Trip date: November 24th, 2024
Condolences to Ross who dropped his phone into the parking lot outhouse. The sound of the splash will forever live in our hearts. May he get pants with more secure pockets.
This is a trip report for a beginner-friendly backcountry ski trip to Red Heather on Sunday, November 24th. The trip was a lot larger than anticipated, with about 40 people attending, but there was a good mix of experience levels and there were experts who could help lead the trip. Given the lax nature of the terrain and various descent options, it was easy to accommodate the larger group and higher proportion of beginners. The weather was just below freezing leading to good snow conditions and the sparse clouds led to good views. At the peak, it was determined that there was 30cm of powder before reaching an ice crust layer. Below, there was 40 cm of monotonous snow before another ice crust layer.
Trip members: Lucas Braun, Sam Perry, Astrid Molin, Sean Dempsey, Paxton Lin, Sonali Das, Kath McLaren, Shravan Kumar, Bas van der Meer, daniel jacinto, Chloe Garzon, Justin Ling, Alexander Hudyma Yu, Lily McElman, Luke Mantle, Lizzie Murashko, Haley Foladare, Tristan Russell, Lucas Green, Connor Jakes, Trevi Noel, Joseph Meyer, Ayano Miyamoto, Jacob Grossbard, Miranda Clark, Aaron Lee, Liam Khor-Brogan, Jay Jurado Belamide, Farah Alkhatib, Sara Bellman, Elias Bowman, Zachary Wirth, Emi Ikemura, Frederik Skamris Holm, Brian Cherry, John Sherk, Cassandra Elphinstone, Tom Curran, Jeff Mottershead, Joanna Gower
Photos by: (1) Zachary Wirth (2) Paxton Lin
Cars began arriving at the trailhead at about 8:10 am, and those who drove Evos had to park at the lower gravel lot. The rest of the cars put on chains and drove up, arriving at the upper parking at about 8:20 am. After shuttling the Evo people and organizing everyone at the trailhead, we began moving at about 9:10 am. We were fortunate that the snowline was at the upper parking and bootpacking was not necessary.
Photos by: (1) Paxton Lin (2) Lucas Bruan (3) Paxton Lin
By 10:50 am, the first few groups started arriving at the hut. Shout out to Lucas Green for using spruce branches as ski skins. People snacked and waited until about 11:20 am when everyone else arrived. Some groups took the summer trail and others took the winter trial up but we all found each other at the hut. Some birds came around and stole our food, swooping at our sandwiches and trail mix! Quite savage and fearless creatures. We got moving by 11:30 am and we did our beacon test and began to ascend in 2 different groups.
Photos by: (1) Paxton Lin (2) Zachary Wirth
By 12:40 pm, groups began to summit and take off their skins. Some of the more confident skiers went off the steep slope at the peak, while other skiers went around the back of the beak and down the bowl. By 1:10pm, most people had descended their first run and were putting their skins back on to do another round. The powder was about 30 cm and was insanely good for skiing. There was high traffic and most of the lines were tracked out. The high number of other people also led to confusion about who was in the VOC or not during the trip.
Photos by: (1) Luke Mantle (2) Lucas Bruan (3) Paxton Lin
Some of the faster and more experienced people did 3 laps, while most of the group did 2 laps at the bowl and some only did 1 lap. We all ended up skiing back to the hut just past 3pm. There was some technical issues with someone’s bindings not clipping in, and they were left with one telemark ski and one alpine ski. They ended up trading with a more experienced skier who could handle the difficulty and we all managed to ski down to the parking lot by about 4:30 pm. Most opted to ski down the winter route as it was most scenic while others took the summer route back down. After shuttling Evo people to their cars and taking off snow chains, the last car was off the mountain before 5pm! One car group did decide to stay until past dark and left on their own.
The trip was fun for all levels and many beginners got to try out ski-touring for the first time. It was encouraged that beginners who enjoyed the trip to try to earn their AST 1.
The November Debacle always manages to live up to its name, whether it’s at Brew or elsewhere. We salute you Ross!
Great TR Paxton
Thank you sir!
Lucas forgot his skins, and Ross did his part by dropping his phone in the loo, but the third aspect of debacle that got missed is that one of the VOC cars opened the roof box and the lift gate at the same time,to whether the roof box or the back window was mightier. Roof box FTW. That was one of two VOC vehicles with a smashed and taped-up rear window, at the parking lot, although the other happened well before the trip.
Thanks for doing the trip report.