_modzzz_articles_page_title_browse_letter RSS2024-07-01T22:02:00+0000Group of 9 BCMC members summited Sky Pilot, beginning from the gondola upper base. We had ideal spring conditions - snow from above the forest section until the Pink Slab. Snow was perfect - consolidated, easily walkable and boot pack friendly. Crampons and microspikes were very handy, but on the steep finish (40ish degrees) crampons and ice axes proved the most advantageous. The scramble was excellent - dry rock and great visibility. Summit was windless but small clouds passed by constantly changing the view. The climb down was also great - snow allowed for a lot of glissading! Debrief on the patio to finish the day off.

]]>2024-07-01T22:02:00+000010 hardy souls from BCMC made the trek up to Sky Pilot valley, with really good snow conditions (no post holing!). Drizzly on the way up, got to the Pink Slab and found the rock wet and slick. Climbing was sketchy with consequential exposure. Weather was windy, foggy and snowing occasionally. Group consensus was to turn round and head down. We enjoyed some glissading and a beer on the patio during our debrief! Main lesson learned was identifying group abilities and experience prior to the climb.

]]>2024-06-24T04:31:00+0000Great hike, we went clockwise, recommended, beautiful views. Some of us swam in both lakes (Screaming Cat is much warmer than Iceberg). Everyone kept up a good pace, very sociable, completed safely, no dramas.

]]>2023-08-27T21:35:00+0000Our small group drove to the Callaghan for a day around Hanging Lake. As it has been our luck, we were in a fairly intense storm (the next day was blue bird!!!).We arrived earlier than expected so we had to wait a bit off the side of the road, and then the gate keeper let us in at 8 am. There was a competition on that day so maybe it's why we were let in 30 minutes before the posted time. We were the first ones on the trail to Hanging lake. It was a very steep and fairly packed out track. Our cheeks were a nice shade of red as we climbed the 600 m or so to the lake.  Michaela lost one pole basket from her pole and we searched in vain for it.  Near 1350 m we popped out of the forest into a clearing, below some steep slopes. There we decided to travel with a lot of space between us and as low as possible near the trees. We broke trail at that spot and it was hard work but fun. We rejoined the main packed trail at the top of the slope and arrived at the meadow at the lake elevation. Somehow in the last push Michaela lost her other basket. We decided to pack her pointy daggers and I shared one of my poles with her. Our goal was to "summit" Gin peak. We had a short lunch break, and as we were sitting down, we saw other people on the trail. A few skiers and split boarders. After our snack we decided to follow a steep trail at the south side of the lake that seemed a more direct route to the summit. We slogged up the steep ski track, with a slight feeling of guilt for packing the skin track. We had very poor visibility and as we got higher, it got even worse. We kept assessing the slopes as we moved up. We realized that we were still at tree line and that the terrain is made of a series of benches. We saw no signs of avalanche activity and the terrain appeared fairly stable. After 45 minutes of tough ascent as we neared our turn around time of 1:30, we chose to start descending. Coming down with just one pole was challenging. We definitely tested our gear and learned a few... Read more

]]>2023-02-20T17:49:00+0000As the alpine season is nearing its end, we took advantage of the sunny and relatively warm forecast to check out this classic peak that we had heard so many both encouraging and deterrent things about. The crew assembled with a good mix of experience, but even so we cautiously budgeted extra time. We scoped out the mamquam fsr in an effort to avoid paying steep gondola prices but construction work on a bridge quickly shut us down and we returned to the gondola. After the breathtaking gondola ride, we hiked around 2 hours to the planned camp site halfway between the end of the valley trail and the glacier that was surrounded by empty blueberry bushes. After dinner our eyes were glued to the sky which was full of stars that had us in awe and talking philosophically. At one point we witnessed a stream of perfectly spaced white orbs fly across the sky, which was very unsettling as we could not explain this phenomenon. We later found out it was the starlink satellite network but we still maintain it was an alien species here to make contact with earth. The following day we started up the mountain around 7:30 and soon arrived at the glacier which was bare of snow. The blue ice made for an interesting glacier crossing as we gained the ridge and continued on until the famed pink slab. When we arrived it looked manageable although as promised it is extremely exposed even if the climbing is easy. After some hesitation, some of us ascended without packs to set up a rope to belay the others and to haul up the packs we left behind. We then regrouped and followed the trail behind the giant rock pyramid and found the scrambling to be quite enjoyable, not hard enough to be scary but hard enough not to be boring. Less than an hour later we were standing on the summit trading high fives and enjoying the view. We were a little behind schedule at this point but the generous time buffers allowed us to enjoy some lunch and take photos before the descent. We made use of the bolts at the ... Read more

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