Hurley Silver Mine
Sometimes it’s nice to tag along on a trip and not really do anything to plan it. It’s too easy nowadays to completely destroy any discovery when exploring a new area by doing research online. Most places will have pictures of everything on the route, 360’ video panoramas, HD Satellite imagery available in Google Earth, with detailed reports describing every step of the way. (I’m aware of the irony of writing this and posting it online). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it’s nice to discover an area fresh without any previous knowledge of what to expect. So mid last week I received word that a friend wanted to explore the “Hurley Silver Mine” area and potentially summit “Hurley Silver Peak”. I’d remembered reading something about it, and vaguely knew it was off the Duffy Lake Road so I agreed. I’ve never been on a bad hike that started from the Duffy Lake Road. Saturday morning seen four of us heading North, past Whistler, then Pemberton and along the Duffy. We passed the pullouts for all the popular weekend spots for sledders and skiers and they were packed. Why wouldn’t they be, conditions were awesome and the weather was forecast for bluebird skies. I worried that our chosen area would also be overrun by skiers and sledders also. Nearing our parking spot I seen it was empty with only an old pickup parked up the road. My friend, Adrien, mentioned that we had to be dropped off at the parking area and that Ben, the driver, would need to park about a kilometer away as there was rumours that a First Nations man might vandalize our vehicle if we parked nearby. Turns out there used to be a proper, drivable bridge that crosses Cayoosh Creek which runs parallel to the Duffy Lake Road for a while, but it washed out some years back. Since then a new footbridge has been installed, purportedly by this First Nations man who lives on the opposite side of Cayoosh Creek, the side we’d need to cross over to before heading along the Hurley Silver Mine road towards our objective. He has been reported as blocking peoples attempts to cross this bridge. Whether or not these rumours are lore, past tense or true didn’t matter. It was better to err on the side of caution rather than risk a possible confrontation. We unloaded, moved the car a safe distance away, geared up, then quickly scurried across the footbridge and along the road. The footbridge instantly meant we wouldn’t be listening to the obnoxious sound and smell of sleds for the weekend. We...
Tantalized by the Tantalus
King Tantalus, for various atrocities, was banished to the underworld where he spent his days up to his neck in water with delicious fruits hanging over his head which were wafted away whenever he tried to grasp them, or that whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any, hence the word “tantalize”. Apart from a few trips into the northern reaches of the Tantalus Range, I’ve had a run of bad luck just trying to get into the central and southern area of this range. Things have just never lined up properly. Poor weather putting the kibosh on a heli ride the morning of departure about a year ago, last Fall at late notice our landlords needed our apartment for family, causing us to have to move out the weekend of a planned trip. A few weeks back another trip was cancelled due to worsening weather. There have been countless other trips in the pipeline that have just gotten postponed or cancelled for one reason or another. I was beginning to wonder if I was being subject to the same punishment as King Tantalus. Which brings me to a trip I planned in the middle of July in 2012. I live in the small coastal/mountain town of Squamish and pretty much since the day I set foot here I’ve been looking over at a cirque that towers over downtown Squamish with impressive looking waterfalls cascading down through bluffs and ending in the Squamish river. It wasn’t until a trip up another local peak, Mt. Mulligan, last year that I realized there was a lake up there, Echo Lake to be exact. My ice ax was also crackling as well as my helmet. Realizing that this possibly signifies an imminent lightning strike I dropped low to the ground Over the past year it’s been an interest of mine to collect information about this area and its surrounding peaks. I emailed a few people who have all been in this area of the Tantalus and got some responses. To say that information is sparse though is an understatement. For an area close enough to Squamish that you can still hear the horns of trains passing through downtown it’s crazy that there is so little information about it. This adds to its allure though so forgive me if this report describes the trip more than the route. I’d hate to deprive others of the same experience. My rough plan was probably ambitious: Friday: Hike to Echo Lake Saturday: Hike to either Niobe/Pelops or Lydia/Niobe col Sunday: Exit via Lake Lovely Water Anyway, ominously on Friday the 13th, 6 of us met in...
Mt. Baker, N. Ridge: Anatomy of an Attempt
“At one point or another we’ve all cited percentages or experience levels and shrugged away risk. Given reasons for why it can’t happen to us, why it won’t happen…” I lay awake, semi in and out of my sleeping bag. It’s hot. I’m trying to sleep as I know I need to be awake and alert again in a few short hours. I want so bad for the temperature to drop, so that I can sleep, so that the snow underneath my tent and for miles around me will firm up. But there’s no wind, no sound, just dry, dead air and the dying light of the day. I’m listening to a podcast called “The Dirtbag Diaries” on my mp3 player. This episode is called “Anatomy of an Accident”. In it the author details a near fatal accident he had high in the mountains in a steep icy gully, he examines the simple mistakes he made during that trip early on that had a domino effect eventually leading to his accident. “Geez, this is the last thing I need to be listening to right now!” I say to myself. I hear a serac calve off Colfax in the distance, the impact shatters the silence across the entire mountain. It’s not the first serac we’ve seen or heard fall this day. “Maybe this is exactly what I should be listening to right now…” I let this episode finish and then try to get some sleep. It’s fitful, it never seems to get dark outside, the temperature is always uncomfortably hot and before I know it, it’s 2am and time to get up and ready. I give Dean and Adrien a wake up call. Spring is already up. Everyone moves in silence, boiling water, eating whatever calories we can paw at in the dull light, getting our harnesses on, prusiks dressed and checked, clipping all our gak where ever it will fit. We split into two rope teams of two and head out into the eerie glow of the near full moon to cross the Coleman Glacier. Only minutes have passed and we’re already jumping the first of a plethora of unavoidable crevasses, ice axes at the ready to arrest any sudden snow bridge collapses. I think to myself “I didn’t even need that coffee this morning, this is enough of a wake up”. At times it feels like tiptoeing past sleeping giants. Huge pillars of broken ice the size of houses, yawning crevasses the depths of which my 100 lumen headlamp can’t even attempt to see to the bottom of. As I inch across one of a few 3 foot wide...
Arc’teryx Alpha LT Jacket Review
“With my Mack and my Merry’s I’m ready to hike!” A silly phrase I coined 2 ½ years ago as I went on some of my first real hikes wearing what was, at the time, my hiking uniform; a North Face DWR Rain mack and a pair of Merrell Siren Song Mid Sport hikers (my “Merry’s”). You can see me sporting these very items in the picture above. The items have changed but the phrase still applies. I now own an Arc’teryx Alpha LT Goretex jacket (and a pair of La Sportiva Evo Nepal Mountaineering boots, but we will save those for another post) which has come to be one of my favorite pieces of gear. Weighing in under 12 ounces, it’s so lightweight that I pack it on every trip, summer or winter. Here are some of the features that I have come to appreciate since owning this jacket and using it in the mountains: - Provides full on weather protection. It keeps out moisture whether it’s rain or snow and works double duty as a windproof barrier for those, more often than not, windy summit days. I have used this jacket in conditions ranging from full on winter snow storm, summit camping, lashing rains of the NWP and dry blustery days. It’s the most essential piece of my layering system. -What’s with the location of the pockets? That’s what I first thought when I put it on, fresh off the hanger, in the warmth and comfort of my living room. But, get out on a glacier or on rock, put on a harness, backpack and all the other gak that goes along with this type of awesomeness, and you soon realize that the strategically placed reach-across pockets are the best thing that just happened to you. The easy access pockets make for great storage of your mobile phone, extra slings or any other items you need to keep handy but out of the way. - Helmet Compatible Hood. I can’t speak for everyone but unless you are feeling some serious frigid temperatures, I personally don’t like to wear a toque under my helmet as I tend to overheat pretty quickly and it’s a real hassle to have to take off your helmet and toque whenever you get too warm. Which is why I love this hood. It fits right over my climbing helmet with room to spare and cinches in at just the right spots for a nice snug fit (which by the way is great for when you’re not wearing your helmet as these adjustable cinch points on the hood keep it from blowing off...
