I woke up on Saturday morning around 4:00am in a daze of nerves but mostly excitement about going on my first real VOC trip. Else picked me up and soon we were on the Sea to Sky highway headed to Pemberton. We started hiking around 9:30 under a lovely clear sky, although to me it felt very cold. As we walked up the logging road we found the first of many fallen trees that we would have to either go around or crawl under, and soon I realized that putting on all those layers hadn’t been a good idea. Around us the trees were bright yellow, which is now my favourite fall colour.
By Matt Hall
We managed to get up the road quickly, and by the time we stopped for lunch after the meadow, I was thinking “wow, this is pretty easy” but oh how wrong I was. From there, the trail only got steeper and more complicated and eventually, covered in snow. At one point, we decided it would be a pretty good idea to put on our snowshoes. I think it can be pretty easy to constantly look down at your feet and concentrate on what you’re doing, but one of the coolest feelings is looking up and realizing how high up the mountain you are. Also, this was my first time seeing so much snow in years, so I was pretty excited about that, even if my feet were soaked (now I know I need to get some gaiters). When we got to the lake a couple of brave souls broke through the ice and took a short swim, while the rest of us sat by the edge of the lake and tried to warm up under the sun.
By Marie H Strand
In the evening, we had a very inventive dinner that included pasta with peas and powdered mashed potatoes with cheese, which I have to say were very good. We sang a few songs as Tom and Cole played the guitar, with my personal favorite being the lumberjack song. In the morning, a few of us snowshoed up the ridge to get some cool views of the lake and the surrounding peaks. Given that this was my first time snowshoeing I found it pretty challenging and I kept sinking into the snow, but the views were amazing and definitely worth it.
By Else Bosman
By Leon Chen
We went back to the hut and started walking back after that, making our way swiftly through the trees and catching the sunshine as we walked across the meadow. The weather was beautiful the entire weekend. As we walked down I settled into a rhythm and before I knew it the mountains were behind us and we were already at the cars.
This was one of my first VOC trips, but I’m already so excited to do it again. It’s a pretty big learning curve doing a trip like this after having very little experience in the outdoors but I do feel slightly better prepared for the next one. Everyone on the trip was awesome and helpful and I’m so happy that I get to live in BC and have weekends like this with the club.