Because this week-end weather was everything but promising and the avalanche risks were through the roof on the the sea to sky corridor, we decided to do a classic SW BC hike, the Elfin Lakes hut.
Over optimistic, we also hoped to perhaps climb Columnar peak, and who knows, maybe even Little Diamond Head. Boy we were naive....
Dean picked me up in Burnaby around 12:30 PM on Saturday for an early alpine start in a weather that was already looking delicious for someone looking to get wet.
After a pitt stop at MEC, we headed to Squamish and arrived to an almost full parking lot at around 2:30 PM. We were very surprised that the road was easy to follow all the way to end but also that so many people were willing to go out in such a horrendous weather.
It was already snowing at the trailhead but it was a very heavy wet snow that was getting us very damped very fast.
We headed towards Red Heather hut while most skiers and snowshoers were coming down to get back to a warm cozy place.
After an hour of hiking, we arrived at the Red Heather hut where we were greeted by a warm firewood. It was of course getting dark and I really didn`t feel like moving deeper in the backcountry as the snow was getting very deep and the weather just falling apart.
However, after 30 min of warming up, a group of 4 ski tourers arrived for their quick break. Dean knew two of them from the BCMC and they informed us they were going to the Elfin Lakes hut.
This re-motivated us to put our packs back on and to follow the group who would help to break trail all the way to the luxury mountain home just two hours away.
Because of the cloud cover, the night was extremely dark and the snow seemed to come from all directions. We were however moving fast and the trail had already been broken into.
I had my GPS on and kept monitoring the remaining distance as I just wanted to get to the hut as fast as possible and enjoy the warm propane stove.
We followed the skiers for a while but then decided to pass them and go on our own for half of the way. The snow was really deep but the track was very decent and allowed a pleasant journey.
Only 50 meters before we arrived at the hut could we see it`s lights as the area was so fogged up. We were greeted by 2 snowshoers who had courageously broken the trail on the 11 km. Nobody else had made it to the hut.
We setup our stuff to make them dry and started having dinner. Quickly after the ski tourers arrived and an evening of mountain talks and gear reviews followed.
As usual, we had an amazing night in the hut as it was extremely warm and cozy.
When we woke up, it had not stopped snowing at all. The trail that had lead us to camp had dissapeared and it seemed that at least 30 cm of snow had accumulated over night.
Dean and myself headed out towards Columnar in a miserable attempt to climb something. After trail breaking for a 100m, we just gave up and decided to build a snowcave just for our mountain training.
The snowcave was very easy to build as there were good layers of snow and it was easy enough to dig out. We started by doing a 2 meter deep hole on the side of a hill. Once our hole was done we dug a slot on the side that was about 2 meters wide.
When the slot was deep enough into the snow, we started carving out the cave. In less than an hour, we had a true igloo under the snow. 1.5 meters wide, 2 meters long and 2 meters high. We could actually stand up in our snow cave. We had to build a few vents though for breathing purposes.
However, for security purposes, Dean and I had to have the roof collapse to avoid anyone from falling down the 2 meter deep hole, always makes a great video!
We headed back to the hut to dry our gear before the return to the car.
We left at the same time as the 2 other snowshoers while the ski tourers were enjoying some downhill under the Gargoyles.
The trail breaking back to the parking lot was horrendous It was important that we followed the almost invisible tracks from the night before, otherwise we would end up waist deep into the snow. We took turns breaking trail where each of us could barely do a 100m before asking the next person to step up.
Thankfully, after half way and 2 hours of hell, we met Robin Tivy and his group heading for the hut, we had our trail all the way back to the car!
From there is was a quick walk back to Red Heather and again we started meeting a huge crowd although the weather was still horrible.
We had a quick stop at the hut and then headed back to the car. From Elfin Lakes it had taken us over 4 hours to get back to the parking lot.
We arrived completely soaked and very chilled but was very happy with our pleasant mountain stay and great workout. However, we decided we had to buy ski touring gear.
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