The North Creek trail was in need of an annual grooming and the cable car, hut needed inspection and maintenance.
There was to be a helicopter flight to bring in the tools required.
I got together a group of 7 and in we went, the road was in good shape and we were able to drive AWD vehicles to the parking / helicopter landing area with no issue.
( I had skied out this way in mid April and fallen trees had blocked the road for 3 km )
On the Friday we hiked a km down the main trail and found that other than large logs from fallen trees it was in decent condition.
The hut was in great shape, a cozy warm wood stove, soft foam mattresses and well lit by led lighting. ( there is solar electric ).
Lots of dry firewood is stored under hut and there's a large Pack rat nest under there as well.
We brought in a couple of Colman propane bottles for the two burner stove, and there's plenty of pots, pans, plates, bowls, cutlery etc.
Saturday we hiked up towards Sugus Mtn. via the creek route. Heavy flow and rockslides had changed part of the route but by following the flagging
we located the Tunnel of Alder that Brian Sheffield and I had created a few years ago. That got us 1/2 way through the bush easily, however the second half of our route had been trashed by rockslide so there was a couple of hundred m of challenging bush. Beyond that the route is open terrain.
Sunday we all decided it was ice cave visiting day, we hiked up into the wonderful alpine valley west of mt Sessel and then west behind Mt Chadwick to the pass above the Pebble Glacier, then southwest down to the huge Ice cavern / tunnel in the scrap of glacier on the west flank of Chadwick.
I had skied through this ice cave in April as snow pours in the upper entrance. Now snow had filled the upper reaches of the cave.
However everyone was happy to get there, it won't exist for long, it will probably be gone in a year or two.
Monday we hiked again through the Alpine valley and on down to the lake created by the large moraine from the glacier off the north west side of Sessel.
There were a few marmots here, the first we had seen, we also had seen a few goats earlier on the trip.
Tuesday was the main work day, packing up and tiding the hut. After crossing the creek with the Cable car we headed on down the main trail clearing as we went. The slide paths were deep in "bear salad" and required several hours cut a decent trail through, this is challenging work as there are some nettles and tangles of slide Alder, willow etc.. The weed whackers were humming and loppers lopping, It took us several hours more than the usual 4 to get out to the vehicles.
It surprises me how little use the hut gets, we had a good time there and the trail is about as good as it has ever been.
The Cable car and Burma bridge built by Paul Kubik and crew a few years back make access much safer and easier.
The terrain is big up there and there are several accessible peaks, most of which I have been up.
However the Glaciers are disappearing rapidly so don't put off going there for too long or they will be gone.
Ian McGilivray