Browse Reports By Period: 2013 RSS2013-11-09T04:21:00+0000Sunday, November 3, 2013 Participants: Paul Kubik (BCMC), Andrew Wong (NSH),  Wolf Eilers & Karl Schimman (unaffiliated) We parked at the start of the Sigurd Trail and carried up the following tools: 20-inch chainsaw, 3-meter pole saw, Pulaski, bent shovel and loppers. It was a stiff climb with the heavy tools. About one hour from the vehicle we came to the Rose Trail junction with Sigurd Trail. For the first half hour or so we cleared a new section of trail to remove a dog leg in the trail that caused unnecessary elevation loss. I tackled some of the bigger downed trees with the 20-inch chainsaw that thwarted earlier parties. I tried to make the trail more easily followed in the high snowpack the area normally receives. We had a great ski descent of Sigurd Peak's north face last winter but the climb up the trail was sketchy and more than a little brutal. After lunch near 700 meters ASL, Wolf and Karl climbed higher to check out the work above. Around 1:30 PM they hailed us over the 2-way radio that they were in a large blowdown patch around 900 meters. I went down to the lunch spot for more fuel then climbed 200 meters up to the blowdown section. Some quick work with the chainsaw and some rerouting restored the trail to something more reasonable. After that, it was time to call it a day. We arrived back at the trailhead around 4 PM.

]]>2013-11-09T04:21:00+0000 October 27, 2013 Participants: Peter Gumplinger, Paul Kubik, Doug Lonsbrough, Peter Malacarne Map of up track: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php Map of down track: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php Sigurd Peak and Sigurd Lake from the high point west of the lake. The club is applying to manage a new hiking and ski mountaineering trail up Pokosha Creek with the destination of Sigurd Lake. It will eventually provide a horseshoe-shaped traverse around the headwaters of Sigurd Creek by connecting with the existing Sigurd Creek Trail, which the club manages. I contacted a few people that have worked with me in the past both on Pokosha and Sigurd routes. We needed to get a GPS track for the proposal. The weather was almost ideal for the trip. The only downside was the forecast high winds in the alpine but at least it would blow the fog out of the valleys and clear the Salish Sea. We set off up the brushed out Pokosha Creek road. At the road end a marked and improved trail crosses the major avalanche track off Pokosha Peak's south side. There is also a convenient canyon that effectively blocks motorized access to the area. Across the canyon, the route continues through slide alder to old growth forest. There is some difficult terrain to cross on a steep sidehill before the valley opens up into a broad U-shaped valley. Recent brush clearing makes for a fast climb to the head of the creek. At the valley head a couple of major creeks (and avalanche tracks) combine to form Pokosha Creek. A final steep climbing traverse of 100 meters brought us to the pass about 2 hours from the vehicle parking. We now had to determine the best route to the lake. Previous forays up the ridge were on skis. It's a different story on foot. We set off up a ridge escarpment but ran into several steep rocky steps. It was not an ideal route for a trail. We gained the subalpine and continued to the summit high point overlooking the lake. The winds were high with gusts almost knocking y... Read more

]]>2013-11-02T14:52:00+0000Sunday, October 6, 2013 Participants: Alexis Guigue, Paul Kubik and dog Linus, Doug Lonsbrough, Andrew Wong (photographer) Map of area: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php The plan was to do some trail work up the Rose Trail in the Ashlu valley on the side of Sigurd Peak but the midweek weather forecast was not good. I moved the trip to a local Vancouver trail but in the end the forecast changed again and the weather improved. We had a great day out on the Baden Powell trail between Skyline and Blue Gentian trails above the British Properties in West Vancouver. This is a section of trail I've been maintaining since the early 1990s. It sees a lot of use now from trail runners and there is a noticeable degradation of the trail from that type of use. So, it is difficult to keep ahead of the demands of the required maintenance. It was great to have the help of Doug, Alexis and Andrew. We did not cut down any trees. There was a lot of deadfall and shattered trees from last December's heavy snows. We only used dead timber for the work. Alexis digging out the ditch A ditched and raked section of trail Alexis looking back and Doug digging out to lay a new sleeper into the trail Paul and Alexis looking on while Doug digs. Linus is sniffing out a lunch. Paul cutting a new sleeper Alexis works on section of trail corduroy... Read more

]]>2013-10-11T13:44:00+0000Saturday, September 14, 2013 Participants: Nicolas Jimenez, Paul Kubik Map of area: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php Nicolas drove down on Friday evening from Vancouver to join me in Mazama for an early morning start. We started off at 5 AM for the 20 minute drive to the trailhead about 3 miles west of Washington Pass. There was already a car with Oregon plates parked at the TH so we had no trouble finding the large cairn that marks the start of the trail. Using headlamps for the first hour, we climbed into the basin below the south buttress on the climber's trail - a steep beaten path with loose rock. Nicolas drove down on Friday evening from Vancouver to join me in Mazama for an early morning start. We started off at 5 AM for the 20 minute drive to the trailhead about 3 miles west of Washington Pass. There was already a car with Oregon plates parked at the TH so we had no trouble finding the large cairn that marks the start of the trail. Using headlamps for the first hour, we climbed into the basin below the south buttress on the climber's trail - a steep beaten path with loose rock. At the top of the trail, we needed to choose between the left hand and right hand gully approaches to the climb. The two climbers from Oregon were just getting ready to leave from their bivy and after discussion with them we all decided to go up the right hand gully together to minimize rockfall hazard. The RH gully is less loose but requires a 30 foot rappel to gain the notch above the LH gully. From the top of the RH gully it is a short walk to the notch. While setting up for the rappel, Nicolas discovered he'd left his belay and rappel device at home. Fortunately, one of the Oregon climbers remembered he had a spare and lent it to Nicolas. We rapped into the notch, which is the start of Pitch 1 in the SuperTopo guide. We heard a couple of voices below, which turned out to be a couple more climbers from Seattle who came up the LH gully. We now had representatives from all a... Read more

]]>2013-09-19T16:34:00+0000Last Wednesday, 5 BCMC members joined with 11 VRCG members (www.vrcg.ca) for a PLAYgrounding session led by Trip Leader Joe Wong at a park near Main St. & 32nd Ave., Vancouver. Joe accidentally discovered PLAYgrounding back then when he injured his finger but still wanted to climb something. Turned out it's an excellent discovery to PLAY LIKE KIDS since kids are all 5.12+ climbers. Just go to a nearby park and see almost all kids can campus on monkey bars effortlessly. During the session, the group started with a warm-up routine which involves navigating various playground structures, gymnastics movements and some cardio exercises. Then Joe introduced some of the possible bouldering problems. After that, everyone tried out new bouldering moves. 2.5 hours passed so quickly and the group ventured to a nearby restaurant to devour a lot of food. Good times. Here are some photos.

]]>2013-07-08T04:57:00+0000