Winter quietly ended a few weeks ago, at least in Squamish. Cherry trees have blossomed, weeds are sprouting back out of neglected flower beds and I am gradually purging my car of scarves and toques. And forgotten climbing partners are emerging from hibernation with thinly-veiled requests for belays. All good but I have let a few snow adventures pass unrecorded so thought I should catch up before the memories become too distant.
In the Sea to Sky corridor there are three main venues for backcountry skiing: the terrain beyond the resort at Whistler Blackcomb, Garibaldi Provincial Park above Squamish and the Duffey Lake area north of Pemberton. Of those, until this season, I had only really sampled Whistler meaningfully, probably because the access is so easy (lifts right into the alpine).
The most popular winter area within Garibaldi park is around the Elfin Lakes hut, which is approached from the Diamond Head road-head above Squamish. The road up to Diamond Head passes very close to our (old) house so I should really know that area very well. However, for the lazy, the full 12km hike to the hut is substantial. I have tried several times on foot in summer, with one or more kids in tow, but never managed to coax them much beyond the Red Heather shelter, about 500m vertically above the road-head. It doesn't help that that portion of the route (~5km) is almost entirely enclosed in trees, with nothing to distract from the grind, so it feels further than it really is. Early this winter I did do a few daytrips on my splitboard up to Round Mountain just above Red Heather, so at least had that section tamed. But making it all the way to Elfin itself had become a minor obsession.
Luckily in February an old friend, Wolf, appeared in BC eager for some ski-touring. I had only one significant time window available, which fell straight after he arrived (flight from Frankfurt!), but it has just snowed heavily, which was a major incentive. Gamely he shrugged off his jetlag and we headed out. I wish I could report that we were rewarded by amazing weather and fantastic conditions but ... we weren't. Visibility was poor throughout and avalanche danger too high to allow any of the classic side-trips. However, for me, the hut was finally ticked.
I had been warned that it could get busy at weekends. The place wasn't quite full but there were enough people for it to be moderately annoying. For some reason the hut is popular with snowshoers, for whom the sleep-over is the highlight, so they often turn up equipped to party. If I go again, I will try to make it mid-week outside the holidays and ideally timed with some clear weather. Wolf and I did at least find a few nice if short descents around the hut, and from Paul Ridge on the way back out, in ~20cm fresh powder. The other positive from this trip, and some other visits to the roadhead before and after, was the excellent performance of my 4Runner in the snow. I made it in and out several times on summer tires without chains whilst other people were having all sorts of problems.
I also moved further up the learning curve with my splitboard, in particular dealing with skin transitions during heavy snowfall (not fun) and powder turns (theoretically fun but ...). I am grateful to Wolf for his patience during my frequent tantrums when struggling with both of these.
A few weeks later, I had some possible free time during the BC spring break. Luckily that coincided with Bob's interval between shifts and two days of clear weather forecast between snowstorms. Bob suggested we headed to the Duffey to stay at the Keith hut. Oddly I had never researched that area in any detail so had almost no preset expectations. Sometimes that can be the key ingredient for a really successful trip. Several things that I did not know about this area were a positive surprise: the mountains are really impressive (far more so than around Whistler); the hut is characterful; the approach time to gain the actual alpine terrain is reasonable (far shorter than at Elfin).
We were also very lucky with conditions. On day one, thanks to an insanely early start from Squamish, we were the first people to skin into the area after the previous day's storm. Until we got close to the hut there were no tracks visible at all, just blue sky, mountains, the forest and pristine snow. The next day was not quite so perfect but very atmospheric with light broken clouds. We both took many photographs, so, rather than give a detailed account, here are some of them (click then scroll through to view full size).
In the Sea to Sky corridor there are three main venues for backcountry skiing: the terrain beyond the resort at Whistler Blackcomb, Garibaldi Provincial Park above Squamish and the Duffey Lake area north of Pemberton. Of those, until this season, I had only really sampled Whistler meaningfully, probably because the access is so easy (lifts right into the alpine).
The most popular winter area within Garibaldi park is around the Elfin Lakes hut, which is approached from the Diamond Head road-head above Squamish. The road up to Diamond Head passes very close to our (old) house so I should really know that area very well. However, for the lazy, the full 12km hike to the hut is substantial. I have tried several times on foot in summer, with one or more kids in tow, but never managed to coax them much beyond the Red Heather shelter, about 500m vertically above the road-head. It doesn't help that that portion of the route (~5km) is almost entirely enclosed in trees, with nothing to distract from the grind, so it feels further than it really is. Early this winter I did do a few daytrips on my splitboard up to Round Mountain just above Red Heather, so at least had that section tamed. But making it all the way to Elfin itself had become a minor obsession.
Looking north-west from just south of Round Mountain
Luckily in February an old friend, Wolf, appeared in BC eager for some ski-touring. I had only one significant time window available, which fell straight after he arrived (flight from Frankfurt!), but it has just snowed heavily, which was a major incentive. Gamely he shrugged off his jetlag and we headed out. I wish I could report that we were rewarded by amazing weather and fantastic conditions but ... we weren't. Visibility was poor throughout and avalanche danger too high to allow any of the classic side-trips. However, for me, the hut was finally ticked.
Wolf and the Elfin
I had been warned that it could get busy at weekends. The place wasn't quite full but there were enough people for it to be moderately annoying. For some reason the hut is popular with snowshoers, for whom the sleep-over is the highlight, so they often turn up equipped to party. If I go again, I will try to make it mid-week outside the holidays and ideally timed with some clear weather. Wolf and I did at least find a few nice if short descents around the hut, and from Paul Ridge on the way back out, in ~20cm fresh powder. The other positive from this trip, and some other visits to the roadhead before and after, was the excellent performance of my 4Runner in the snow. I made it in and out several times on summer tires without chains whilst other people were having all sorts of problems.
Truck embedded in a snowbank just below the Diamond Head parking
I also moved further up the learning curve with my splitboard, in particular dealing with skin transitions during heavy snowfall (not fun) and powder turns (theoretically fun but ...). I am grateful to Wolf for his patience during my frequent tantrums when struggling with both of these.
A few weeks later, I had some possible free time during the BC spring break. Luckily that coincided with Bob's interval between shifts and two days of clear weather forecast between snowstorms. Bob suggested we headed to the Duffey to stay at the Keith hut. Oddly I had never researched that area in any detail so had almost no preset expectations. Sometimes that can be the key ingredient for a really successful trip. Several things that I did not know about this area were a positive surprise: the mountains are really impressive (far more so than around Whistler); the hut is characterful; the approach time to gain the actual alpine terrain is reasonable (far shorter than at Elfin).
We were also very lucky with conditions. On day one, thanks to an insanely early start from Squamish, we were the first people to skin into the area after the previous day's storm. Until we got close to the hut there were no tracks visible at all, just blue sky, mountains, the forest and pristine snow. The next day was not quite so perfect but very atmospheric with light broken clouds. We both took many photographs, so, rather than give a detailed account, here are some of them (click then scroll through to view full size).
Mt Joffre from by the Anniversary Glacier moraine on the hut approach
The Keith Hut
Or should it be "Keith's Hut"?
Mt Joffre from outside the hut
Looking down to the hut
Bob (who recently completed his AST2) digging a pit
Bob doing a column test on the snowpack
Me on the edge of the Anniversary Glacier (we went right to traverse to a couloir on the NW face of the Joffre ridge)
Bob making the traverse
Looking up at the couloir (Bob just visible)
Bob making fresh tracks ... actually this whole valley was untracked
From our high point on the Matier sholder on day 2
Bob emerging from the cloud
Me starting our final descent ... we skied continuously to the valley floor seen down to the left (~700m vertical)
