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I have never offered this trip in the winter, but I figure the grizzly bears will be back and the trail will be once again closed for the summer/autumn.
We started snowshoeing/skinning up up at 9:06 am as one member got stuck in traffic. It was an easy hard pack snow covered trail to the 5 km point and then snowshoes were required. Since we were the first up, we had to break trail for others. The GPS came in very handy as some trail markers were below the snow line. Then we saw some tracks up high and followed them straight to the outhouse on the lake. It turned out to be unseasonably sunny and warm on top and we unanimously agreed a long lunch was required.
Side story: on the way up at the first bridge crossing, we met three skiers heading for Mt. Sproatt. In our short conversation together, one woman mentioned that her parents lived at function junction and heard about a woman being attacked on the Miller Creek multiuser trail. To her surprise, I said that was me! I had been attacked by a man over the Christmas break as I was cross country skiing through thigh deep powder. She asked me for details and I said I moved aside to let a man pass and he moved over with me and stood on top of my skis. Neither of us had face-masks and he stood about one inch from my face as I struggled to move my feet. Then he grabbed my left arm and I was completely immobilized. I screamed and said I was calling the police and he immediately jumped off my skis and ran, yelling “calling the police was crazy” and “I should not be skiing on this trail”, etc. I did meet a police woman at function junction and I emailed a photo of him to her phone. She said the pandemic and social isolation has affected people’s mental health. She offered to drive me home, but said I would have to “dump” my skis as they are not allowed in the police car. After a brief hesitation, I skied back the way I came. Luckily, he was long gone. Anyhow, news travels fast in a small community.
At 1:30 pm, we headed down and it took exactly 2.5 hours to reach the parking lot (although our one skier could have made it down very quickly, but he waited for us at the flat sections). The total trip distance was 16.6 km return.
At the cars, we all agreed it was a great day in Whistler’s winter wonderland.
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