Brew Hut snowshoe trip

March 15-16, 2008

For this year's annual winter overnight backcountry trip we chose Brew Hut, which is located in the mountains on the west side of Highway 99 just about halfway between Squamish and Whistler.

So after breakfast at the Squamish McD's, Jeff, Geri, Scott, Cindy, Pat, Christy and I headed up Saturday morning... thinking that we might be able to drive up the Roe Creek Forest Service Road all the way to the trailhead. But two stuck vehicles later, we discovered that the road was only passable to snowmobiles, snowshoes and skis so we unstuck Jeff and Geri's Toureg and had to abandon Pat's truck which was impossibly stuck in deep snow, hoping that we would be able to get it out the next day. This added about 7 km and 500m elevation to our hike but we thought we were starting early enough to make it to the cabin before sunset. We might have underestimated the trek...

Trekking up the ridge to the hut.
A bright half-moon and a clear sky full of stars made the night-hiking magical!
8 hours later, we arrived at Brew Hut about an hour after sunset.
Good morning in Brew Hut.

The next day involved a lot of sliding back down (we brought crazy-carpets!) and what took 8 hours up only took 3 hours down... and with a little help from some friendly snowmobilers, we got Pat's truck unstuck and made it home safe and sound. Good times. :)

Hawaii

February 13-21, 2008

Hawaii - The Big Island
After discovering that Christy's backpack had mistakenly flown to Kauai all on its own, we picked up our rental car at the Hilo airport and killed time until the backpack arrived with a sidetrip to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Mmm...free samples!

On our second day we drove to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and set out on a trek across barren lava fields to the oceanside beach oasis of Halape.

Our tent at Halape.

Halape beach (almost all to ourselves). The Halape "Guardian" overlooking the sea turtle nesting beach.
Green Sea Turtle (we saw a lot of these guys!)

Self-explanatory sign

The aforementioned "dangerous gas" - We did keep our car windows closed but we actually saw a couple of people hiking through this area - yikes!

Snorkelling in Kealakekua Bay.

The Pu'uhonua o Honaunau Place of Refuge - an ancient Hawaiian religious sanctuary. Christy at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau
Our gecko friend on the kitchen wall of our B&B.

On our last day we drove up to the top of Mauna Kea (13,796 feet, highest point in Hawaii) where there are several huge domed astronomical observatories. The high elevation and thin air can make your head a little dizzy but it didn't stop two guys from snowboarding down the snowy volcano slopes!

Aloha!

The Olympic Peninsula

NOVEMBER 11 - 12, 2007

Christy and I took our high-valued Canadian dollar ($1.04!), decided to brave the long border wait and headed down to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park in Washington State for the November long weekend. The weather wasn't great (to say the least!), but the area is incredibly beautiful. The "storm of the month" blew through the area and on Monday morning trees were blown down everywhere, ferries delayed, bridges closed, and the power was out in most of the towns on the peninsula... but we still went hiking!

Port Townsend

The windy ferry ride to Port Townsend

Crescent Lake

Marymere Falls

(having fun with the colour settings on my camera!)

Olympic Peninsula coastline

Video of the Olympic "Perfect" Storm

Adventure on Alice Ridge

AUGUST 4 - 5, 2007

This hike ended up being much more of an adventure than I anticipated - check out the video at the end of this blog entry...

Paolo got sick at the last minute so after much contemplation, I headed up to the mountains on my own at 2pm Saturday afternoon. Two sweaty hours later, I was at Elfin Lakes which were still frozen over (a lot of snow on Paul Ridge too) and the bugs managed to maintain squadron-force numbers even in August!

Elfin Lakes

I filled my water bottles and headed up to the Columnar-Gargoyles saddle (photo above) where I was greeted by the view of a massive snowfield all the way to Little Diamond Head. My plan was to scout a route down Alice-Cheekye Ridge, so after crossing the snowy slopes of Little Diamond Head, I made camp just below treeline on the ridge where I enjoyed a magnificient sunset... and a visit by a black bear that evening! He didn't get too close but close enough to keep me wide awake for a while that night.


On Sunday, I headed down towards the Cheekye River to see if I could find a route down, across the river and make my way up to Brohm Ridge and hike out to Garibaldi Lake following a similar route I hiked last September... but after 5 hours of serious bushwhacking I was thwarted by steep cliff after steep cliff above the Cheekye River. Expecting to reach the Cheekye River to refill with drinking water, I didn't bring enough water and soon ran out on my climb back up to Alice Ridge: a 600-metre straight up, exhausting, leg-cramping slog... pulling myself up on tree roots and shrubs while using my ice-axe as an anchor in the ground of the steep slopes.


-Phew-

I returned to the top of the ridge by 3:30pm and proceeded to melt 3 litres of snow to rehydrate while feeling soundly defeated with my effort to get down to the Cheekye River. My route-finding expedition would have to continue on another trip... so I began my impromptu descent off of Alice Ridge towards Alice Lake... and that's when I walked right into the T-rex nest.

I was bushwhacking along Alice Ridge when all of a sudden I smelled the distinct and strong odour of animal... and then pile after pile of fairly-fresh bear scat... I started talking out loud and making my presence known... I broke through some trees into a clearing (aka "the nest") and right in front of me was a half-eaten deer carcass... and much more bear scat... scared as hell I walked past the dead deer, talking out loud every step of the way, holding my ice-axe in the "ready" position. I never did see another bear but I was paranoid for quite a while as I bushwhacked down off of the ridge towards Alice Lake.


I found the old, overgrown trail (indicated as a dirt road on the old topo map) about 30 minutes from the nest and hoofed it the remaining 15 or so kilometres to Alice Lake by 8:30pm, where I called Christy to come pick me up... exhausted and beaten... quite the adventure. We drove through the Wendy's drive-thru on the way home so the trip wasn't a complete loss. Good times. :)

Ziptrek - Nigel's Stag

September 29, 2007 - Whistler BC



Or check out a large, hi-res version at http://www.bradlandproductions.com/ziptrek.wmv

Coquihalla Climb: Needle Peak

September 15, 2007

When we began our ascent at 11:50 am, the clouds still clung low on the peaks surrounding the Coquihalla highway. But after only 45 minutes of steep uphill climbing, we reached the treeline and were rewarded with a clear view of our objective - Needle Peak.

Christy and Jeff on the ridgecrest...

The summit pyramid...

The route is mainly an easy hike on well-defined trail with a couple of moderate scrambling challenges including the the chimney crux on the summit pyramid.

Christy climbing the chimney crux...

Brad on the edge...

We reached the crowded summit (12 other hikers) in two hours and enjoyed the reward of 360 degree blue-sky views while eating our lunch!

Jeff, Christy and Brad on the summit of Needle Peak (2090m)

The view from the summit...

The descent...

The video...

© BRAD 2007

Garibaldi Peakbagging: Black Tusk and Mount Price

August 29-30, 2007
With our boyz trip to Lake O'Hara cancelled and the weather forecast for the week hot and sunny, I decided to head up one of my favourite trails: the Helm Creek trail to Garibaldi Lake.

DAY 1

I reached Helm Creek Meadows under bomb-proof blue skies in just over two hours from the Cheakamus Lake parking lot but what you can't see in the photo are the swarms of mosquitoes which are normally gone by the end of August!

The normally easy rock-hop crossing of Helm Creek was a little more challenging this year due to the still-melting snowpack causing the creek to swell and spread across the cinder flats.

The Black Tusk reflected in Helm Lake - I hadn't planned on summiting the Tusk but decided I couldn't walk past and not try...

Panorama view from the top of the Tusk - I reached the top about an hour before sunset and had the summit all to myself for the first time ever.

So after snapping the obligatory summit shot I raced the setting sun, reached the Garibaldi Lake campground about half hour after sunset, made dinner and slept like a baby.

Video from the top of the Tusk...


DAY 2

The next morning I slept in and lazed around on the sunny shore of Garibaldi Lake...

...before heading up the trail to Mount Price.

I had never seen an elk in Garibaldi Park before today but I followed this guy for a while up the ridge towards Mount Price.

When you reach the treeline, the defined trail ends and the ascent steepens as the route climbs the rocky slopes of volcanic Clinker Peak.

Craggy Mount Price summit with Castle Towers in the background

The view north from the summit of Mount Price: Mount Garibaldi and The Table.

Video from the top of Mount Price...


On my way down from Mount Price I met Libor from the Czech Republic. We shared many hiking stories on the return hike, reaching the car by 8:00 pm. After a quick stop for a well-deserved burger in Squamish it was back to Vancouver... two-day hiking stats: 55 horizontal kilometres, 2.7 vertical kilometres (2700m elevation gain) and 2 tired legs. Sweet.

© BRAD 2007