The plan was to cross the Lions Gate Bridge at 8 am. The rain was very heavy and people were not very motivated about the idea to walk in this rain. But when we met all in Squamish to drink a very Canadian coffee, the motivation came back. After a one-hour drive from Squamish and some issues and frightening experiences with the car, we arrived at the destination.
Some people decided to leave first and go faster, I think they went because it was cold and they wanted the glory doing the all path in snow to the hut. For the next group it was much easier because we didn’t have to make the trail. Until Brew Lake, the second part of the group stayed mostly together and took a little rest just before the lake. From here there was much more snow and it began to have more fog too, but not too bad. It was very nice to walk in this snow at 1400m begin of November! Ok, I know for you all, it’s perhaps very common, but I always have to wait until the end of December to have snow at this altitude.
When we arrived at the hut, the wood stove was already burning. It was nice to come inside and get warm . After eating and warming up, some of us went outside to have a snow ball fight. Nicole, Ryan, Andrea, Mirja, Clemens, Kasia and Brody were setting up the tents and building a snow wall to block the wind. We stayed outside for a long time. Ben, Vincent, Hunter and I tried to build a toboggan run and after some effort it worked pretty well. Ben found some “Crazy carpets ” and a small sledge. For your information, they are in the wood hut 
In the hut the the party was going very well; Noriko was playing the violin, Brody the accordion and Clemens the guitar. They were accompanied by a lot of us trying to sing. Before and during the singing, people cooked , and a lot of people brought the small oven and some wine and beer. Some people shared. It was a very nice atmosphere. After all this emotion we went outside again to try the toboggan. It froze a little bit, so it was much faster and we tried in the dark. We had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and the stars. A couple of us had the chance to see shooting stars! And later in the evening the sky was amazing!! All the clouds went away.
On the VOC wiki it is written that 19 people can sleep in the hut, with 3 persons on the bench. I have to mention that it possible to sleep more people! Under the bench it’s dry too, so you can easily sleep under it. The only thingis that you have the “opportunity” to wake up your neighbour above you ;-). And if you really want you can sleep on the table but this may need some organization before everyone goes to bed.
The next morning, some people who were already up at 7-7:30, have the opportunity to see the sun rise. It was beautiful, Rosa-red-orange mountains with snow everywhere! After a good breakfast some people went skiing while others tried to climb Mount Brew , but the fog was coming again so we changed our mind and did some headstands. Exactly the same thing as going to the summit :-). The weather changed again and we had a beautiful end of the morning with sun, snow and mountains. We chilled out around the hut and did some sliding and skiing, packed up, and headed back down the trail to the cars.
A very nice weekend with very interesting people! It was a very nice first trip with the VOC and I am happy I joined.
Solange
