Currie for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Marko:

Meep Meep Meep. My alarm startles me awake. “It’s too early to be awake”, I think to myself, taking solace knowing that I have it easy. At least I am not Mona Yu, driving all the way from Surrey to pick me up at my home in Burnaby. I can’t even imagine what ungodly time she had to wake up.

“4 o’clock sharp”, Mona’s words echo in my head. She’s probably driving by now. What a trooper.

Mona:

I am drifting in and out of consciousness, as my room starts to get brighter. I will myself to fall back asleep, trying to make the most of the warm comfort of my bed knowing that my alarm must be about to ring. 20 minutes passes, or what feels like a long time. A sliver of doubt starts creeping into my mind. I double checked my alarm the night before, didn’t I? Another 20 minutes passes. The nagging feeling wins, and I check the time.

3:42am.

Shit. It’s half an hour past the time my alarm should have rang. Groggily, I check the clock app. I had accidentally set it for 5:10am, not 3:10am. In my fog of weariness the night before, I must have set the wrong time, having never woken up so early for a hike. I hastily throw everything in my pack and jump in the car, praying that I don’t forget anything. Google maps says it takes 30 minutes to get to Marko Smitran’s house. I make it in 20.

Marko: 

I see out of my window our ride for the day, the beautiful Jenny. Jenny is Mona’s 2011 Mazda 3 hatchback. Jenny has had a rough couple of weeks. You see Jenny – or should I say Mona, loves flying down logging roads. This has left her bruised and battered and falling apart slightly. Despite all of this, I had confidence that we would make it to the trailhead no problem. I shove all my gear into the back and step into the car. Mona peels off, not wanting to waste another second.

The car is bumpin’. Lil Wayne blares out from Jenny’s speakers. We jam out as the bass reverberates the car.

Shhhkkkktt shhhkkttt. 

“Is that part of the song?” I ask.

“Is what a part of the song?” Mona replies, turning down the volume.

Shhhkkkktt shhhkkttt. 

She pauses, “I think that’s Jenny…”

We pull over on the side of the highway in order to check for the source of the mysterious noise. In all of her excitement to go on a drive, it seems Jenny got a little loose. Her plastic skid plate protecting her vital parts had come halfway undone, and was dragging on the asphalt. We haphazardly tried to fasten it back on, but to no avail.

“Jenny is a strong girl, she will make it,”  Mona validates with forced enthusiasm. There is really no other choice at this point.

We fly past Squamish and then past Whistler, making stellar time. At the Pemberton racetrack, we turn off the road and turn up the music in order to mask Jenny’s cries for help. We park just past the bridge at the 2WD parking and put on our boots. It is 6:30am. My stoke is unparalleled as we hit the trail.

Mona:

Two minutes into our hike, we cross a small stream. I slip off a rock and dunk my whole foot into the water. Squelch, squelch, squelch, goes my boot as I continue slogging up the logging road. Off to a great start, I think to myself.

When Marko had first suggested Mt Currie (half as a joke I think?), I agreed immediately. I wanted to push my limits, and Mt Currie seemed like the perfect step past my comfort zone. Only a year ago, I had done my first hike with over 1000 m of elevation gain. Since then, my biggest day hike was Mt. Brunswick with around 1600m. Mt Currie was around 2300m. Clearly, the perfect next step. My only doubt was that the latest all trails review had mentioned “10 big black bastards swarming you at all times”. I told Marko to bring me a bug net.

Marko:

If I were completely honest, I wasn’t confident that we would make it to the summit. Mona had mentioned offhandedly that her mom had called her “sickly and pale” the day before. I didn’t want to say anything, but she did look slightly paler than usual.

“How’s your energy level Mona?” I inquire, an hour into our ascent.

“Pretty good, pretty good”, she replies.

Mona:

I am not doing good. I feel slightly dizzy and faint. Partially from the trail of course, but the day before I had also started feeling a little si**. (If you don’t say the word, then it can’t be true right?)

I had already needed to bail on my original weekend plans, and I hadn’t wanted to cancel on plans again. So of course, I keep all this from Marko in case he wants to turn around early. Thankfully, our game of Two Truths and One Lie keeps my mind off of the slog through the forest. I maintain a strong lead – in the game.

Marko:

Mona thinks that she is going to win this game but she is not. I’d be damned if I would ever let her beat me. It is not easy though for some reason Mona is able to guess the most obscure facts about me. I doubt there is any skill involved, just pure blind luck. The score flip flops between us finally settling at 19-15 as we enter the treeline.

The score is in Mona’s favour. I know that deep down I am the true winner here. She just got lucky this time. Next time will be a completely different story, and I WILL come out victorious.

Mona:

Some other highlights from the way up:

• a cool looking tree,
• a geocache,
• hippie-on-sticks aka anemones

Marko:

At 10:30am, we break into the alpine. We take a short break right by ‘camp 3’ – the end of the official trail. With just over 500m of elevation gain to go to the summit, I am starting to doubt whether or not we will make it. Mona looks exhausted, but still tries to convince me otherwise.

“I am doing great”, she exhales.

We had a good run at least, I think to myself. We will make it as far as we make, and we will start heading back once the clock strikes 1400 hours – our turnaround time. With the summit looming far in the distance, I already made amends with myself that we would not reach it today.

We fill up our water bottles at a weak stream sprouting from a small snow patch and continue on. The next part of the trail involves skirting around a bump and following the contour lines until we reach the base of the summit. To our dismay, the trail in real life does not follow the contour lines but instead drops downwards, a whole 200m of vertical. We continue through the boulder fields and meadows to the creek, which is where the steep incline that continues to the summit starts.

Mona: 

Fifteen minutes before our established turnaround time, Marko suggests that we should stop at the creek to refill water and reassess our plan. I tell him that he should refill water while I continue on; I plan to make it as far as I can by our turnaround time, so I have the best chance of convincing him that we should continue. Every minute counts, afterall.

I traverse over the boulder field and begin climbing the steeper section. I am actually rather enjoying myself. Apart from the fact that I like scrambling up steep boulder fields, nothing gets me going more than a good challenge. Our turnaround time was decided quite casually, with the main factor we need to take into consideration being how much hiking we want to do in the dark. I know Marko doesn’t think that we can make it to the summit, but I disagree. If we compare our current speed to the remaining elevation and distance, we should make it sometime shortly after 3:00pm, which gives us plenty of time before sunset.

I continue slowly, but steadily, towards the ridge.

 

 

Marko:

As I fill up my water, I contemplate what the best course of action is. I had wanted to stop at the creek because I knew that the closer we got, the harder it would be for me to turn back. On one hand, turning around would be the safe option, giving us more than enough time to get back down. On the other, a summit staring down at us – so close one could almost touch it. Do the risks outweigh the reward? As I catch up to Mona, I make my decision.

Mona:

At 2:00pm, we are now on the ridge.

“What do you think?” I ask Marko. He already knows what I want. To my surprise, he suggests 3:30pm as our new turnaround time. This is more time than I was expecting, and I didn’t really need to do much convincing at all. With a new wind of energy, we continue along the ridge.

Twenty minutes later, we bump into a couple that is descending. They tell us that the true summit is still quite a ways away, traversing across and up another large boulder field. They had decided to turn around after seeing how far it was, estimating that it would take around an hour and a half. My heart sinks a bit. I’m not so confident anymore that we can make it by 3:30pm. I share my thoughts with Marko after the couple leaves, but he doesn’t seem too fazed. Onwards we go.

Marko:

At this point any semblance of turning around has evaporated. With the summit so close, I had no doubt we would make it. Slowly but steadily, we make our way to the col between NW1 and the true summit. Boulder after boulder. Foot in front of foot. Mona looks more tired than ever, and I worry that the way down will take longer than I would like. For now we push on. To the summit!

Mona:

The final few steps to the summit feel like pure bliss as the goal I have been striving towards for the past nine hours comes into realization. I let out a Whoop! and let the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction settle over me.

The views are incredible. I’m slowly learning to recognize certain peaks, and Marko and I point them out together.

Marko reminds me that I promised him I would sing “Wellerman” the sea shanty with him if we reached the summit. I did indeed; I was too out of breath on the trail. Giddy with exhaustion, we sing and dance like sleep deprived hikers with a few screws loose in their brains – not too far from the truth.

As we are performing our rendition of “Wellerman” to the mountains, we realise that there are two hikers approaching the summit below us. We are surprised to see anyone after us, given it was almost 3:30pm. They soon join us at the peak, and we learn that they had started hiking around 10:00am, summiting in just over five hours. I feel inspired; one day, I will be fast like them.

Marko:

We eat our food as we sign the summit logbook. I am glad we pushed on, and made it to the top. I hope I will not regret my decision on the descent, but for now I am happy. Mona seemed to have found some newfound energy, her eyes lighting up more than they have the entire day. As the sun casts its beautiful evening light on us we start descending. Down back the way we came from. Down the neverending boulder fields towards the small stream below.

Mona:

On the way down, the miles fly by. After a brief wildflower photo shoot (Marko insisted) and several marmot sightings, we reach camp 3. We grab a quick bite to eat as the sun lowers in the sky. I struggle to eat my dry sandwich, which feels like sandpaper in my mouth. Marko tells me that his Serbian Mayo would have solved that problem completely – the 11th essential. I make a note for next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marko:

The descent is mentally tiring, however it has not turned into a full on death march. We are still talking and generally having a good time. As we enter the tree line I am certain we will make it down in a couple of hours – potentially even before true nightfall. Satisfied, we continue on.

Mona: 

The last portion drags on forever. Although our spirits aren’t low, our energy levels are definitely depleted. We pass by a group of hikers coming up the trail at this late hour. Apparently, they had bumped into the two fast hikers we had seen at the summit. We make some small chit chat as we step off the trail to let them pass by.

“Well, you might not be as fast as they were, but you definitely look like you’re enjoying yourselves a lot more.”

I think about that statement on the way down.

…..

I give Jenny a long heartfelt hug when we finally reach her at 10:30pm. My knees are still vibrating from the descent. I feel exhausted – but elated. 15 hours, 6 litres of water, 1 gatorade, 2 shits, 25km, and around 2600m of elevation gain later, we have finally finished the hike.

Needless to say, the only appropriate way to end such an epic day is with a McDonald’s run – more specifically with a jr chicken and mc double. We even decide to splurge on some nuggets.

…..

I slept very well that night.