Rohr lives up to name. Everyone surprised.
“Ugh! That Whiskey Jack ate my loogie” Cody sat on the remnants of the column of snow that he’d dug out to do a Snow Stability test. A persistent weak layer that had formed near the beginning of the month was lingering. The column had serendipitously split just high enough to make for a nice high perch to sit on as he scarfed down some calories. Spring joked “You look like a King on his throne…yeah… *low voice* Winter is Coming!“. Much to her chagrin nobody, but I, got her Game Of Thrones reference so she let it slide, no pun intended. Cody, living up to his net nom de plume as “The Camel”, hocked a loogie into the snow beside him. Within seconds it froze solid, within a few seconds more a keen eyed Gray Jay swooped down and flew away with that frozen morsel to a nearby branch to devour it. Slightly disgusted but amused by this scene it had at least taken our thoughts away from the weather for a moment. A low ceiling of cloud hung close above us, winds were picking up and it was intermittently hailing and snowing. We’d made it just above the treeline and from here on out we’d be climbing further and further into the clouds and the reduced visibility they promised. This wasn’t the Spring day I had imagined. This felt more like a day during the depths of Winter. Once again this troupe had been caught on the hop in the unpredictable weather of the shoulder seasons. We packed up again and continued on. I couldn’t help but laugh. The last time the four of us, myself, Spring, Ben and Cody, had been out in the mountains together was last Fall. We had attempted, and reached, the summit of Mount Frosty. Back then we had gauged for warmer Fall weather. What we got however was the birth pangs of Winter, with temperatures below -15’c, a biting wind, and a fair amount of fresh snow on the ground. Frosty had lived up to its name, it was in fact very frosty. Fast forward through Winter and finally, in the beginning of Spring, all our schedules aligned so that we could get out again together. In town the weather had been warm, it hadn’t snowed at sea level in months and, at times, it felt more like Summer weather than Spring. So, when I was packing for Mount Rohr, I packed for warm, Spring conditions. What I got however was the death throes of Winter. As we traversed above two lakes heading to the base of Mount Rohr we’d get...
Our first tent: The MSR Mutha Hubba
Back in mid 2010 myself and my wife knew we needed to bite the bullet and start buying all our camping and hiking gear. We’d recently moved to BC, Canada from Ireland and knew that we wanted to start exploring the mountains as soon as possible. The problem was we knew nobody and didn’t know anything about how to properly hike or camp in the backcountry. All our shirts were cotton, all our pants were denim, our shoes were bought for how they looked rather than how they functioned. We had never had reason to ever utter the words “Ice Axe”, “Crampon” or “Gaiter”. Walking into the popular Outdoor Recreation store, Mountain Equipment Coop, in Vancouver we were overwhelmed with how much stuff there was to choose from. We wandered around for close to 4 hours just reading labels, trying stuff on, trying to understand why we’d need one feature over another. Eventually we asked for help from an Employee. He was experienced in hiking and backpacking and guided us for over 2 hours around the store picking out everything from boots, to medkits, to finally a tent. He recommended the MSR Mutha Hubba. We took his advice, and with that we owned our very first tent. It came with us on every overnight trip we took for the longest time. As we grew in our understanding of how to be better hikers and campers our level of appreciation for this tent grew also. It’s simple and quick to set up, has a lot of space inside (you could fit 4 people in a pinch head to toe) and loads of storage in the side pockets. The dual vestibules are nice, especially on snow as you can dig one out and use it as your porch and then use the other one as your kitchen. It’s rated as 3-season only but we’ve comfortably used it through all 4-seasons. Eventually, as we got more comfortable with camping we started to move more towards sleeping in snow pits, under a tarp in a bivy sack, or a much lighter, but cramped winter tent. The Mutha Hubba still gets used occasionally, when we are car camping or when we want to sleep 3 people, but it sees a lot less use now. Every time we take it out though and have reason to use it, we look forward to it. So many memories are stored within those nylon walls, so many amazing views woken up to and perilous nights survived. It was and is an awesome tent. Buy (Canada): MSR MUTHA HUBBA HP 3 PERSON TENT Buy (USA): MSR Mutha Hubba Tent ...
MSR Reactor Hanging Kit: Thoughts on stoves in tents
I recently bought the MSR Reactor Hanging Kit for my MSR Reactor Stove System and had an opportunity to test it out. At this point I guess I need to state that MSR recommends that you do not use their Reactor stove or the hanging kit inside the confines of a tent. For legal reasons I understand why they need to do this, it’s the same reason Q-tips needs to warn on their packaging “Do not insert in ear canal” which I’m pretty sure is the actual use of 90% of Q-tips. It is inherently dangerous and hazardous to operate a canister stove inside a tent. Not only could you melt the tent down around you, the stove is also pumping out carbon monoxide which could kill you. You are also making boiling water in an extremely cramped space, which, if knocked over, could severely scald bare skin. In saying all that, if you are smart, and can effectively mitigate those risks there are benefits to hanging a stove inside your tent. For myself I’d be interested in keeping my stove inside my tent when the weather is extremely bad outside, it’s the dead of winter and extremely cold, outside space is limited (camped on a ledge or ridge crest) or all of the above. The benefits of using the stove in this manner, in my opinion, are: Stove runs more efficiently due to less or no wind and by keeping the canister warmer. Less fuel is needed due to the previous benefit. Heat output by the stove is radiating into the tent raising the ambient temperature. Less body heat is being lost by having to operate the stove outside of the tent and outside of your sleeping bag. More appealing to hydrate. We tend to forget the human factor sometimes. I’ve made the bare minimum amount of water before because I wanted to spend more time in my sleeping bag and less time out in the cold. Making water, especially at higher elevations, can be a pain. Usually by the time you have to make water you are already exhausted and just want to lie down and rest. Being able to rest and have your water boiling makes it more appealing to hydrate more. The better hydrated you are the warmer you’ll be, the better you’ll sleep, the more energy you’ll have the next day… etc. If these benefits seem desirable then here is how I recommend mitigating the risks. Light the stove outside of the tent. Canister stoves can flare up when first ignited. You also don’t want to have a few misfires and fill your tent with gas which will combust when...
One Year Ago: Slalok Mountain
Last December Leigh and I decided to take advantage of a good weather window and make an attempt of the NF of Slalok in the Joffre Group. This was going to be a day trip and it was going to be a long one! The alarm went off at 3:00am and shook me from sleep. I kept thinking it was too early to head out into the cold dark morning, but if we wanted to summit that day and still make it back home in time for a late dinner we need to get out on the road. Hesitantly we got ourselves up, dressed and ready to go. Stepping outside the moon seemed unusually bright, but the fact that we could see the moon would bode well weather-wise for the remainder of the day, so off we went. To save time we decided to skip eating breakfast at home (or making lunch) and go for the traditional Canadian experience and get a drive-thru Timmy’s. Unfortunately as we soon found out they do not serve breakfast before 5:00am, so we ordered bagels for breakfast and bagel sandwiches for lunch(as they didn’t have rolls ready for sandwiches)….mmm this was going to be a bagel filled day. Heading north up the Duffy in the dark the conversation often turned to how tired we felt, how dark it was, how cold it was; but we kept driving. Once pulling into the Joffre Lakes car park, knowing that the estimated temperature for the day was supposed to dip to -20c, we stepped out in the frigid cold and started to layer up. With numbing fingers we both looked at each other and Leigh said “Are you feeling it?” Deep down I thought about the comfort of my warm bed at home and how if we turned around right then I could be back in bed within 2 hours. But I knew I would regret not attempting the peak more than I would regret not getting back into bed, so putting on a brave face I said “Let’s just check it out, we’ll start feeling better once the sun comes up.” The trail to the upper lake was uneventful, just plodding along trying to follow the trail markers in the dark and continually moving forward in hopes of reaching the warmth of the sun. Upon reaching the upper lake we could see some ski tracks headed across the lake tending towards the shore, rather than straight across. It was still early in the season and wanting to save time but still be smart about it, we decided to makes tracks across the lake as close to the shore...
January Training Update
Ok so I thought it was time for an update as it’s been about a month since I registered for the Squamish 50 50km trail race. I am still feeling very excited about the race which is a good sign. But I am not going to pretend that I have been super motivated all the time. Despite feeling excited about the race, I also know what’s involved to get my body to a level that running that kind of distance won’t be absolute torture, and some days it’s down right tough to convince myself to get out there. Lately my goal has been trying to run more, you know just trying to get the ol’ running legs back. My brilliant idea has been to get up earlier during the week and try to get a run in before breakfast. Hmm let’s count how many times this has happened over the last few weeks….zero! It could be the dark mornings, but really I think it is just my mind playing games with me, and it’s really a game I don’t have time for. So new goal: DON”T GIVE IN ! Now that I have that rant over with, let’s get right down to it. The last few runs I have been on have felt great. Mind you, they have only been 4-5 mile runs, but I am running them at a good pace. Last week I ran a 4 miler at a 7min 47sec/per mile pace, which is good for me. It’s nice to know that all the extra hiking/climbing, snowshoeing, biking etc. that I have been doing over the last while is keeping my fitness level up. So cross training is definitely going to play a huge part in my training this year. The last 2 marathons that I trained for (training on my own after doing my own research) ended up being just about running. While I know getting miles on your legs has its merits and I think you should train long distance to race long distance, I really want to add more cross training into my plan this time. I am hoping to get stronger and faster by supplementing my running with biking (mostly hills of course), skiing, back-country snowshoeing etc. I am still going to be running long distances during the training but on non-running days I am going to mix it up and just enjoy being active. And hey what’s stopping me from biking to a trail, going for a run and then biking home. That’s the plan anyway and we all know plans can change! So as the weeks go by I will be tweaking my...
