Backcountry Exploring - T&B 2010

The past 4 days have been spent with 4 friends on what Gerald calls his "Thrash & Bash", annual explorations of new, backcountry areas in the Kootenays where access is difficult, terrain is challenging and other people are completely non-existent. This year's T&B met those criteria in spades. Last year's trip was reported here.

Armed with food, gear, big packs and a hand-drawn map showing possible elk trails into the chosen area, we set off for the end of the road, about 50 km up the Howser Creek FSR. The weather forecast was for "showers" and cool temperatures. Not bad for hiking, we thought. Sure enough, it started showering soon after we started walking, but a better description would be intermittent "rain".

There was a trail to start with and this trail did appear occasionally throughout the hike, but when we lost it, as happened a few times, we had to resort to alder bashing and rhodo thrashing until the trail reappeared. After 5.5 hours of this, we reached a little valley with a good location for a campground. By then, of course, it was raining and we were completely soaked. Hypothermia was a concern as the only thing that had been keeping us warm was the hiking. Once we stopped, we were freezing.

Tents were set up, a tarp was hung from the trees, everyone changed into "dry" clothes and headed into their respective tents. A fire was eventually started, the rain stopped for awhile and we began the process of drying out.

Monday morning was cool and cloudy, so after warming up, we headed up one valley to see what we could see. We eventually arrived at the toe of a small glacier. Temperature was +3C at mid-day. Back at camp, 3 of the group decided to hike up to another pass while 2 of us kept the fire going and worked on drying things out.

Tuesday, all of us hiked to a small glacier and high ridge east of a prominent peak (The Virgin), where we had fantastic views of peaks in all directions and the Bugaboo spires just to the NW of us. Had we been a little bit higher, we probably could have seen the ACC's Kain Hut. Skies were blue, temperatures were warming, our clothes and boots were less wet than they had been since we started. What more could one ask for?

Wednesday, we packed up to hike out. The problem with elk trails is that they seemed to disappear occasionally, leaving us thrashing around in the bush trying to locate the trail again. This happened repeatedly, but we finally, after 5 hours of this kind of fun, returned to our vehicles for the 2 hour drive back home. I think I can safely say that everyone was pretty thrashed after this little explore into another little pocket of the West Kootenay wilderness.

Pictures of the trip have been posted on Picasa....

The ACC's 55+ Camp at Fairy Meadows

I just got back from working at the ACC's 55+ Camp at Fairy Meadows - August 15-20. For those who don't know, Fairy Meadows is both an area and a hut (actually, it's officially called the Bill Putnam Hut) located in the Adamant Range of the Selkirk Mtns up at the beginning of the Swan Creek drainage from the Granite Glacier NW of Golden, northwest of Kinbasket Lake (the Columbia River). It has been possible to hike in to this area in the past and I have tried that about 12 or so years ago with a friend from Saskatoon. At that time, it really was one of those "hikes from hell", the hike out only being better because it was downhill.

This last trip was about as different as it could get. We met the helicopter at Bush Harbour, about 43 km up the east side of the Lake, and in a 10-minute ride were flown across the Lake and up Swan Creek to the meadows above the hut with our gear and enough food to feed a small army for a week. The small army in this case was a guide and 7 clients with myself as chief organizer, assistant and cook.

The area is used mainly as a winter ski destination but summer mountaineering is also excellent, with many peaks, glaciers to travel on and fantastic scenery. All from the comfort of a great hut- 9 of us in a hut that fits 20. And, as an added bonus, it's not in a National or Provincial Park so there are none of those hoops to hop through.

Our days began early, we climbed up and down many meters of elevation, hiked across parts of the Gothic and Granite glaciers, climbed Sentinel Peak, Mt Unicorn and the ridge near Houdini's Needle and finally, on Friday, were all whisked back down to the Lake in two flights and a total of 30 minutes. This particular trip provided new experiences in mountaineering for many of the participants although a few were more "old hands" at this sort of thing. Regardless of the level of experience, being able to spend some time in such amazing surroundings with like-minded, friendly people made for an excellent week.

Pictures of the week can be seen here.

Exploring the Koots - 0812 - Mt Willet

A few days ago Stu and I had made plans to "do" Mt Willet on Thursday. This double peaked mountain is one of the "Big 3" in this area and all 3 are over 9000 ft elevation. Two other fellows we know well decided to join us for the day's excursion and so, accordingly, we all met at 6 am to make the drive to the trailhead.

Mt Willet is across and up the Lake so the drive takes one north and around the end of the Lake and past the small settlement of Argenta and from there up another logging road (Salisbury FSR?) for 11 km. We were at the trailhead and ready to hike just before 8 am.

The trail goes through woods and up a narrow valley, steeply up and over another ridge and through still another valley to the SE ridge of Willet.

Alpine flowers were excellent and numerous stops were made to take pictures and debate what floral specimen we were looking at. Numerous nice camping sports as well presented themselves along the way. If only the approach wasn't so steep, I'd be more inclined to go there and camp for a few days...

We were 2 hours to the foot of the ascent ridge and another 1.5 hrs to the summit. Unfortunately, the forecasted sunny, clear day was cloudy and smoky with a cool breeze from the north. We thought the smoke was from fires in the Cariboo, way off to the NW. Consequently, views weren't very good and pictures of those views were even worse. Conditions didn't encourage us to lounge around on the summit, so after inhaling some food, we headed down, taking a detour to Heart Lake (more uphill and downhill) before heading back to the vehicle.

Exploring the Koots - 0804 to 0805 - Silverspray to Woodbury Traverse

Stu and I had a "nice little hike" over the past 2 days, something both of us have been thinking about for awhile now: the Silverspray to Woodbury traverse.

Sipverspray and Woodbury are two alpine or sub-alpine cabins in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park's eastern regions. The idea is to hike to one cabin, then route-find your way to the other cabin, crossing several ridges and several deep valleys, all filled with anything from small to huge granite boulders.

It was a short traverse for us - about 4.5 hours cabin to cabin (not including the hike in to Silverspray and the hike out from Woodbury), but the way was pretty easy to figure out. The route was generally rough and steep, but nothing too unusual for the Kootenays. Despite some potential weather concerns, the two days were stellar so we were able to enjoy the scenery along the way. And all within a 20 km drive from home....

Making Sense of the Census Furor

The long-form census form is a real issue???? I think the Harper Cons are just diverting attention away from things like the G20 fiasco, the failed RCMP Commissioner, or .... whatever.

This blog puts the funny spin on the Harper Cons tactics, and that's probably about all their tactics are worth....

So how many Canadians have served jail time for refusing to complete this census form?? Zero!

How many complaints have been made about this intrusive form?? Very few.

Is this really all the Harper Cons have to talk about and all they have the guts to deal with?