After
an early morning flight, we arrived in Vancouver to the welcome sight
of one of my old school friends. Nicole and her husband Ross had very
kindly offered to put us up and show us around for a few days. They
are outdoors people too, so we were in safe hands.
We
got off to a great start the first evening with a tasty BBQ on the
porch of their house in Kitslano! Then it was an early start the next
day for a snowshoeing adventure. We had hired our gear from MEC - a
huge outdoors store and our idea of shopping heaven. It was our first
outing in snowshoes and although they felt a little strange to walk
in at first, we soon got the hang of it. Snowshoes work by spreading
your weight over a larger area so you don't sink into the snow.
Our
hike was along a popular snowshoe trail to Elfin Lakes hut, which is
in Garabaldi Provincial Park just north of Squamish. The trail is
also popular with back country skiers, in fact Ross decided to make
the trip on skis. You stick special material on the base of the skis
for going uphill, they are called skins and then you take the skins
off to ski downhill. As a result Ross hiked at the same pace uphill
as the rest of us, but he was much quicker downhill!
We
set off up a well trodden track and were soon high enough to glimpse
the surrounding mountains. The clouds were clinging to the tops of
the mountains, but they occassionally parted and gave us a taste of
the stunning scenery. The temperatures were pretty mild (about 0°C),
considering the height we were at and the depth of the snow (up to 5
metres). We gradually peeled the layers off and were soon hiking in
long sleeved t-shirts, however when we stopped for snacks we became
chilly.
We
reached the high point of the trail after about 2 hours and spent the
final hour snowshoeing along an impressive ridge to the hut. In the
summer you get views of the lake, but in the winter everything is
covered with snow.
Elfin
Lakes hut is an impressive wooden structure that has 30 beds and a
kitchen/dining area. In the winter, the bottom floor is buried in
snow, so you access the hut through the first floor. There is also
some composting toilets in a separate building (rather smelly) which
were also buried and accessed via some steep icy steps (cut each day
by willing volunteers).
We
were first to arrive, so grabbed the best (quietest) beds at the
furthest point from the door and stairs. The hike had left us hungry,
so the men dug a snow seat and we all squeezed in to have our lunch.
Then we spent the afternoon playing in the snow. Mr Greenhead dug a
huge snow hole and there was some talk of him and Ross sleeping in
it! However the sun started to set and the temperatures started to
drop, so we all headed inside for some dinner.
The
hut had no running water, so we had to melt and boil snow before we
could eat. When you melt snow, the amount of water you make is 1/10
th of the volume, in otherwords for every 100 millilitres of snow you
will get 10 millilitres of water. It took a while, but eventually we
were tucking in. Despite the below freezing temperatures, it was cozy
in the hut and we spent a pleasant evening chatting whilst enjoying
some red wine. By the time we got into our sleeping bags, the hut had
completely filled up and all the beds (plus the floorspace in between
them) were covered with sleeping bodies. There was a girl guides
group and it was Easter weekend, so I guess everyone was on holiday!
The
next morning, after a great nights sleep (thanks to my earplugs), we
awoke to clear blue skies. The scenery was fantastic, so we ate
breakfast outdoors and enjoyed the view. Then we packed up and
returned along the same route, though this time we could see every
impressive mountain and ended up taking lots of photos.
After
hiking along the ridge, it was downhill to the car and we were back
at the carpark in no time at all. There seemed to be lots of people
on their way to the hut - another crowded night.
On
our way back to Vancouver, we stopped off for a delicious lunch in
Squamish (Howe Sound Inn) and at a north shore beach. One minute we
were hiking up snow capped mountains and the next minute we were
sunning ourselves on the beach. We also ended up going for an
unplanned paddle because the tide came in and cut off the island we
were on from the mainland. One poor lady ended up taking a fully
clothed swim, after her husband tried to carry her and dropped her!
The
following day saw us back at Squamish (an hour north of Vancouver)
for some rock climbing. It was the first outside climbs of the year
for all of us, so we had a relaxing day with plenty of breaks between
each route. The sun was shining again, yet the crowds had stayed away
- perfect!
In
fact the sun kept on shining on Easter Monday, so we got out the
bikes and took a trip around Stanley Park. Stanley Park is a lovely
green space right next to Vancouver city centre, which you can
cycle,walk or skate around. We got great views from our bikes of the
city, harbour and Canada Place and met some of the local wildlife.
The
path around is fairly wide and there is enough space to pass other
cyclists, with a polite "on your left" as you go past.
This all worked fine until we met a lady who was rather wobbly on her
bike! Myself and Nicole passed her without any problems, but as Mr
Greenhead went by she had a wobble, clipped his bike and ended up
sprawled on the grass next to the cycle path. She seemed to be ok,
but Mr Greenhead's comment as we left the scene probably didn't help
("It's ok Nicole, she didn't damage Ross' bike"). Not long
after, we stopped for ice cream and saw the lady back on her bike.
Not wanting a repeat of the collision, we ate our ice creams very
slowly and made sure we would not catch the poor lady up.
Sadly
our friends had to go back to work, so we borrowed their supermarket
discount card, picked up our hire car and headed out of the city. Our
destination for the next two weeks was Squamish - a climbers
paradise. The town is set up for 'dirtbag' climbers - an affectionate
term used to describe climbers who are trying to live as cheaply as
possible. The campsite (Squawmus Chief) we were staying at was free,
so unsurprisingly we met other climbers there too. In the summer it
costs £5 per person per night, but the rest of the year they turn
off the water taps and charge you nothing. There is however lovely
camping pitches in the woods, a slackline to play on, a stream for water, bear boxes to store
your food, a cooking shelter and a composting toilet which is
regularly cleaned by the warden.
Each
night we would gather under the cooking shelter, discuss routes
climbed and compare notes on how to live cheaply in Squamish! Our
contribution to the living cheaply competition was the information
about the local swimming pool. For just over a pound you could go for
swim, steam, jacuzzi and shower on weekday lunchtimes. After passing
this knowledge on to our fellow dirtbag climbers, we all spent our
rainy days at the pool getting clean - though only myself and Mr
Greenhead seemed to actually do any swimming! It was on one of these
occassions that I met a kind local lady, who informed me that there
was a place in town where you could get free food and showers. It
turned out to be the homeless shelter! To make matters worse I had
just washed my hair, put on clean clothes and was looking fairly
smart!
The
weather was surprisingly good for April and we only had 3 days where
rain stopped us completely. On these days we had a swim, then spent
the rest of the day in the library - reading magazines in the comfy
chairs or using the free computers. The remaining days were mainly
dry and quite often sunny, so we managed to climb lots of routes.
Even when there was the odd shower of rain, the wind blew the rock
dry pretty quickly. The routes were almost all trad (traditional) -
this means you carry a set of climbing gear, place it in the rock and
attach your rope to the gear as you climb up. The person who does
this goes first and is called the lead climber, then the next person
(the seconder) follows and takes out the gear. Mr Greenhead is a
better and braver climber than I am, so he led lots of hard routes. I
did lead climb a few but they were much easier.
On
week days, Smoke Bluffs (the climbing crag) was much quieter, so we
climbed as many popular routes as we could. There was a list of
climbs in our guide book that had been given 5 stars, so we had a
great time working our way through these. Our group of international
(Canadian, Kiwi, Scottish, Spanish English) friends at the campsite
also recommended routes. We even climbed with one of the Spanish guys
- who was used to bouldering and scared himself a little lead
climbing!
Typically
the weather was sunniest at the weekends, which meant every area in
Smoke Bluffs was busy. However it did mean our friends drove out from
Vancouver and climbed with us. They shared some local knowledge and
showed us a different crag to climb at called Murin - lots of fun
routes. They also took us to Alice Lake, a pretty lake, which we
walked around.
Apart
from climbing, we did take a trip to Whistler (the ski resort),
visited impressive Shannon Falls and hiked up The Chief.
The Chief is
a granite mountain which has three peaks and is a very popular hike.
The trail started at our campground and led steeply uphill - you gain
several hundred metres very quickly up steps and paths. You can hike
to the top of the first peak, but we decided to hike most of the way,
then took an alternative route and climbed the last hundred metres.
When Mr Greenhead reached the top and was seen by some young hikers,
he was given a round of applause. The hikers thought we had climbed
the whole way up - a few hundred metre route that takes several
hours. We tried to explain we had only climbed a short way, but they
remained impressed.
After
enjoying the view, packing away our climbing gear and photographing
the chipmunks, we headed for second peak. Not realising there was a
quick climbers decent route, we ended up losing a couple of hundred
metres in height and then getting a sweat on as we gained the height
again up the path! The final hundred metres to second summit gave us
a choice - a path or a slab of rock. So we put our rock climbing
shoes back on and smeared up the slab. By now, the views were
starting to disappear behind cloud and we felt a few drops of rain.
However we had waterproof jackets, so decided to push on to the third
and highest peak.
We
had a great couple of weeks climbing, met a friendly bunch of
climbers and could feel our muscles getting stronger. Unfortunately
it wasn't dry enough to try the longer, multi-pitch routes on the
area called The Apron - next time! As usual time flies when you are
having fun and before we knew it, we were back in Vancouver. We
stayed long enough to try out the new climbing gym (a fantastic, huge
bouldering wall called The Hive), cook a thank you roast dinner for
our hosts and have a quick wander around Vancouver. Then it was time
to catch our Greyhound bus to Edmonton.
