BackCountryPunk

Kain route can be a zoo, as can the NE Ridge of Bugaboo. Get up early if you want to be first on McTech Arete on a nice day. Its close to camp and a stellar climb. We breezed past 7 people at one stance on the Kain.

Hey, I'm looking for a whippet and some crampons to fit my Silvretta 500's. Possible to trade for an ice screw or my BD head torch (cold weather model w. remote battery pack & LED/bulb combo)? Or will pay cash. I'm in Vancouver.

Hey, Has anyone been up towards Gold Bridge & the Hurley River Road lately? Hoping to get up towards Sloan next weekend and am wondering if I have to take the long road, or if I'll be able to make it over RR pass in my van.

Me.

I'm looking for Alpine, Trad, Ski & Running partners. I live in East Van/Rupert Park area, and am looking for a mid-week training partner as well. I've been climbing for 7 years now, AT skiing for 2. I'm a competant & safe mountain traveller who enjoys being alive. That said, I do like to push things out a bit, and want to start hitting a few harder routes. So, if you are fun, fit, & fast PM me.

I was there mid July & early August last summer. July found a fair bit of snow around. Glaciers were easy to travel on, but some routes were still pretty icy. Early August was great. Lots of dry rock, but the glaciers were still plain sailing. I'm putting my money on another early August trip this year.

Climb: Mt Garibaldi-North East Face Date of Climb: 5/20/2006 Trip Report: THE JOY OF UP TRACKS, or how I still haven't summited Garibaldi. What is the similarity of the following? Friday the 19th of May. My wifes birthday party. 10 bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale and a bottle of red wine. Partying until 5:00am. Answer: They all took place the day before my latest attempt on Garibaldi's North East Face. Our team consisted of Scott "Silly Smasher" Farnham, Smudge aka: Gareth Smith, and myself. The trip was planned over a couple of phone calls earlier in the week. Smudge was up for it, Scott was itching to settle a score with this peak, and I was hoping it was to prove Third Time Lucky. The plan was to leave mid-afternoon on Satuday, reach the top of the morraine that afternoon, and summit early on Sunday. Noon on Saturday rolled round to find me intensley hung over form my wifes birthday party the night before. Indeed I spent most of my packing time wandering about going "uuuuurrrrghhhhh". I managed to cobble together my kit from around the flat. I was intent on having a good nights sleep and so packed the thermarest AND a sleeping bag. I was packing heavier than normal, but I knew that I was in for a comfortable night. Next up I had to find my food. Luckily I have gels stored around the flat, much like the squirrels have caches of nuts buried around the park. A hand full of chewy bars and a freeze dried meal and I was set. I furthered my menu by buying 4 bagels from Timmys in Squish. Scott rolled up at 2:30, and we loaded my kit into the back of his truck. I went in to say goodbye to Tracey, who was by this time face down on the couch recovering from the party. Next we headed round to pick up Smudge. As always he was packed and ready to go. I'm always envious of how light his tele-skis are compared to AT. I spent most of the car ride up trying to catch up on sleep, not be ill, and re-hydrating (and silently wishing I too was face down on the couch asleep). Scott's wife had sent him away with the customary chocolate cake for the drive. By the time we reached Squish I was feeling relativley human again. We went into the Timmys and I got my bagels. I felt old, most of the people working there only looked to be 14 (surley there must be a law against child labour in the donut industry!!). We got on the road to Brohm ridge, and started to chew up the altitude, 4km, 5km, 6km. We managed to drive quite a ways up past our previous high points, cutting a good hour and a half off of our approach time. Surprisingly enough there were only 2 other vehicles at the parking area, both sporting ski-doo trailers. We quickly ate some more chocolate cake, drank some more ice tea, and kitted up. We headed up the snow covered road, around the corner and up a hill to find........ nothing but dirt for quite some time. So it was off with the skis, and on with the walking. Scott realized that he had left his coat in the truck, so he had to nip back down to pick it up. Smudge asked if we should wait for him, but Scott knows his way around Brohm ridge by now, so I knew he would catch us up. And did he ever! We had made it to the big cut blocks below the lookout, when he came around the corner into view. We started off up the steep slopes above us, switchbacking back and forth between stumps and sticks. I'd started to feel really good again by this time, so I just put my head down and went for it. It was some difficult terrain to negotiate, with large meltouts and weak spots, but it certainley was alot quicker than taking the road up. Smudge took a tumble down the slope when one of my skin tracks gave way beneath him. Luckily he missed all of the stumps before he came to a stop. By coming up the cutblock we had popped out really close to where we had bivi'd on our previous attempt. Another hour or so took us to within 10 minutes of the rocky step below the moraine. By this time my body had used up all of the empty beer calories of the night before, and was screaming for a rest. We all agreed to stop here and dig a pit, rather than head up to the top of the moraine. It was one of the better holes I've slept in. Roomy enough to be comfortable, close enough to be warm. I propped my bivi bag up in the corner, and started up the stove to get some water on. By 10:30 we were finished eating and turned in. The sky was clear, and you could see stars all across the horizon. Scott inflated his Blam Hammer (an inflatable mallet that he uses as a pillow), and we all turned in. Smudge tells me that I was snoring within 2 minutes of zipping my bivvy bag shut. The morning dawned with lots of promise. High broken clouds, some sun, and moderate winds. Perfect!! We were all confident of our chance of summiting today. Maybe the forcast had been wrong! After a short ski to the rock step, we strapped our skis to our rucksacks and headed over the rocks towards the moraine. The snow had melted off of the rocks and the going was much easier this time. We could also see a gigantic avalanche that had cut loose in the oposite valley a few days previously. The fracture lines were a good 300m long, and half a meter deep. It appeared to have started when a rock slab above had warmed up and released its snow load, which then caused the much larger slope to cut loose. Very interesting. It didn't take long to crest the moraine and get onto the main face. We had been following 2 pairs of old foot prints across the glacier (I would SERIOUSLY not want to walk all that way in that much snow). As we crested a shoulder, one of the pairs looks like they punched through into a crevase. oops. Onwards we followed them, onwards into the gathering clouds (damn damn damn!!). The snow was very hard and frozen, hardly being marked by our passing. Our ski poles barely making a scratch. Before long we had passed the high point of the footprints. Bummer I thought, I was rather looking forward to following in their kicked steps up the final slopes! By this time visibility was bordering on really crap. We couldn't see each other if we strayed more than 10 steps out from each other, let alone which way was up. We stopped and dug an ass pit to sit in and try to wait for a break in the clouds so we could at least see which way we needed to go to get onto the headwall. We waited. And waited. Occasionally the mists would part enough below us to see the morraine, but above us they remained just as tight lipped as ever. Eventually I started to shiver, Scott's hands started to go numb, & Smudge remained as optimistic as only the Welsh can be about the weather. But in the end we decided to head back down. All the way up, I had been a bit worried about the ski down. With the slopes being so icy, and the runout of a fall being a good 700m tumble I was nervous. However both Smudge and Scott were skiing down it, and that sparked some confidence in me. We took the skins off, clipped in, and started off down the slope. The first few turns were slow, and tentative. I was getting used to the slope. This was easier than I had thought it would be. I got into the groove and started driving my turns like Scott had shown me to do a few weeks ago. The altitude started to slip by easily, and before long we had broken out of the bottom of the clouds and back into the broken sunlight below. The joy of up tracks is the coming down. All across the view, clouds were obscurring the summits of all the larger mountains, not even Black Tusk or Alpha were visible. It didn't look like the weather would have been clearing anytime soon. We traversed our way back to the bivvy pit. Thankfully our kit hadn't blown away in our absence. I fired up the stove for a cup of tea & a toke, Smudge got into his whiskey, and Scott had a few zzz's. The clouds started to look a bit more ominous, so we had to pack up and start the last half of the descent to the truck. I simply rolled all of my stuff up in the bivvy bag and stuffed it into my ruck. I love easy systems. The ski down was pretty easy, we took the alternate route down past the ski-doo hut. Although a little bit longer, it allowed us to keep our skis on for longer. The final km of road was an interesting exercise of linking patches of snow up between gravel, sticks, and streams. Of course, no trip up the 99 would be complete without a stop at the Howe Sound Pub for a pint of bitter and some nachos (oddly enough this trip ended how it had began for me....with a slight beer buzz) . Maybe next time we'll summit. But it really doesn't matter so long as I have as much fun as I did this trip. Approach Notes: Road is clear to the junction for either the Hut route, or the Lookout route. Road is in good condition.

Yep, thats a handy little voice to have, and generally the better of the voices to listen to . Good work.

Easy Easy! The road is about the same as the approach to Elfin Lakes parking lot. Its just North of Squish (I can't find the map right now). Granted, there are alot of snow mobiles around, but they peter out soon enough up on the ridge. Some good biv sites up near the top of the ridge (above the rocky hump). It took us about 4 hours up to the top of the ridge from the 5km mark. You will come to a fork in the road (above the snowline), take the left hand option as it gains the ridge top quicker. Hope you have a good trip, the weather sounds good this weekend!

I still like the dispossable avalanche poodles (by Tami Knight), a fitting use for a yappy dog. Once all these little fashion dogs become last seasons style, there should be some smokin deals on 2nd hand micro-dogs.....

Hey, was up on Brohm Ridge and the Warren Glacier over the Easter weekend. We managed to park at the 5km mark on the Brohm Ridge road. Lots of fresh snow, shin deep powder. Also lots of windloading on the North slopes. "Don't even bother if you aren't on skis" pretty much sums it up. Great turns on the way out though.

Awesome trip. The snow cat sounds like a laff riot.