Skinning and Skiing the Slopes like Major (beginner) Slayers

Co-Leaders: Maiya Callisterstar, Eric Daiglestar

Participants: Diego Fernandez, Joseph Chiao, Elizabeth Chu, Felix Dorn, Chloe Garzon, Duncan MacIntyre, Josh Lafondsta

An early morning pick up had us crossing the Lion’s Gate Bridge at 7:30am. Although sleepy, I didn’t mind the beautiful sunrise views on the drive to Squamish and up the forest service road to Red Heather. The ride became even more interesting when Duncan told us about the history of the Guinness family in the area.

Duncan had driven up to Red Heather the previous weekend for another trip and noticed the forest service road conditions were incredibly different. There was no snow visible from the chain up area and many vehicles passed us without chains so we decided to head up without them too, when we started to see bits of snow on the roadside we stopped to put them on. I asked Duncan if he could teach me how to put chains on, he gave his best attempt through demonstrating. We continued up to the upper parking lot and were met with no snow on the ground. The other car had headed up without chains too and made it up without trouble. We ran into the park rangers here who warned us that it was only okay to drive up without chains if they had said so in the chain up area beforehand.

View of the trailhead from the lot.

Because there was no snow we started off carrying our skis. Maiya helped me to make an a-frame with them around my pack, which proved to be much less tiring than hauling them over my shoulder. We did a quick beacon check before heading up the trail. Chloe discovered her beacon had no batteries, luckily Duncan had extra. When we reached snow we took our skis off our packs, set them into walk mode and continued skinning up the trail. We got about 100m and turned the corner to reveal more rocks! We took our skis off and carried them to where the snow started next. The snow was pretty patchy forcing us to skin up some parts in a single file line to avoid wet and rocky patches. The single file line, the clanking of the ski frames, squeaking from Duncan’s tele skis, and uphill battle made conversation difficult, but we persevered and got to know one another pretty quickly.

Better conditions for skinning up.

View from the warming shelter (ft. the rangers skis)

After skinning up for a bit, we stopped to fuel up and rehydrate in a sunny patch on the trail. We admired the mountain peaks through breaks in the treeline, Joseph and Felix took their fancy cameras out for pictures. We also broke out sunscreen and glasses. Josh made sure to let us know that the sun is scared of sunglasses and would hide since we took them out. We were pretty close to the hut and debated taking a shortcut through the trees or continuing up the road. We watched a couple struggle to head up through the trees on skis and decided to take the flatter path up to the warming shelter. This was a good choice – turns out it was also the scenic route, many more spectacular mountains were revealed. We reached the hut and ate lunch. Chloe and I sang some ‘winter jingles’. The clouds came out like Josh predicted, this brought a new chill so we packed up our lunches and headed past the hut to Round Mountain, the caroling continued. As we reached the ridge line we decided to try and make a VOC themed jingle. Something like

‘I am a tree

I love to ski

Yay VOC’

I don’t quite remember. Josh kept his glasses on to stick out the clouds, this trick works – the sun reemerged! We skied around a bit on the ridge line and decided to try and find the summit after Eric said Round Mountain was more like a ‘bump’ than a mountain. We ran into the rangers again, they looked like they were carrying around large chopped carrots (or maybe I was just hungry). They let us know that they were setting up the path of least avalanche exposure to Elfin lakes. Joseph inquired about becoming a ranger. We learned that you need a degree, firearm permit, and some other trainings before becoming a ranger. Perhaps a future goal…

Skinning along the ridgeline.

Our mighty leader Maiya taking a mid trip nap somewhere on the ridgeline. Leading is hard work!

We continued towards the summit, facing some steeper terrain and tighter turns. Maiya noticed Joseph herringboning up the steeper bits and reminded him that it’s easier to keep skis parallel and in contact with the snow while skinning uphill. It also keeps the routes clean for everyone following. We turned the corner and were exposed to even steeper uphill, Chloe and I decided that we were not going to head further up into steeper terrain, concerned with whether we would be able to get down comfortably. Maiya explored a bit further and called it off when she noticed others carrying their skis up the previous steep bit. Having reached our peak elevation our group switched our skis and boots into downhill mode. Diego and I shared our stoke for the downhill, this stoke peppered with slight concern since the both of us had not been on skis for about a decade. Our group admired the view of Mt. Garibaldi while Eric and Maiya checked maps for the most convenient way down.

Duncan (on the left) doing extra switchbacks on the teles, Joseph (in the center) herringboning, and Eric (on the right) on the original track.

Maiya, Josh, and Felix led with their graceful downhill skills, even catching some air! I was both impressed and inspired. For me, getting into the groove of the downhill teetered between stepping out of my comfort zone and becoming overconfident in my skills. Taking a deep breath, scooching downhill, catching some speed… ‘hey this is nice’… suddenly too much speed, and then I was on my butt. Thankfully the soft powder caught my falls and Eric was following to help pluck all the beginners and tele skier up [major shoutout to Duncan for operating tele skis with basically no instruction]. With some tips and optimistic cheers from the more experienced I began to spend more time upright on the mountain – taking minimal to no falls by the time we returned to the warming shelter. There was much debate about skiing vs. snowboarding on the way down which I was happy to observe as an outsider. At the moment I was satisfied with my skis.

Back at the warming shelter, we snacked and got attacked by birds. Stupid birds. Then we skied down the trail, now icy. This posed a new challenge: it was much speedier and solid compared to the soft and slower pow. The rocky and wet obstacles did not make it easier either. But we made do and set our own paces based on our comfort level. Eventually we reached the end of the snow and took off our skis to carry them back down to the lot. While constructing our ski a-frames we crossed paths with the rangers again and asked them if they had passed the rest of our group. They told us that Diego, Felix, and Eric were about 300m behind. We thanked them for being so helpful and waited for the rest of our group. We walked our skis down and returned to the lot just as it was beginning to get dark – perfect timing. We packed up all our gear and had a final snack circle. Maiya and Eric earned the title of co-MVPs of the trip for their patience with beginner backcountry skiers and awesome job as route setter and sweep. I also want to give a huge shout out to the rest of us, to Chloe for her constant stoke and optimism, to Felix and Josh for their impressive downhill skills and entertaining international stories, to Duncan for his perseverance with tele skis, and to Diego, Joseph and I for trying something new and unfamiliar(ish).

Pretty clouds on the way back down.

I went home with a smile on my face and a good car nap. I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to get back on skis for the first time in many years with such patient and helpful people.

Thanks for a wonderful trip,

Elizabeth : )