following four photos are panoramas made by taking several photos and stitching them together using software called Autostitch.

An evening view from the back deck of Sorcerer Lodge


Martin at the Swiss Col


Dave at the White Russian Col (the peaks in the far distance are in the Rogers Pass area)


Escargot Glacier


A run dubbed "Critical Thursday" on the Nordic Glacier


Some hippy chick


Peter on his splitboard


Damon on the Escargot Glacier


Swiss Col with Iconoclast forming the backdrop. Back row (l-r): Peter, Mike, Louis, Martin, Dave. Front row (l-r): Celine (our cook extraordinaire), me


Cheap Scotch area


Martin at the Swiss Col


Swiss Col again


Martin near the White Russian Col


Damon on the Nordic Glacier


Mike below Wizard Peak


Martin


Nordic Glacier near Nordic Peak


Nordic Glacier


A map of the area with some of the place names mentioned above


More photos at picasaweb.google.com/agparker