-
Posts
-
Five of us had an interesting day under mostly sunny weather to attempt a peak named “EC78”.
Alastair and Joanne made it to the summit at 3 p.m. Lucas, followed by me, made it to the second promontory, while Robin made it past the second promontory. We all had great panorama views, as well as much fun. Thanks to Alastair for the adventure, Robin for the trip report, and Joanne for the album. Actually everyone except me took beautiful pictures. Just that Joanne’s are the easiest to include here as a link.
—————————————————————————————
Alastair, in his usual manner, organized a very interesting hike.We camped alongside a little road just outside of Pemberton on Friday night. Early Saturday morning we drove up the Duffey Lake Road, passed Joffre Lake parking lot, continued over the pass, passed Duffey Lake, and reached a point some four kilometres further.It was here that we forded Cayoosh Creek.It was -5C.Everyone had their own idea of what to wear for the ford.Alastair brought one pair of runners and one pair of wool socks for this purpose. He also wore long johns, on top of which he wore an old pair of gortex pants.Joanne wore hip waders which she had purchased on Craigslist for $20, specifically for this trip.Lucas brought one pair of runners, but no socks for the crossing.Ling wore an old pair of hiking boots, wool socks, and plastic bags that went up to his knees.I wore my shorts. I brought TWO pairs of wool socks and TWO pairs of runners.Alastair crossed first and claimed that the water wasn’t as cold as he had expected. He warmed up quickly once on the other side.For Joanne, the ford was both dry and warm.Lucas was terribly cold in his runners without socks, and he took quite a while to regain sensation in his feet.Ling didn’t plan his route sufficiently and wound up with water not only poring over the tops of his plastic bags and into his boots, but he twice stumbled into waist deep pools!I didn’t fair too badly…..I didn’t feel the cold until two thirds of the way across, yet that last third was murderous. It is interesting to see from the video that I sent you that the 15 metre crossing only took 45 seconds. Once across I dried my feet and legs with a towel that I had brought specially for this purpose. Dry socks in my boots felt pretty okay, and my toes warmed up quickly. I simply put on my gortex pants over my shorts and fastened my gaiters; I now felt great. No long underwear.This river crossing is an impediment few people ever do at any time of the year let alone now when it’s almost winter, and we felt a high degree of satisfaction knowing that only few had ever ascended this approach as we did.The elevation at the ford was 1100m. The snow was about 8 centimetres deep in open areas, and under trees the ground was bare.The bushwhacking wasn’t too tough (there were, however, two extensive areas of blowdown that had to be negotiated); the slope was generally steep. Before the snow became deep, I wore my new micro-spikes!At about 1,500m we put on our snowshoes.Once above the treelike, the going was easy. We climbed two unnamed promontories; the first at 2279m and the second at 2300m.Here’s me approaching the second summit….We left the top at 3:30 and reached the trees when the last light of the day was extinguished. Headlamps were then used for the entire rest of the descent; our pace slowed considerably and we finally reached the river at 7:45.This time the crossing, of course, was done in the dark.It was here that a shock was experienced by all but Joanne and myself!Ling’s old boots, all of the running shoes, and all of the socks that had been used during the initial fording were now completely frozen stiff. Hard as rocks!No one would be able to use their previously worn socks nor their footwear!Alastair crossed wearing his longjohns and gortex pants – but was compelled to wear on his feet just a pair of fresh wool socks. Without his runners, his feet were horribly cold and he slipped several times but did not fall in.Lucas borrowed a pair of wool socks and he too forded without runners, a crossing as painful and as slippery as Alastair’s had been.Ling simply wore his regular hiking boots! And, as he had done on his initial crossing, he waded up to his waist a couple of times! Once across, he immediately began hiking the 1.5 km to where we had parked the vehicles (one of which was his).Joanne trudged across uneventfully in her hip waders.I took out of my plastic bag my SECOND pair of dry wool socks and a SECOND pair of dry runners. My ford was as my previous one, except that I felt the evil cold by the time I had crossed the first third of the way, rather than the last third.A great trip nonetheless!Robin—————————————————————————————
Here is the link to Joanne’s album.
-
This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.