Browse Reports By Period: 2016 RSS2016-12-03T16:38:00+0000Participants: Paul Kubik, Bill Maurer, Michelle Hyun, Dave Robertson, Manouane We were able to drive to 800 meters which is the big landing below the winter parking lot. We started skiing at 8:54 and skied to the summer trailhead at the dam 4 kilometers from the vehicles. The lower road was criss-crossed with alder so we went up 100 meters on a shortcut through thick trees on skis. It intersected the trail on S Line above the dam. There was very, very short couple of sections of criss-crossed alder on the S Line before it turned up S1 road. The alder was now mostly buried and travel was easy. We took the left fork near 1000 meters to go up Demon Ridge. This road reaches to 1500 meters. The sun came out briefly at the top of the road so we stopped for lunch at 1 PM. Then it clouded over again and started to get cold. The group broke trail the last 300 meters to the ridge crest at which point it was 2 PM. We didn't have time to go to the cabin after descending the south gully. This was a first descent as far as I know. Conditions were quite good overall- mostly powder with a bit of buried avalanche debris in the lower 150 meters and a bit of wind effect in the upper 75 meters. The angle was up to an estimated 38 degrees in its steepest section. The avalanche danger was rated moderate and we detected no instability. The height of the run is 500 meters. It would appear to be a good skiing destination from the new Watersprite hut. There was a huge amount of terrain on the north side of the ridge that was very inviting- mostly alpine bowls with the prospect of big tree skiing below that. We went out the winter route, following Dave and Gerry's tracks who had been at the cabin earlier in the week. I don't find the winter route all that great for descending. It has a lot of flat or up and down terrain so it seems like you're slogging for 3 km. The alder became a problem for the last kilometer coupled with a nice breakable crust. It was a bit nasty in about six sections. ... Read more

]]>2016-12-03T16:38:00+0000At the church in West Van, a large crew gathered. Most would be heading up to the cabin. Chris would be the bridge building crew chief. Once all the paper work and that sort of thing was settled, we all took off for the Watersprite Lake Trail-head. With a short stop-off in Squamish, we met up at the trail-head, gathered our gear and trundled up the trail with a grey sky and a forecast wet, lots, to come our way.(it never did) The first building site did not take long to reach, and after a bit of discussion we got to work. Chainsaw, pry bar, shovel, a pick axe and other tools were put to good use, and along with plenty of shouting, grunts and groans, the first bridge took shape..   The first log is about to be trimmed to the required length With a lot of heavy lifting, grunts, groans, the use of a come-along and one too many wet feet, the second log is put in place A well deserved lunch for some, as others completed finishing the first bridge It ain't pretty, but it is. Bridge one is done. Time out to admire the handy work. The cabin crew, having finished helping with the first bridge, left and headed up to the cabin. Most if not all of them were going to spend the weekend working on the cabin. The idea of a warm dry cabin was very appealing to us with wet feet. The remaining bridge crew gathered up tools and gear, to hike up to the second building site. Looking over the crossing and working out were to put the bridge was the first priority.   It took a bit of time to figure out how to get there from here. With the first log in place, careful placement of the second log was critical.   With the logs in place, holes were bored for driving iron rods into the logs to hold them in place   A small sledge was used to drive the iron rods used to tie the bridge together   Chris and Gavin proudly present the second bridge   Ladies and gentlemen, proud members of the bridge building crew... Read more

]]>2016-11-14T05:58:00+0000  Quick report and pictures of last weekend trip at watersprite lake.Congrats to those who have work on the trail, the new one look awesome! ---- More picture here.Guillaume Thimus added 35 new photos to the album: BCMC Hut.Week-end trip with bcmc to help finishing a hut. Looking forward to book it and go there for multiday ski-trip in the area.Guillaume Thimus  

]]>2016-10-18T06:15:00+0000When I learned that I would be spending the day with Andrew Wong I was thrilled. I had worked with Andrew on numerous trail building trips, but never had the opportunity to spend any time other than working on whatever we were doing. Today would be different, we would have the chance to chat and explore a number of topics of common interest, and maybe get something useful done. The day started off at JJ Bean with coffee and muffins.......... The main objective for the day was to scout out an alternative section of trail to replace a section of trail that contained a number of up and down subsections that would make life very uncomfortable for persons carrying a heavy pack. A secondary objective was to look for completed trail sections that could use a further upgrade. We were successful in completing our objectives.  We found the replacement section of trail, and to our surprise so did someone else, and they did a fine job of flagging it! Thank you, persons yet unknown. The up and down sections can be bypassed and an added bonus is a potentially wet and boggy section will be bypassed also. Primary objective achieved!  We found that there is no shortage of sections that could use a bit of an upgrade. Secondary objective achieved! A very successful day!!! It did rain and we did get wet. Here is a summary of the current condition of the trail. On our way out we were amazed to find the following sign at the trail-head. How on earth could we have missed this on the way in. Well we did and we cannot explain how we did not see this?   The trail is in good condition from the trail-head to a area called the rock slide. It follows a series of very old, decommissioned logging roads. Clearing these abandoned road beds yielded a gently sloped trail, perfect for heavily laden hikers. In a few places the roadbed has been covered to some extent by debris from the upper slope side of the road. The trail in these sections is quiet a bit more demanding and fortunately very short.    ... Read more

]]>2016-09-04T07:45:00+0000Cliff, Win, Connor, Bala, Oudi, Brian (me) climbed Bakers North Ridge. Leaving Saturday morning we met at the trailhead at 10am and headed up to set up camp on the football field below the Black Butte. We were joined by a second larger BCMC trip heading the Coleman Demming. It was a hot, hot weekend not a cloud in the sky. After a quick dinner and a lot of chit chat with the other group we all crashed about 8pm. 12:15am we rose to a beautiful starry night and set out across the crevasse fields. With out too much trouble we got across those as recent snow had them fairly well covered and the night being cooler the snow was firm. At about 6am we started ascending the North Ridge. reaching the the key ice step a single pitch going anywhere from a WI2+ to WI6 depending where you want to climb. Here the party split into two with Connor leading Oudi & Win up a classic WI4 and Bala taking the second team up a WI3 alpine route (rocks, bad ice etc.) We both topped out onto 50+ degree snow slope and did running belays to the top where we met up again. Solid leads by both Bala and Connor were impressive. From there we hiked down the Coleman Deming to get back to camp about 5pm. Sorted the gear and headed down the mountain. A couple of notes 1) When climbing with Bala please allot time for meet and greets. Everyone knows Bala, Bala knows everyone. (Will Gadd stopped to talk with us "read Bala" last trip) 2) Any BCMC member who happened to ski past us on the decent down CD. Next time be a decent mountaineer and pick up a hitchhiker 3) I don't care how much sunscreen/lip balm you have it isn't enough pack more. 4) be careful things dropped on the north ridge will slide to the parking lot (anyone need a left handed glove just 1) and just because it is dark out when  you get up make sure you grab your sunglasses (thanks again Connor)  Finally I would recommend any of these partners for any trip they are solid climbers and an easy going group.... Read more

]]>2016-06-27T23:19:00+0000