A trip of epic proportions… well, not quite, but one not to be forgotten soon.

Many weeks in the planning, Seppel/Sebastian thought it would be a great idea to go for a hike in the local Squamish Mountains/Garibaldi Provincial Park for his birthday weekend – get friends together, do some snow hiking/back-country skiing and get on the chop!

So after all the various emails, me trying my hardest to convince everyone we were all going to die, avalanche saftey demo evenings, meet and greets and bad weather forecasts…. we (being the massive group, to be identified shortly…) set off from Vancouver around 6am Saturday morning to make the most of the daylight. It was predicted that the hike in would take between 5-6hours at the max!! 1.5 hours to get to the trailhead from town, piss around time, and it gets dark/dim around 4pm… hmm..

Anyway – enought polava – onwards with the photo-blog. 143 photos taken over the two days, and a juicy selection for your viewing pleasure awaits.

Paulis Car – on the go – highway 99, Sea to Sky, around 630am.

Some snow on the gravel road to the trail head…

Wow.. very scenic drive in… i mean, i used to talk about seeing snow on trees back at home, but yeah this was a real treat.. i can’t wait to get to a skifield!

The parking spot, well for one of the cars. Looks like a ‘gong-show’, but nah we were pretty organised.

Ok – the top car park. Take note the amount of snow around the place…. cos it was a different story when we came out!

Trail head ahead.

OMP – (old man pauli) – trying to fit all his gears into a teenie tiny bag..

Aaron and Jen – all geared up to go!… I work with Aaron, Jen is his fiance

Meee.. with the cheesy grin, with OMP still fussing over his toddlers pack… =)

On the trail, and the first break through the trees.. looking back towards Squamish.

The crew on the snow shoes…

Sylvain – Kerstins workmate from Quebec – he left his ’skins’ at home. skins are carpet things which stick to the underside of your skis, which coupled with special bindings alow you to walk uphill with your skis…! Dang, so he was boot packing with us.

OK – so – the first hut – Red Heather – after about 1.5hrs into the walk. A stop for lunch was in order.

Sylvain – glad to be at the hut.. and the weather was holding up!

Scenery outside the hut.

Pauli chowing down.. Chris  (originally from England) to the left,  and the ‘rainman’ Seppel in behind.

Mum and Dad – Kerstin and Seppel

Aaron, and introducing Tim all the way from Seattle for the trip!… Tim studied with Kerstin at UBC in Vancouver.

The crew – after the busy hut had cleared out – Left to Right: -

Andrew Pauli, Kerstin Bleitgen,  Tom Mace,  Me, Seppel Oppel,  Tim Matthews,  Chris Sorsby,  Michael Dew,  Meryn Bowen,  Aaron Korchinski (low),  Werner (? – All the way from Frankfurt in Germany, just for the weekend!! a surprise organised by Kerstin… how sweet…) and Jen Linley.

Ok – enough of the formalities – back into the grind…!

The Path to Righteousness…………………..

…………. and just the man to take you there!!….

The Soldier – Tom-burger.

Its orange.

Views across the valley

It’s snowing! Check out Tom’s 3M nasal strip….. (actually snowflake, but hey…)

Weather is still holding…

getting a bit darker now… hmm…

Still happy campers tho! Aaron leading the pack…

Werner tailing it…

and we made it to the hut!.. about 4.5 hours including breaks.. not bad… Take note of the snow around this wee sign…..

loving the off piste pow… even in my snowshoes (thanks Megan (flattie) for the loan.. they’re awesome!)

Happy man. This was the first time out in his new backcountry setup, and 4 hours breaking in new boots ….. ouch….

some more food was in order.. it was quite the haul up the hill…

…..In the T-zone…..

Well – what do you do when the ’skiers’ of the group have gone off to play for the afternoon?… it was about 2pm, and i was keen on testing out the snow shovel/probe that i had to carry up here…..

Tim was game to come out and brave the snowy conditions too… so we starting diggin a hole, firstly to see where the ground was..

….. Michael came out sometime later, after being told to spoil our fun by trying to fill our hole……
..but he surcumbed to the fun of it all… and the three of us started scheming BIG PLANS.!

Yep – two holes later to ground level (about 1.5-1.7m deep) – a 2m long crawling tunnel linking them, a path over the top, complete with balustrades, and stairs to both pits… our work was done… thats what happens when you give 3 engineers and a lawyer shovels and snow..!

Pic below is Tim digging the final section to join with Michaels tunnel.

Michael in the other hole.

Michael coming on through.

and he’s out!

Tom checking it out…. i think his recently dislocated shoulder stopped him from paying the mandatory $5 charge to  try it out!.

The Contractors… and the tunnel.

Chilling out, admiring our work..

Tom, in awe of our creation….

So, back into the hut – into a few games of Texas Holdem poker… Aaron and Jen looking on intensely.

Seppel – in cooking mode.

Gotta love the improvisation… Snow shovel for stirring the massive feed…!

and the shovel also doubles as a colander/strainer…!

Dishing up.

Chowing down… note the empty bottle of Jagermeister!…

oh!.. and a birthday cake for Seppel.

Well, what a feed…  certainly what was needed.. we even had some leftovers kind of!..

Drinks had been flowing all night…. two bottles of Jager were toasted, some vodka/orange, red wine, Canadian Club…. and photos below are flaming white sambucas, courtesy of Sylvain… very nice…

I believe a smart man once said……. “the cost/benefit analysis of doing something like this is not very high….”…….

Trippy..

Well.. nearing the end of the evening, we were linned up on the pews, just like an old-school dance…. except Meryn had managed to sneek over to the boys side…. =P

It snowed all night, and this was what we saw in the morning.. The forecast was for a wintery Arctic-air blast from the north.. and they were spot on… the worst snow this year for sure!…. it wasn’t that windy, just snowing heavily…! and the usual cold temperatures at 1600m elevation…..! The hut was toasty warm tho.

The wee sign again…. see how much snow had fallen…!.. over a foot for sure…

The sign, and Elfin  Lake Hut.

Meryn, Michael and Chris leaving the hut…. to join me!

The crew.. making their way back to Red Heather for a bite to eat….

Aaron, Jen and Tim….

Chris making tracks..!

Final stretch now… Tim, Jen, Chris and Aaron. Stil snowing like mad..!

THE CARPARK…. yeah mang.. That was an awesome hiking trip!!

I’m glad i’ve got all this outdoor gear, and using it properly too…

The Trusty Huscort – Paulis boom-boom wheels…

Man – winter driving conditions for sure.. this is sick.!

Sylvain, Meryn and Tom – at the car change-over…. happy as!

Mum and Dad’s new wheels!!… Mazda Protege 5 (Mazda SP20 NZ)… rather spiffy, and stealthly in metalic blue and SNOW.

In Chris’s Lexus ES 250.. one of the first Lexus’es ever made.. equiped with ABS… but yeah surprising good traction with us 4 guys (Chris, Tom, Sylvain…)

Tom taking in the sights… this was something we both hadn’t seen before.. so much snow, no road as such….!

OK – this may seem silly- but this is the Subway at Squamish by Canadian Tire (Mitre10 in NZ) – we have eaten here on a number of weekends , no shit!… anyway, it just looks so different with all this snow!

On the highway… yeah, this is slow going…

A nice shot from the Sea to Sky highway….. you’ve seen photos from my previous entries of this scenic drive.. this is quite different with the snow!

ok – so we drove for about half an hour.. then Traffic JAM… they had closed the road just out of Vancouver as there had been multiple accidents and other crap.. people not having snow tires on their cars, and driving too fast etc etc…. anyways… we left at 3pm, and got home at 915pm…. yeah, a long trip for 60 odd km’s…..

What a weekend… it has to be one of the most exciting things i’ve done since living here…. it has me rightly amped up to go skiing now……!!!!!!!

A big thank you has to go out to Sebastian and Kerstin for organizing basically everything, and getting us all motivated to come along, and helping everyone get in and out safely! No drama-weekend, with a great bunch of people…!

“…..TAXI!!!!!!!!…… a taxi for one!!…!……”

Vic