Browse Reports By Period: 2017 RSS2017-07-17T14:53:00+0000Ascended Wedge Mountain along the Northeast arete in good conditions on Monday July 3. The forecast for Sunday was clear skies. However when we arrived at the trail head, there was a cloud cover above Wedgemount Lake. Overcast on the approach trail made it very pleasant and cool to hike in. Along the trail we bumped into the ACC group and BCMC members and gave us some beta on the route. It took us ~3 hours to the hut and we took a well deserved break. After, we opted to camp further up the glacier along a rock ledge. We passed the lake and contoured around the glacier to get a better idea of the route and camped on a broad rock ledge. The area was very accommodating for setting up tents. We had dinner and took a well deserved nap for an early alpine start. I am not sure at what time I woke up, but we left at 2:30 am. It was still cloudy.We could not see the ridge proper. The lead team was in front and went up the col to join the ridge. After a couple 100 m on the ridge, gendarmes blocked the passage. We turned back and opted to bypass it lower on a steep snow slope. We followed the ridge without any difficulty. The clouds lifted and we had an Alpen glow on the face of Wedge. It was amazing. We climbed the steep snow section of the arete and made it on the summit. We did not linger too long on the summit. It was windy. It was not over yet. We descended back down the col to the glacier proper. It took us 3 hours to camp. I highly recommend doing the entire Northeast Arete. It's definitely worth doing.   Here is the link for the photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bx-Yw3b7iTwvYkRsUU1NYzFuUmM?usp=sharing

]]>2017-07-17T14:53:00+0000We had a leisurely arrival at Joffre Lakes Provincial parking lot around noon on Saturday just to find out that it is a horror show of cars lined up for parking. RV backing up the parking lot, we squeezed in and  luckily found someone leaving a spot for Paul's SUV. Parked and ready to go, the trail was packed with day hikers. It was busy. We camped at the 3rd lake up near the waterfall. In the afternoon, the temps were quite warm. We checked the snow conditions up the gully. They were surprisingly good. No post-holing involved. A bit of a slushy layer but very supportive. We had an early alpine start at 1:30 am thinking the snow might get harder at night. It did not, but was still good. Arriving at the Stonecrop glacier, we saw a slide path starting from the summit. Boulder sized rocks littered the Stonecrop glacier. Arriving near the summit, we found a hole where the source of the rock debris came from. We summited at 6 am and had a leisurely half hour break to soak in the view. Came back down in two and a half hours. Arrived at the lake and saw floating unicorns on the lake. At first I thought alpine fatigue has gotten into me. Sure enough, there were floating unicorn mattresses on the lake. A group of people managed to haul that up on the 3rd lake. Impressive. In all, we had a blast.  https://goo.gl/photos/kZ3rKyxXHx6MWtnU9 

]]>2017-06-28T15:17:00+0000We had a good time reviewing our skill at  the Smoke Bluffs. We will definitely do it again... Here are the pics: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm1Kfikk  

]]>2017-05-31T14:36:00+0000Please see below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jTm3UUtct9z3cDAMwc-nUz2G6W3zLCADtRRNlokPJ8s/edit?usp=drivesd Konstantinos

]]>2017-05-09T16:32:00+0000I originally planned this trip for Friday March 3 for 2 nights. However in the week leading to our departure date, multiple waves of storms passed through the South Coast and Sea to Sky area. The avalanche forecast was set at High in the alpine, High at tree line and Considerable below tree line. Since I only had Google earth and a topo map and description to help me with my trip plan, I decided to cancel travel to the hut due to possible exposure to avalanche paths on the route. I rescheduled for the following week instead with a smaller group. I told myself that it was not likely that the same weather pattern would repeat itself identically on the weekend of March 10... and it did. With a similar avalanche picture, and potentially low visibility and precipitations the group was hesitating to commit to the route. However, on Friday morning, we decided that we would bring tents, so that the hut did not become a fixation in case we would have to cross dangerous terrain beyond our route finding ability. Having plan B in our back packs, we headed in heavy dense snow that clumped under our heels. It took us about 8 hours to get to the hut. We had a bit of an adventure at the first creek crossing. Hmm one person went in and the other escaped the water by a hair. We had David Scanlon's personal notes and with the help of the markers and arrows, found our way past the North West facing avalanche paths of Mt Martin. I had thought that the route was through the thick trees in the saddle but in fact the route climbed on a semi open slope to the right of the edge of the forest.  It was somewhat counter intuitive but we headed to a bench we could see straight above us, below a rock band. Once on the bench, we saw an orange marker and a yellow arrow! We were right on course. The bench is a narrow slope of varying steepness, flanked on the right by a rock band and on the left by some old trees and a forest. There the snow was thick and less dense. Tempting for skiing! But we felt... Read more

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