White Whales, Snowspiders and Clowns (Jan 28-30 2012)

On February 27 a group of VOC’ers set off into the wilderness off of the Duffey lake road. They continued past the beaten path, braving difficulties and adventure. This is Not their story…

This is the story of an equally crazy bunch who followed their tracks the next day. Little did we know our little intrepid adventure would unfold into a – dare I say the cliché?- Epic weekend. Nick got us all together to celebrate his birthday over the weekend.

I watched as Nick Matwyuk pulled into the driveway, casually stepping out in his blue long-johns and cloggs, following him were Breanne Johnson and Natalie Stafl. Too lazy to get out and say hello was Christian Champagne. Did I say lazy? I mean sinister…

“Awww, it stinks in here..!” bemoaned Breanne as she crawled into the back of Nick’s Jeep. Christian had hot boxed the car. With windows cracked we sped away north to the Duffey Lake Road. A good way to start the weekend.

Large amounts of recent snowfall had amped up our excitement and we racing off from the Cerise Creek trailhead. Casual chitchat would have you think we weren’t even trying hard but next thing we knew we were near Cerise Creek in record time. Too bad we were going deeper still. The objective: Snowspider Mountain.

Working our way up to the Vantage-Matier Col light disappeared quickly. Our world turned very white very fast and little did we know things would remain a glorified opaque white for the whole weekend.

Upon reaching the col, we were treated to natures next surprise. Gale force winds that would send guinea pigs flying.

Our fearless mentally challenged group had a hard time recognizing this as uncomfortable. Next time I’m bringing Jelly Beans to throw into the wind with an open mouth. This could inspire an interesting lunchtime game.

 

We worked our way down from the col. Only Natalie managed to retain elegancy with her skins on. Meanwhile the rest of us flailed about on our planks as we battled wind and tripped around in the weird snow conditions. “Turn back Ahab!” No, we pressed on. Crossing the lake the wind started to disappear and the white ceiling gave away for a brief moment before bringing us back to the white room.

We stopped for lunch near the end of Twin One lake just out of the wind where Christian amazed us with his 18 inches. (Get your mind out of the gutter… It was his extra-large nalgene.) Natalie also showed us her amazing Blanket Break

 

 

 

After packing up and skinning a short distance we skied some nice turns down a creek bed to our logging road. I think this is where Breanne would treat us with her first faceplant of the weekend.

After reaching the logging road we found it extremely hard to continue on towards the hut. Problem solved we would renew our energy by skiing laps of powdery pillows along the logging slash. It was a hard decision to make but I’m confident it was the right one.

 

 

After we had our fill, with engines refuelled we soldiered on. Here we entered a land straight out of a Dr Seuss book. A forests placed on top of snow, snow on top of the forest; A sandwhich of white mushroom and monolith pillows. Trees glazed so heavily they stood over us like giant candles waiting for the sun to light the wick and melt away the heavy wax coating.

If the snow wasn’t sitting so precariously on thin branches, one could essentially pull out an ice axe and summit the beasts.

 

 

Ahab, we’ve found white wales! White Whales everywhere! But you wouldn’t believe where we found them!

 

Although the whales sitting precariously on branches posed a tidal danger, we continued our adventure in search of for the elusive Snowspider cave.

Following the previous skin track we worked our way through a maze of trees and snow, left-right, up-down, my internal compass was spinning.

It wasn’t long before Laura Morrison and Phillip Daoust came to rescue us from the maze. We followed them back, enjoying the directional drawings they had left in the snow for us in case we missed them.

 

 

We made it to the cave with time to spare before dark but our Snowspider was shrouded in clouds. Before heading inside to greet the rest of the group we set up our Circus Tent.

Now this tent is simply a special tarp with a couple poles stacked together holding it up in the middle. What makes it a Circus is filling it with a bunch of foolhardy clowns. Christian had ditched his way out of the group to join Laura in the hut. He got away but we knew he’d come crawling back.

We made our way into the Snowspider cave, wary of spider fangs but quickly realizing it was more of a Hobbit hut complete with a 4-5 foot door and low rafters. The new characters inside were Len Geoff, Todd Mackenzie and Ryan Mackenzie. We enjoyed the coziness of a fire, alcohol, dinner and friends as we chatted away the time. Thanks Len for your rice, it made the meagre meal I brought a feast. Soon though, it was time for the dessert potluck. I had hauled up a container of apple crisp, mother made deliciousness that came at the price of- oh no- chores! Natalie had brought a bunch of cinnamon buns, there were small donuts, broken up bran muffins and best of all, the birthday boy brought up a pot of graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate, a mix that made you beg for smore. We lit birthday candles in the cinnamon buns and celebrated by passing around the delicious deserts and booze around in circles. It wasn’t long before a few had had their fill but some of the rest of us kept going till we were bloated.

After, the 4 of us pilled into our circus tent and soon fell asleep. Instead of counting sheep, I played mental tetris trying to imagine how Nick had managed to pack so much into his 30L pack on a 3 day trip. It was a nice peaceful sleep full of comfort, but it didn’t last.

2am I wake to feel a few drops of cold water rain down on my face. I open my eyes and it’s pitch black, I try to sit up but immediately hit a solid block of wet tent fabric soaking my face in condensed drops. Heavy warm snow which had fallen during the night had slid down and sagged on the edges until the weight had caused the tent fabric to dip precariously over our faces. I swore and shone my light around the tent assessing the situation and other quickly woke. Nick immediately noticed his supporting ski poles bent so far you’d think they would have snapped. Breanne in an instant went from clown in a circus tent to hero in down booties with an imaginary cape as she clambered out and dealt with the situation while we got to stay in our sleeping bags. By some unfortunate tragedy, the snow wall surrounding the tent had a hole near my back exposing me to wet air and drifting snow. I will surrender manliness and unabashedly claim it was cold and my thoughts were of snuggling between Laura and Christian in the warm hut.

The next morning we watched the hut empty as the other group made their way out. They had skied their fill, witnessed the Snowspider and experienced their adventure. We were not so accomplished and stayed for another night.

Before getting to experience a warm night in the hut we went out to search for this elusive Snowspider. We crawled onto it’s flanks and played in it’s tangled web of snow. Snow tests and ski cuts had revealed the top layer of new snow to be highly unstable but not dangerous in the right terrain. We rode the silky curtains careful not to become ensnared and consumed by the Spider and her web.

 

Not all can go perfectly. After exploring new terrain into even better and better snow, on the last run of the day, Christian got tangled in the web, Nick and I rescued him quickly before the Snowspider could consume him but in the tumble, he had twisted his ankle. We carefully worked our way back to the hut where we treated it with ice and pills.

That night we enjoyed more of Nick’s delicious desert, somehow he had packed enough for a pot full on the second night. Suddenly the game of Tetris I was playing became even more difficult… The fire roared and we drifted into a deep sleep with powder grins in our faces.

We set off early to make sure Christian could take his time hobbling out but to everyone’s surprise we were moving out faster than we’d gone in. For someone with a sprained ankle, Christian moved fast. Maybe a fight or flight response but we were definitely flying. A big thanks to Nick who carried a lot of his weight to help things along. We ate lunch below Keith’s Hut where Natalie finished off the last of her apples and everyone shared some of their last treats. Tracks littered everywhere showed evidence of the classic Cerise Creek ski faff.

By the time we made it to the car the sun shone brightly and it was hard to leave when things looked so nice out. But so it is that our weekend ends with the engine of Nick’s Tele-Transporter roaring, shifting gears and rumbling its way home.