September Powder Day

It was a crisp 4:30 am on September 24th, and two first-years set out with hope in their hearts to ski a glacier on Rainbow Mountain. I was new to the VOC, and when I saw a trip titled “September Skiing [ADVANCED]” on the trip agenda I decided that would be the perfect VOC trip to start out with. As it turned out, I was the only one to sign up for the trip so it was just me and Liam. We arrived at Rainbow Mountain around 7am and found to our dismay the lower gate was closed, adding another ~1.5 km each way to our trip. Nevertheless we put our skis on our back and started off on our journey.

Preparing for the day ahead

As the sun fully emerged we were greeted with a gorgeous day. I being from Washington DC, and Liam from Colorado, neither of us had ever been in the BC mountains before and we spent a lot of time in amazement over the scenery we encountered. We made it to the lake around 9:45 and decided to stop there for a bite to eat. I was feeling pretty good about myself. Liam is an ultramarathon runner and I am not, however we had made good pace up to the lake and I was hoping that I would be able to maintain a strict policy of not slowing Liam down too much. This would end up being wishful thinking later in the trip.

Liam at the lake

After eating a delectable turkey sandwich we shouldered our packs and set off around the edge of the lake and towards the foot of the steep boulder field. It took us about an hour and a half to make it to a subpeak of Rainbow; this was mostly due to me slowing us down, but we got there in the end. From there we spotted the perfect glacier for us to ski, and after a brief rest made our way over to it.

Up the boulder field

The glacier in question

Once on the glacier we got our boots on and headed up for our first run! Liam got first tracks in about 11 cm of fresh September powder! The quality of the skiing was way better than I was expecting and we did three runs before noticing that it was 2:30 and really time to start heading back.

Liam hiking up for first tracks!

Everything the light touches is my kingdom

As we headed down, fueled by stoke and the pack of gummy worms that Liam wisely decided to bring along, I was feeling great about the way down. How hard could it be? We flew down towards the lake and met two German backpackers staying at the Whistler Hostel—safe to say they were pretty confused on why two teenagers were walking around with skis on their backs in late September. After a brief rest and chat we once again started down the trail. I was determined to make it back to the car without stopping for a rest and I was still feeling good. That good feeling lasted about one hour and I started to feel the pain of carrying around heavy freeride resort skis on my pack for 10 hours.
The last two hours back to the car were some of the worst I have ever experienced outdoors—I have never been in so much pain hiking or skiing. My shoulders were on fire and each step became a herculean effort. Eventually I decided enough was enough and my dream of making it down without stopping was shattered. I needed to take a break and take my pack off. At this point we were about half an hour from the car and it was getting dark, after the final break we made the push to the car and arrived around 7pm. Almost exactly 12 hours since starting out. I do not think I have ever been happier to see a Prius before in my life. At the end of the day we had done 26km and 1650m of vert, thanks to Liam for organizing this trip and sorry that it took me four months to write this trip report!

Ice cave!