Skiing and Sickness in Princess Louisa Inlet

March 21st-28th, 2022

Participants: Jessica Brown, YYen Gallup, Simeon Faehndrich, Ben Van Raalte, and Hannah Bates

“We were somewhere around Barstow Egmont on the edge of the desert ocean when the drugs sickness began to take hold.” - from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (slightly edited)

Ever since our friends YYen and Ben acquired a sailboat, we dreamed of doing a sailing-accessed skiing trip up one of the inlets on the south coast. Despite the fact that three of the five of us were neither working nor studying at the time (see: funemployed), we barely managed to fit this trip in before Jessica had to return to work in the interior. Thus, we weren’t able to go to a further inlet, wait for a nicer weather window, or spend more time in the area; it was now or never! Some of us were originally planning on doing a traverse over Mt John Clarke/Sun peak and then get picked up in Princess Louisa inlet, but it seemed that the Elaho/Sims main FSRs were not driveable past a certain point (ice ruts?) and we didn’t feel like hiking the extra 40km of logging road. The new plan was for everybody to sail up Princess Louisa inlet, hike up to Loquilts Lake, ski for a couple days, and then head back in time for somebody’s important in-person meeting on the 29th.

On March 21st, Jess, YYen, and Ben left Kits beach and began sailing/motoring up the sunshine coast. Simeon and I drove up and met them in Egmont on the morning of the 23rd, as there’s really only room for three people to sleep on the boat, and that’s the last point you can hop on. The only thing you need to know about those first two nights on the boat is that the three of them ate a heck ton of raw oysters.

 

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A fateful photo. PC: Ben

 

With the whole crew together, we began motoring up Jervis inlet. What had been consistent rain for the previous few days began to transition into a rather sunny day, and the winds allowed for quite a bit of sailing in the inlet. Unfortunately, as the weather improved, Ben and Jess began feeling increasingly worse. It became apparent that this wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill sea sickness.

 

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Jess inspecting the ocean very closely. PC: Hannah

 

The winds calmed down near the end of Jervis inlet, and we waited outside the Malibu rapids until the tides were favourable to enter Princess Louisa inlet.

 

YYen and I looking down to the end of Jervis inlet (Mt Alfred far left). PC: Simeon

YYen and I looking down to the end of Jervis inlet (Mt Alfred far left). PC: Simeon

 

We motored down Princess Louisa inlet, gazing at the plethora of waterfalls, and arrived at the dock as the sun began to leave the area.

 

Simeon demonstrating the flying camel at the dock at the end of Princess Louisa inlet. PC: Hannah

Simeon demonstrating the flying camel. PC: Hannah

 

Ben and Jess were quick to get into their sleeping bags and begin their recovery process from this mysterious illness. At this point, we figured Jess and Ben must have had a shellfish allergy while YYen did not. YYen, Simeon, and I explored the site a bit, ate dinner, and started coming up with backup plans if Ben and Jess did not improve. We set up a tent on the dock that night and were only briefly awoken by some seals jumping on and off of it in the wee hours.

The next morning was very slow, with everyone sleeping in the same amount I usually do (which is really saying something). Ben was feeling quite a bit better, but Jess was still struggling to keep much food down. YYen decided to stay with Jess at the boat that day while Ben, Simeon and I hiked up, and then the two of them would hopefully join the following day. There was much faff including the splitting of food, but with the nice weather and a fairly straightforward objective for the day (getting to the lake) we felt no rush. With a crisp 2:15pm departure, we started our trek up to Loquilts Lake.

 

Simeon, Ben and I ready to go shred some gnar. PC: YYen

Simeon, Ben and I ready to go shred some gnar. PC: YYen

 

Thankfully, there was a (unmaintained) trail most of the way, so bushwhacking was kept at a minimum. Still a very fun trail to practice your A-frame Awareness and root-scrambling skills. And through an absolutely gorgeous forest!

 

The ascent begins! Unfortunately no pow in sight. PC: Ben

The ascent begins! Unfortunately no pow in sight. PC: Ben

Ben doing some root scrambling. PC: Hannah

Ben doing some root scrambling. PC: Hannah

Simeon at one of many log cruxes. PC: Hannah

Simeon at one of many log cruxes. PC: Hannah

Waterfall! PC: Ben

Waterfall! PC: Ben

We eventually hit skinnable snow around 900m and stashed our hiking boots in a garbage bag under a tree. We continued on through the steep forest, then past a larger creek and boulder field, and started making our way up an open gully as the light began to fade.

 

Is that the ocean down there? PC: Ben

Is that the ocean down there? PC: Ben

 

We had dinner around 8pm at the top of the gully, and then gained the last couple hundred meters of vert to Loquilts Lake. We ended up coming out a bit higher than the lake, so we stripped skins at 9pm to get a sick 50m run of icy crust down to where we wanted to basecamp.

The next morning was still a bit clear!

 

Our camp at Loquilts Lake (1350m); one of the few times we saw Sun Peak in the sun. PC: Ben

Our camp at Loquilts Lake (1350m); one of the few times we saw Sun Peak in the sun. PC: Ben

 

We decided to go for a mellow tour up the ridge south of Sun peak, making full use of our ski crampons on the stiff crust. The visibility quickly deteriorated, and we ended up turning around after about 200m of vert for another sweet lap of crust, this time with less visibility than at night!

 

Ben. PC: Hannah

Ben. PC: Hannah

 

Back at camp, we had a nice lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon in our sleeping bags, taking turns reading the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Rolling Stone article out loud, which Simeon had downloaded ahead of time. Somewhere during this time, Simeon began to feel a bit “car sick” so we decided to start napping. Around 6pm, we heard a voice outside of our tent and were delighted to see that YYen and Jess had made it up!

We spent the rest of the evening building a quaint kitchen and eating, except for Simeon, whose nausea had gotten much worse.

 

Proud of my tarp setup. PC: Ben

Proud of my tarp setup. PC: Ben

 

Wet snow fell all night long, which was somewhat insulating for Ben and I who were on the outside edges of the 3-person summer tent and thus were both supporting an extra blanket of snow in the morning. Simeon’s condition had not improved, and he opted to stay at camp that day and rest up for the hike out the following day. Between the slidy new layer on top of the crust and the poor visibility, the rest of us did not feel comfortable going very far on this day either.

 

Jess looking west across the valley. PC: Hannah

Jess looking west across the valley. PC: Hannah

 

We went up the ridge north of our camp, aiming for some smaller lakes up there, but ended up turning around pretty quickly. Skiing was semi-decent wherever it was mellow enough for the new layer to stick around.

 

YYen heading down as the visibility gets worse. PC: Hannah

YYen heading down as the visibility gets worse. PC: Hannah

Waddling back to camp. PC: Hannah

Waddling back to camp. PC: Hannah

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to build an igloo and eating the rest of our snacks. There was a long debate as to whether 3:30pm was too early to make dinner or not, but the final decision was that we’d make half of it now (only half of the pasta could fit in the pot at once anyways), the second half in an hour, go to bed super early, and get up early to leave and get back to the boat with the wood stove. Simeon managed to make it out of the tent and eat a small bowl of dinner that night, the first food he’d eaten since lunch the previous day. After dinner, Ben, Simeon and I finished reading the rest of the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas article (can’t wait to watch the movie), went through all of the photos on my camera (starting from 2017 on that SD card), and waited for sleep to hit us.

That night and the next morning it was raining at our camp. We packed up and skied down to our boot stash, our layers acting more like neoprene at this point, and then continued skiing until the moss and rocks significantly outnumbered the snow patches.

 

The end of the skiing. PC: Hannah

The end of the skiing. PC: Hannah

 

The way down felt a lot faster, perhaps because we were slipping a lot more than on the way up.

 

Ben on the fun fixed-line section. PC: Hannah

Ben on the fun fixed-line section. PC: Hannah

Almost at the ocean again! PC: Ben

Almost at the ocean again! PC: Ben

 

I’m not sure what time it was when we made it back to the boat, but we knew that it was probably too early to start cooking dinner again. Thankfully, the boat had a large variety of snacks on board, so we could feast until it was an appropriate time for dinner. We were very thankful for the wood stove that Ben and YYen had installed on the boat.

 

Back on the toasty boat! PC: Simeon

Back on the toasty boat! PC: Simeon

 

Finally, everyone was feeling back to normal, just in time for the end of the trip. We finished off the night by roasting marshmallows in the wood stove.

The next morning was mostly clear and very calm – it seems bad weather only follows you when you’re skiing.

 

Morning mist in Princess Louisa inlet. PC: Ben

Morning mist in Princess Louisa inlet. PC: Ben

 

We made it back to Egmont that afternoon, where Jess, Simeon, and I took the car and drove most of the gear back to Vancouver. YYen and Ben stayed on the boat and sailed the rest of the day and through some of the night, actually making it back to Vancouver late that night.

 

YYen sailing at sunset. PC: Ben

YYen sailing at sunset. PC: Ben

 

When we got back into service, we saw a few headlines about a norovirus outbreak in BC oysters, and the symptoms matched up with Jess and Ben’s. Apparently it’s also contagious, so that could have been what made Simeon feel ill. For whatever reason, YYen remained unscathed after having eaten “way more oysters” than the other two.

I suppose the moral of the story is that trips can still go ahead as long as not everyone gets sick at the same time? Just don’t eat raw oysters, kids. Also, if you want to buy a sailboat for cheap, please contact Ben or YYen.

 

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4 Responses to Skiing and Sickness in Princess Louisa Inlet

  1. Roland Burton says:

    Wow, some awfully good trip reports lately!

  2. Alberto Contreras Sanz says:

    Thanks for the amazing TR! Funny – we were debating our options for a similar such trip this spring and also decided on doing your original traverse from the mainland later this May. Glad to see the trail is good shape down to the ocean :)

  3. Declan Taylor says:

    Fantastic TR! Great idea for a unique adventure, glad everyone is healthy at the end of all that!

  4. Alex Wharton says:

    Wow! Sounds super, super fun! Princess Louisa Inlet is so beautiful!

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