This was my first VOC trip, and I was excited to start the summer with a little overnight trip. My car group met up behind Comor Sports on 4th and was the first to the Seymour Mountain overnight parking lot. The rest of our group arrived soon, after, over the phone, we accidentally directed one of our cars down the mountain in their search of the parking lot when in fact they had been just below us. We set off towards the first peak along one of the downhill ski runs. Alternating cool breezes and warm breezes greeted us as we passed over patches of snow that gradually joined up as we went. Partway up, we left the run and continued through the trees. Along the way, I made acquaintance with everyone else and was interested to learn that many of the group weren’t from UBC. With not long to go, we decided to take what we presumed was a summer trail. In the snow, it was more steep and slippery than ideal but we made it up without any problems.
Slippery shortcut success, subsequently seeing splendid scenery
Having arrived at first peak, we sat down to have our dinner—mostly bars and sandwiches—although Addie had brought a stove for a nice warm soup, while Teagan had an excessive number of bananas.
Dinner on First Peak
Patrick showed us his handstand skills.
Patrick doing a handstand
We watched the sunset and enjoyed the 360-degree view of Greater Vancouver, Indian Arm, and many of the mountains north of us, including Mamquam, from a trip to which some of our party had recently returned.
360-degree view from First Peak. People standing nearby didn’t fare well in the panorama photo-splicing
After relaxing for some time, we found a reasonably flat bit of snow, just south of the peak, on which to set up our tents. A few of us used my avalanche shovel for the mundane but slightly satisfying task of leveling out a square of snow ready for our tents. Given the great weather, we didn’t bother with fly sheets; Martin didn’t bother with a tent at all.
Our tents
We slept well until about 2 a.m., after which we were tormented by an intermittent wind that was the right strength to shake one’s tent just enough to make one sleep poorly but not strong enough to make one do something about it. At around 5:15 a.m., I sat up and watched the sun rise over the mountains to the east, marking the end of the shortest night of the year. By 6:00 a.m., we were packed up and ready to go. We set off down the proper winter route, enjoying the occasional opportunity to slide down steeper bits, each one of us carving a more defined chute for the next. We arrived at the overnight parking lot by 7:20 a.m. and went our separate ways, some finding themselves in the strange situation of returning from a hike to start a full day’s work.
Nice trip report, Luke!