When I moved to Vancouver several years ago, I instantly fell in love with the mountains and decided I needed to experience this thing known as “winter camping”. Did I understand what it entailed? Certainly not. I just wanted to be out in the snow, and camping meant being in the snow longer, which definitely is never a bad thing under any circumstances whatsoever. School got in the way of my mountain scaling plans for quite awhile, but suddenly I was free and it was time to go on my very first trip with the VOC.
With too few drivers for a group of 19, the trip up to Seymour ended up being a slightly chaotic mix of evos, cars and various Seymour shuttles. Some ended up facing significant delay, and so we split up into two groups. A first group met up with trip leader Aaron Lee at 10:00 by the Mystery chair lift, and started hiking up towards Pump peak under clear skies and warm sunny weather, leaving the second group to catch up at Brockton Point.
Most of us were hiking up in snowshoes, which frankly proved to be more work and less grip than just wearing boots on the hard-packed trail. A hop and a skip later, we found ourselves at the South face of Pump Peak, looking for good spots to build snow caves. The original plan had been to build quinzees, but the snow was too hard, so we settled on caves. Here we were, scattered around the hills, poking and prodding at the mountain, and realizing none of us had ever build a snow cave before. We started digging away regardless, ditching our remaining layers, as it turns out digging up the side of a mountain is hard work. Coincidentally, this was also the moment I remembered that I am claustrophobic. Oh well.
The second group caught up to us at around 14:00 and found their own spots to build shelters. By nightfall, everyone had a cozy spot to sleep in. Some built a frozen caterpillar (imagine a caterpillar lying on a leaf exposed to the elements), others made various impressive tarp-based shelters. Two of us shared the “snow palace”, in which I unfortunately made the platform a little bit too tall, such that in order to get into the sleeping area, one had to wiggle up through the entrance like a worm, with no opportunity to turn around.
James’ snow cave
The entrance of the snow palace, size 41 boots for scale of ceiling height
Snow shelter!
After digging our caves, we decided to go “bag the peak” to witness a stunning sunset over the mainland. The ascent was quite icy, which I definitely felt when I slipped a significant portion of the way down. Then it was time for dinner(s), hot chocolate (beers), some good banter, and little tap dances to exorcise the cold seeping through boots and gloves. At 21:00 I decided that it was time to save my toes and seek the comfort of my sleeping bag. There might not have been much vertical space in the snow palace, but it was pleasantly warm(er), and I slept like a baby despite night temperatures reaching -6°C.
The hill post collapse
Sunrise over Seymour
The next morning, more courageous souls went back up to a then even icier peak to watch the sunrise, while some of us decided to witness it from below. After some desperately-needed coffee and breakfast, we tackled the much more involved task of collapsing all of our shelters. The snow palace gave us a little bit of trouble, as we spent quite some time figuring out where exactly the cavity was. It was great fun, though, and when we were done the hillside had suffered a truly devastating blow. We then headed back down in more gorgeous sunny weather, featuring some sendy slushy butt sliding down the trail, making it just in time for the 14:00 shuttle back to Rupert Station. All in all, it was a wonderful first trip with perfect weather and fun times learning some new skills. Thanks, Aaron!