Crown Mountain: Powder Pushers
Mid last week we got wind of a planned trip to investigate and possibly climb Crater Couloir on Crown Mountain. It’s been on our radar for a while so we immediately put our names down to go along. Some details changed and due to a few of us needing to be back in the city earlier 4 of us, Spring, Leigh, Dean and Adrien ended up planning to start hiking at 4:30am it meant a 3am wakeup alarm on a Saturday but c’est la vie. We approached via the Grouse Grind trail, a leg burner that stops for most at the Chalet at the top where they check their watches, record their times and never venture further into the backcountry beyond. For us, the Chalet would be our first pitstop. Starting in the dark, and trudging up this trail that turned from soil, to ice, to snow it was a novelty to burst out into the open and be surrounded by the fully lit up Grouse Mountain Resort. We refilled our water bottles in the Chalets restrooms, changed some gear around then headed out on the corduroy groomed trails towards Crown Mountain, where we left the groomed and broken trails behind. We made good time from here and passed Dam Mountain, Little Goat Mountain and then continued down to Crown Pass. As our plan was to do the Crater Couloir we started descending towards the Hanes Creek Valley at this point. About half way down we noticed a rather large and wide runnel that had been formed recently by a slide released from the bluffs above to our left. It was enough of a pause to question whether we should attempt the Couloir at all. Conditions weren’t good and we all knew it would be a heinous snow treadmill up the couloir so we decided to leave it for another day. We decided to attempt the summer scramble route instead. Once we regained Crown Pass we began following the Tree Markers that lead the way along the summer trail. Simple sections that I’m sure are easily bypassed when there isn’t any snow ended up taking considerable amounts of time. An ice layer about a foot or two beneath the snow caused numerous problems in steep sections as the snow on top of it would slide and would also not compress to allow us to make footholds. To add to this, due to the snow, the runouts in quite a few sections of sidehilling were pretty bad. Nevertheless, we pushed on, swimming and plowing through the powder. We gained the final ridge to the summit and decided to don our...
MEC Light Degree Hoodie Review
Even when our late Fall hikes turned into a full blown wintry adventure at -12 degrees, it always felt like I was being caressed by warm air in my MEC Light Degree Hoodie. When we spent 30 minutes taking in the “above the clouds” views on Mt Frosty that November afternoon, I never felt the chill of the cold mountain air reach through my jacket. I even wore it for the trip back and found it very comfortable. I am looking forward to doing some proper mountaineering in this jacket and see how it holds up mobility wise. Here is a quick run through the pros and cons of this jacket. Why I like this jacket: It’s super lightweight and with an 800 fill count it’s very compressible. Very warm for the weight as it comes in at only 334g It has a nice snug fit, meaning it’s not boxy at all and fits well around the hips. But it is not too fitted so it does not ride up when moving around. I am someone with long arms wide shoulders and found the arm length perfect. With elasticized cuffs it prevents cold air rushing up the sleeves when you move around. The super deep internal pockets are going to come in very useful for gloves, skins etc. Color options are great. I went with Purple Rain and love the purple/green contrast. As someone who is a firm believer in bright colors in the backcountry I am glad they offer these color options. Good price point. At $195 I feel it is good value for money as some of the other brand name down sweaters come in at a much higher price tag. Why I don’t like this jacket: The hood is described as low profile and they weren’t kidding. With elasticized binding around the hood it comes to a very snug fit. I am not crazy about the way the hood makes you look. But it is warm. I have only worn it a couple times but find a few feathers bleeding each time I wear it. So not too happy with that. Have a look at it for yourself at: mec.ca...
Just when you think you’re fit enough…
You have probably seen this video on our facebook page, but i wanted to post it again because it is MOTIVATING!! It’s one of those video’s that gets stuck in your mind. Stuck in the way ,that as I biked home from work in the torrential downpour that is Squamish’s endearingly wet winter, I think about pushing it harder today up the big hill I have to bike every night . I think about kicking it down to a lower gear till my quads are burning and I can’t catch my breath. I get to the point where I feel like I have to stop, but I can’t…no I won’t, I know it’s just my mind trying to convince my body it’s had enough, so I decide to take the longer route home. I can’t let my mind win, I refuse to give in. “To climb high altitude mountains you need be more than an adventurer, you need to be an athlete”. Today in my own small way I felt like an athlete. I felt like that extra push was making me stronger. I don’t know if I can ever be at the athletic level portrayed in the video, but I am definitely going to keep pushing that little extra every day! Now let’s hope I can actually get out of bed when my alarm goes off at 5:30am tomorrow to go running in what promises to be another one of Squamish’s endearingly wet winter mornings....
Pelion Mountain: Pupils of Chiron
Pelion Mountain, like most of the peaks in the Tantalus range was named according to a Greek god theme… It was by legend one of the last holdouts of the race of centaurs in the Archaic era, and was where Herakles (Hercules) was tutored by the wise centaur Chiron, who was known for his learning. - bivouac.com On Saturday, the 12th of May, Dean along with Adrien, two climbing friends of myself and Spring pulled up outside our place in Squamish around 9am. Our goal for the weekend would be Mount Pelion in the Tantalus Range. From the pickup spot we could see bluebird skies over Alpha, Omega and Thyestes, the stoke was high. Myself and Spring quickly loaded our gear into Deans Jeep and headed out. We started out on the Sigurd Creek trail shortly after 10am. We’d be snow pitting it so we didn’t have tents. Nevertheless, I’m sure each of our packs weighed around 50lbs at least with all the heavy metal you need to carry for mountaineering. We tried to move as fast as possible on the trail. We got within 700m’s of the first checkpoint, a lookout at ~900m’s elv. before the snow started. Thankfully it was still early enough in the day that the snow was still firm and held our weight. We would not be as fortunate on our return trip. I was glad we were still under the tree canopy for another few km’s. The heat in the open was stifling. We roughly followed the summer trail and in no time at all we were at the Sigurd Creek crossing. Good news! The bridge that had been in disrepair in seasons past was still intact. Bad news… we had no way of using it due to high snow banks. We contemplated a few options, but I think everyone wanted to use a snow bridge of some kind if possible rather than expending the energy to try and make a means to cross the creek. We followed the banks of the river for a while upstream before we came to what seemed like a recently collapsed snowbridge. It looked iffy I won’t lie. It was compromised underneath by the running water and softening up quickly in the sun. Dean crossed it first to test it. Then I, as I’m the heaviest in the group. This was referred to as “Leigh-proofing”. The bridge passed my test and everyone else crossed without incident. In no time from there we were below the glacier between Ossa and Pelion. We headed up to climbers left of of the glacier and onto the NW ridge. At...
Video: A year worth living
In the past year myself and Spring, bloggers on this site, bought our first pair of rock shoes, our first ice tools, our first pair of skis and our first mountain bikes. We haven’t led a sheltered life, just one without much interest in exploring mountains, until now. This is a short (~4min) video I put together trying to capture some of the moments of the last year. I find making them is a great way to take stock of the year, what worked and what didn’t and set in place a focus for the coming year....
