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Finally in Leh!

Hi all,

 

I've finally made it to Leh!

 

Rewinding a bit to my last blog posting ... after making that posting and saying that I was going to store my bike and just travel around northern India, I went back to the hotel and stared at my bike - it stared back at me (we've been spedning too much time together), and we jointly decided -what the heck, let's go to Manali and see how far we can cycle to Leh!

 

So, the next day, a 10 hour bus ride that puts the word "semi" into "semi-delux", I got up to Manali, and started cycling the next morning.  Of course, the penalty for starting anew from Manali was an immediate pass - so started a 1400m climb up to Marrhi, a small town 600m below the pass.  The next day, in a strong wind, headed up the pass and crested it at 3998m.  From there, an easy downhill (mostly, on bad roads) to the village of Sissu.

 

From Sissu, it was a relatively easy cycle to Keylong, where I called Killaine (at about 3300m), and then from there climbed up to Jispa.  By the time I got to Jispa, I was pretty whipped (having done a 3rd consective day of over 1000m of climbing per day).  Nonetheless, I carried on the next day with American & Spanish cyclists towards "Zing Zing Bar" (named after the river feature, not after the nonexistant alchol serving place).  Reaching Zing Zing Bar at 4000m, I was beyond tired.  I turned back, and cycled back 10k down the road to Patseo at 3750m, and found a great campsite.

 

I took the next day off - reading and chatting with the (very few) locals.  By the next day I was feeling great, and continued up the road, past Zing Zing Bar, and camped a short distance higher at 4301m.  Had a great night (meaning - no altitude effects) and blasted up the road (in figurative terms, of course), covering 16km and 650m up to the Baralacha La pass at 4918m.  Spectacular views, and a great ride down through spectacular scenery to Sarchu at 4408m.

 

But, by this time, it was Wednesday, and I knew it was time to high tail it to Leh.  As soon as I pulled into Sarchu, a couple of jeeps pulled up - I asked if they had room for a cyclist - they did, and off we went on the spectacular, yet frequently terrifying, 8 hour jeep journey to Leh.  We crossed the "second highest motorable road in the world" at 5399m in the dark - that was one of the many terrifying parts - but the specacular parts were finally seeing the Morei plains - part of the Tibetan Changtang plateau that extends down into this corner of India.

 

Finally reached Leh late last night - fortunately, one hotel tout was still around, and I got a cheap yet comfortable room in a guest house (although I upgraded this morning!).  Spent this afternoon getting bike packing materials (carpet underlay and a potato sack in lieu of a bike box), and I'm about ready to head out for a big pizza! 

 

Guy

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Now, Plan "E" ...

Howdy folks,

I'm back in Shimla!  Not exactly where I wanted to end up, but it's been a fun filled week or so since I last posted something ... so, starting from where I left off last time ...

Had a couple of super excellent himalayan cycle days from Recong Peo through Pooh to Nako.  Hotels in Pooh were full, so I was able to pitch my tent on the roof of the building next door.  Next day's cycle to Nako was super - very little traffic at this point, hot & sunny day, endless low angled switchback through a world of rock, only interspersed with the occasional orchard clustered around the few streams. 

Rolled into Nako at 3600m, feeling the altitude.  Nako is a wonderful little town - completely Tibetan in every way - checked into a little homestay place run by a friendly Tibetan couple, and in a traditional mud & thatch roof.  Nice little garden out front - incredible views.  Felt really good about progress so far, and feeling optimistic to continue to Leh!

Next morning, Cliff (the Australian I've been tracking since Rampur) & I stood out in our shorts in the rain.  It was cold.  We went for a cup of tea to wait for the weather to clear.  The rain picked up.  By 11, we decided just to stay the day in Nako (easy decision to make - wonderful village - did I mention that?).  The locals said the rain would end tomorrow. 

The next day, the local folks said "the rain is ending ..."

On the third day of rain, the local folks said "we have never seen so much rain before".

Later that day ... the local folks reported "the road to Tabo is destroyed".  And later ... "the road to Recong Peo is closed".

On the fourth day, Cliff & I cycled up past the village to the "Malling Slide".  It's a well known rock slide path, that the Border Roads organization has been struggling to keep open for years.  The road crosses and extremely steep & unstable gully ... or at least it used to.  There was no more road.  It was not just washed away, but completely removed for at least a kilometer across the mountainside.  No way around it - up or down - the terrain really is that steep.

So started much speculation and planning & replanning.  Clearly, there was no way I could go into the Spiti valley - that was at least clear.  However, there could have been a possibility to toodle over to Manali (about 3 days travel), and just try to cycle from there. 

But, on day 5, the road south to Recong Peo was still closed.

Time, unfortunately, has burned away and I slowly came to the realization that the cycle trip was pretty much over.  Still, along with two Belgians and Cliff, we rented a 4wd taxi, and drove back down the valley for 10 hours to Rampur.  The road from Pooh back to Recong Peo and beyond was heavily damaged by the rain, and there were numerous waits for sections of the road to be cleared.  Much himalayan driving drama.

Finally, we got to Rampur, and found out that the Jalori Pass to Manali was closed - that was pretty much the only last chance we had to get up to Manali to even conceive of cycling ... and only if I/we didn't have any rest days or extra acclimatization days.  Sigh!

So, this morning, I took the bus back up to Shimla, back to the hotel I stayed at previously, and arranged to store my bike at the hotel.  I'm going to take a light pack, and do the travel by bus thing ... I'm headed up to Manali tomorrow, and I'll see if there is any possibility of taking a bus from Manali, over the Rothang La and down into the Spiti valley that way.  I'm pessimistic considering the state of the roads ... but we'll see!  If going into the Spiti valley isn't possible, then I'll explore the hill stations & towns of Himachal Pradesh, including Dharmsala - a place I've wanted to visit for some time.

It's been quite a week and a bit!  But, being "stuck" in Nako wasn't really like being stuck - it was a great town, it had an 11th century Gompa to explore, a fascinating little village, and some great walks (in the rain) up to the Chortens and Mani walls surrounding the town.  Got as high as 4200m on a hike with some local folks to visit the high pastures.

All-in-all, quite disappointed that the cycling hasn't worked out, but still looking forward to 1 1/2 weeks of traveling around India.

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Thanks!

Hey folks,

Thanks for the comments! 

Don - I must have missed the MacDonalds, but doesn't matter 'cause I'm doing the vegetarian thing over here anyway.  :-)  Oh, and the places I'm staying at are small hotel kinda places.  My "standard" has come up somewhat over the last few years.  :-)

Leonard, Dag, Lynn, Deanna, Al, Fabia, Mike K - thanks for the wishes!

See ya,


Guy

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Heaven, Hell, Himalaya

When I plan for a trip, I tend to do a meticulous amount of research about the route (just ask Killaine) - stuff like the terrain, the climbs, the state of the road - all that kind of stuff.  I even chatted with a few folks via the Lonely Planet and India Mike websites.  However, none of the information I had gathered even hinted at the possibility that I'd be cycling through about 30km of a hydroelectric mega-project ...

The day started off great - I got an early start from Sarahan, and enjoyed the fully in-control cycle back down into the valley back to Jeori.  Past hotel hell, then back along the road, following again the Sutlej river upstream.  The road continued to be spectacular - blasted into the side of sheer cliffs, hundreds of metres above the Sutlej.  Fantastic views, great cycling.

I came upon a couple of tragic accidents in short order, however.  The first was a head-on between a bus & a truck - I'd heard about this one the day before from some German folks (who past it on a different bus).  Not pretty.  Shortly afterwards, while cycling along another sheer section, a truckload of police drove up, stopped, and looked over the edge.  I stopped and asked them what they were looking at - apparently a truck went off the road the night before (which explained the broken railing).  I asked how many were killed - they didn't know yet.  I have no idea how they'd get down to the river to recover the bodies - it was a long way down.

Continuing on, the road dropped right down to the river, and deteriorated as I entered some kind of construction zone.  Little did I know that this was the start of a new Sutlej river hydroelectricity mega-project.  In some senses, cycling through a third-world project of that nature was certainly eye-opening.  People crushing rocks (by hand - with hammers) on the side of the road, armies of people digging roads - and many camps where the workers lived in very desperate conditions.  Dams under construction, massive tunnels being built into the mountainside for diverting the river flow - fascinating stuff, from an engineering perspective.  From a cycling perspective, however, it was 30km of unpaved, rocky & muddy road.  At one point I said to myself, "at least it's not raining" ... it started to rain a short time later.

Anyway, exhausting work.  Finally reached paved road eventually, and took shelter in a police checkpoint hut (folks are very friendly - did I mention that before?).  Continued on to the turn-off to Recong Peo, and then just another 300m of climbing and I pulled in at about 4:30pm - after having started cycling at 6:30am.  92km and 1300m of climbing altogether. 

Got the "best room" at the Rindang Hotel, overlooking the busy bazaar.  Noisy, but spent a fascinating hour or more just watching the folks going about their business.  Really cool just to watch - things slowly start to reveal themselves - the cows wandering the streets do get fed by the vegetable vendors as they sort out the less good produce.  The porters ready at a moments notice to unload vehicles.  All sorts of folks - tough to describe the whole thing.

After such an exhausting day yesterday, I took a rest day today.  I also had to get an "inner line permit" (i.e. permission to cycle close to the border with Tibet) - it was easy to get, but a good excuse to take the day off.  Went to the Aru car wash and mechanic to wash the layers of mud off my bike, but in true Indian fashion, a fellow washed my bike up for me - making it cleaner than when I left Canada!  A bit of oil on the chain, and good to go.

BTW, also super impressed that my fancy tires & Killaine's wheels held up to the rigours of yesterday.

Onwards tomorrow to the village of "Pooh", then up to Nako at 3600m and then finally the descent into trans-himalayan valley of Spiti.  Not sure when the next Internet access thingy will be.

Summary of the trip to date ... fascinating & challenging!

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Escape from Jeori

Ok, I'd better make this quick 'cause the power is somewhat unreliable up here ...!

 

Yesterday morning, I left Narkanda nice and early - a nice sunny day, and what a way to start with a 2000m vertical downhill into the Sutlej river valley.  The descent went nicely - stopping every 200 vertical meters to let my wheel rims cool, then putting on the sunscreen, then putting on the insect repellent as I descended down into the malarial zone.  Finally, "hit" the valley bottom at 800m where it was very, very hot. 

 

I had about 30km to do along the valley to Rampur.  Slowly the heat sucked the energy right out of me, and my water bottles were drained quickly.  I pulled into Rampur - a neat little town clinging to the valley edge above the river.  I pushed my bike down into the bazaar - a maze of shops and services - looking for a hotel.  Unfortunately, the one I was looking for was full, and the alternative didn't look too appealing, so back up to the road, and back the way I came a short distance to the nice Himachal Tourist Department's hotel.

 

Another cyclist (!) was also staying at the hotel, although we didn't meet up until this morning.  He was lamenting the weight of his load - it turns out that he was carrying, among other things, a laptop and a big SLR camera (and I had a serious debate with myself as to whether I would take my ipod).  But, his bigger issue was that he tore the sidewall of his tire on his second day out.  He had a spare, but of a much lower quality.  This was a bit of a concern for me, 'cause in the interest of saving weight, I decided not to bring a spare tire!  Oh well, I guess I'll need to be careful ...

 

Today's plan was to cycle a short 22km to Jeori.  A nice, short day, considering the heat from yesterday.  However, I wasn't really looking forward to the hotel in Jeori, which was described in one of my books as "fetid".  Now, there is an alternative to staying in Jeori, and that would be to cycle an additional 17km ... and 700m vertical, up to the village of Sarahan, where there is a popular hindu temple.  Obviously, I wasn't keen to do that in the heat.

 

I pulled into Jeori, and found that the hotel was even worse than I could imagine!  Now, I've stayed in some bad places in Pakistan & Tibet, but this place was bad - comically so.  The fellow showed me the room - there was an empty whiskey bottle on the floor, along with the cigarette butts and other trash.  Don't ask what the bed looked like.  The view across the river valley was brilliant, at least.  I tried to "make the most of it", but then slowly realized that the only thing separating me from a decent hotel was a short bus ride.  So, I grabbed the next bus, and 45 absolutely terrifying minutes later, I was in Sarahan and in a much, much better hotel.  (the bus ride up was scary - the road was narrow and with a huge precipitous drop down to the valley - I remembered again why I chose to cycle over here - it's safer!)

 

So, I'm in Sarahan now.  It's pouring outside - a monsoonal day.  If all goes according to plan tomorrow, I'll cycle back down to Jeori (all downhill!), then 74km to Recong Peo.  It'll be a long day, but should be cooler as the road in the valley goes from about 1500m up to ~2200m in Recong Peo).

 

Final notes - the people are super friendly, virtually every car/truck/bus that goes by honks merrily and people wave.  Scenery is spectacular.  Big hydro projects under development.  Clouds still obscuring the highest peaks.  Stomach is holding together nicely.  Kickstand on bike has broken, and I lost my cycling gloves in Rampur!

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Narkanda

Well, I'm in Narkanda, after my first day of cycling in India!    Where to begin ...the flight getting here went well - Jet Airways is actually quite nice. Picked up at the airport by a guy from my hotel, and the hotel in Delhi was "ok".  Next morning, to the bus station for the 10 hour ride to Shimla.  It was a comfy air conditioned bus (temp. when I landed in Delhi was +29, at 9:30 at night!).  Fascinating bus ride through the Indian countryside, with the final few hours spent climbing up improbable roads on the side of steep, green hills up to Shimla.   Shimla is a beautiful city, perched on both sides of a ridge at 2150m.  Much, much cooler and pleasant than Delhi. Good hotel, finally unpacked the bike (it survived the journey unscathed).  Next morning, waited for the rain to ease, then started cycling to Narkanda. Although the hills were initially steep, and it started raining again, both eased and it was a great bike ride along the roads.  Green forests, steep drops and not too much traffic.  Goats, cows & monkeys along the road.    Caught up to and passed a Swiss tour group - made it here to Narkanda (2650m)in about 5 hours, finally giving me most of an afternoon to finally relax.  "Should" be an easier ride tomorrow down to Rampur, but the 2000m drop will put me back into the heat, so not looking forward to that!

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The Bike

Here it is, all decked out for a ride across the Himalaya:


The story of ... "the bike" ...

For the Himalaya, the preferred ride is one that is robust and easily repairable. Although I've got two other mountain bikes, the fact that both of them are alumnimum frame (can't be welded in the field), have hydraulic disk brakes (I have no idea how to repair those!) and shocks (something else to go wrong) meant that they weren't quite appropriate for a trip like this.

The other significant factor is, well, that I didn't want to risk losing one of my nice bikes over in India!

So, I was going to use my old 1992 Scott Mountain bike that I'd bought in Germany and cycled up the Karakoram Highway, but sadly it was stolen from a friend of mine. Thus began the hunt for an appropriate bike.

A few weeks of lurking on Craigslist and trying a few bikes, and I finally found something close to what I was looking for - a ~1995 steel frame Kona Hahanna. Decent bike, but needed some tweaks to it. Over the next month, I:

• Replaced the head stem to raise the handlebars and bring them a bit closer;
• Replaced the rear gear cluster - finding a 32-tooth 7 gear cluster was a bit of a challenge, but found one at the Bike Doctor
• Replaced the chain
• Replaced the front large chain ring
• Replaced all the cables
• Replaced the brake pads (probably good to have decent brakes in the Himalaya)
• Replaced one of the shifters, fixed up the other one (multiple visits to Our Community Bikes to find the right bits)
• Put on 3 water bottle cages
• Put on rear carrier (original from the Pakistan trip, so should be solid) - required just a little grinding to make it fit
• After much turmoil, got an expensive Tubus front rack, and figured out a hopefully strong way of mounting it on the front fork
• Swapped out the single wall wheels with the double wall wheels from Killaine's old mountain bike (Thanks, Pumpkin!)
• Put on some fancy Schwalbe Marathon Tour Plus tires. Much gnashing of teeth trying to decide between 2.0s and 1.75s. Went for the 1.75s in the end.
• Bar ends, of course
• Mounted the speedometer
• And, finally, swapped the seat with the comfy one from one of my other bikes.
  

Phew, that's it. Hopefully it'll hold together! It's all packed and in it's box downstairs. Copious amounts of foam & bubble wrap will also hopefully protect it on the long flight and bus ride from Vancouver to Shimla, via Toronto, Brussels & Delhi!

Weather in India

Some details on weather along my cycling route:

• Shimla (~2100m - start)
• Rampur (~800m - day 2)
• Leh (~3500m - end)

Shimla & Rampur should be cloudy with thunderstorms - considering that they get the monsoon there (which is still going on when I start). Rampur will be hot, being at a low elevation.

Leh is surprisingly warm right now, but getting cold at night already! It's going to be chilly when I get there at the end of September.

Shimla to Leh

Here's a bit of an update on a trip I'm planning this September!

The Concept

I'm planning on doing a bit of cycling in India this fall - from Shimla on the south side of the Himalayas, across to Leh in Ladakh, on the north side of the Himalayas, essentially in the Indian part of geographic Tibet.

Why

Ever since I pulled out of the Bugaboos to Roger's Pass traverse trip, I've been looking for another trip to do. I tossed around possibilities of kayaking up the sunshine coast, and various hiking alternatives, before my mind migrated to India. I pulled out the trekking in India Lonely Planet guide and started thinking about doing some hiking over there.

But, the more I read, I slowly started learning about the trans-himalayan valley of Spiti (trans-himalayan essentially meaning in the middle of the Himalaya). Then, I learned that there is a road through there that hooks up with the Manali to Leh highway. Then I read that people have done cycle tours through there.

So, I thought it might be a fun idea to link up a bike route through Spiti with the Manali-Leh highway - a route of about 1000km across the Himalaya.

The Plan

Here's a google maps view of the route:


View Shimla to Leh Cycling Route in a larger map

I'll start by flying out from Vancouver to Delhi via Toronto & Brussels. One night in Delhi, then a 9 (or more) hour bus ride to Shimla.

From Shimla, I'll start to cycle. The route first heads east, following the Sutlej river, and slowly climbs in altitude until it crosses through into the Spiti valley. From there, the route continues through Buddhist villages and climbs up the Kunzum La at ~4500m, the first major pass on the route. It then descends down (what sounds like) a pretty rough road, eventually meeting the Manali-Leh highway. This first part should take around 10 days to 2 weeks.

Then, the fun starts on the Manali-Leh highway. There's 4 major passes to cross - the Baralacha La at 4918m, the Nakeela La at 4937m, Lachulung La at 5077m, and finally the Taglang La at 5300m. Pretty high cycling. The area between the Lachulung La and the Taglang La should be very cool - the terrain is actually geographically part of the massive Changtang - the high plateau of Tibet.

Finally, I'll end up in Leh - the capital city of the region.

As I mentioned, it's about 1000km, and I'll have 25 days of cycling. Hopefully I'll average ~50km/day with a rest day every 5 days.

When To Go?

Figuring out when to do this trip was a challenge! There's two opposing weather forces - the monsoon - lasting through to "the beginning of September", and the winter snows, which generally don't come until later in October, but have been known to come as early as early to mid-September.

After much consideration and consulatation on the Internet, I figured that it would likely be better to brave the rain rather than snow, so I'll start at the end of August and go 'til the end of September.

The Bike

I was expecting that I'd just take the same bike that I cycled the Karakoram Highway on back in 1998. Unfortunately, it was on extended loan to a friend, and it was stolen from him. So, I first had to find an appropriate bike!

For a trip like this, the ideal bike has:

• a steel frame (more resilient than aluminum);
• a rigid front fork (less maintenance than a shock);
• cable-actuated brakes (which I can fix on the road - unlike hydraulic brakes);
• decent components.

After a few weeks of lurking on Craigslist, I eventually found close-to the right bike - a Kona Hahanna. Then, after a fair amount of work, I replaced the drivetrain, replaced the wheels with wheels from Killaine's old bike (much stronger), replaced the stem to make it fit better, worked on the gearing, adjusted the brakes, put on my water bottle carriers and racks and, to top it all off, put on some new Schwalbe Marathon Tour Plus tires.

Alternative Plans

Travelling in India is never straightforward nor easy, and sticking to a pre-determined plan can be challenging! The weather could slow me down, or I might just find that my plan is overly-ambitious. I might decide to dawdle along the first half of the route slowly and enjoy the area, or it could be that I'll be delayed starting and might have to be happy just doing the Manali to Leh portion.

Or, I could have a catastrophic bike failure (or lose it!), and have to revert just to having a bus-borne holiday interspersed with some trekking. That's India!

Very Cool Fog Pictures

Very cool pictures of the fog that's been sitting over Vancouver for some time now - both were taken from Cypress Mountain and were not taken by me (forwarded on to me from other friends):

Sunrise

At Night

Tweedsmuir Park - Rainbow Range

Finally finished the story on our trip to Tweedsmuir park back in August.

Hanging Lake

Mike, Simon & I headed out for an exploratory trip to the west side of Mt. Sproatt, accessing it from the new Whistler Olympic Center (where the ski jumping & x-country events for the 2010 Olympics will be held).

The great thing about the new Center is that it has an all-weather (i.e. plowed) road up to 900m, giving good alpine access to the Sproatt/Rainbow area.  I was supposed to lead an Alpine Club trip here in December to explore the area, but I canned it due to lack of snow.

We made an early start and left the Olympic Center area at around 8am.  The instructions for getting to Hanging Lake from the Olympic Center can be found here.  The route description was good, and we made pretty good time on our way up.

The conditions were a little "wierd".  It was a beautiful, blue sky day, with highs in the alpine to go into the double digits.  The concern was what the warm weather would do to the snowpack.  Sure enough, as we made our way up through the trees, we encountered areas of ice (in open areas), and soft snow (in the trees), but kind of randomly dispersed.  

There was only really one steep (but short) slope to traverse which was fine when we went up.  We debated what the warming temperatures would do to that slope later in the day.  Nevertheless, we continued upwards and got to Hanging Lake at around 11:30 (with numerous breaks to chat on the way up!).  We went up a bit higher, and had a great view across Rainbow Lake to Weart/Wedge, and were able to scope the routes up Rainbow to the north and Sproatt to the South (route up Sproatt looks very straightforward to gain the higher alpine).

However ... we saw numerous snowmobile tracks in the area, and saw a group of about 4 snowmobilers.  The whine of their machines seriously interrupted what was otherwise a tranquil area.  I was certain that the area was closed to snowmobiles and apparently it is.  Here's info on Sproatt Mountain and conflicts with snowmobiles.  Of course, it seems virtually impossible to police areas and to keep snowmobiles out.  Sigh.  

After lunch, we headed back down.  The ski down wasn't the worst I'd ever had, but it was close!  The snow hadn't softened up nearly as much as we expected, so it was hard skiing on crust, crunchy snow and the occasional soft patch.  Truly, the hazard for the day was not avalanche, but skiing in those conditions!

All in all, a great trip - the Olympic Center provides good access to the Sproatt area and is relatively safe from avalanche terrain.  The presence of snowmobiles is disappointing, however.

Oh, one last note ... the Olympic Center is a super-fantastic facility for x-country skiing.  However, it would be really great if they accepted that backcountry skiers cross the facility to access the backcountry, and would be super if they could provide marked access - that would really help build it into a "winter sports center".

Addendum: here is the document describing the recommendations for management in the Squamish / Whistler corridor, including the Sproatt/Rainbow area.

Backcountry Skiing From Home!

With all the snow that we've been having in Vancouver, we thought it might be a fun idea to do another zero-carbon trip from home.

So, on January 4th, Killaine & I put our skis on our backs, walked down our street, then hiked up Mountain Highway to the gate at the end of the road.

Killaine hiking up Mountain Highway

From there, we skied up the road in decent snow conditions.  After the 3rd switch back, we started breaking trail, then started optimizing our route by cutting the switchbacks.

Up in the forest

Our ultimate destination was the Grouse Mountain Area or Pipeline Pass, or somewhere around there.  However, as we got higher, the forecast winds moved in.  The heavy snow load in the trees had weakened some of the trees, and we started hearing and seeing big branches falling down.  The final straw was when we saw a tree, about 12" in diameter, fall over.  Not anticipating "tree fall hazard", we turned around and skied back home

All in all, a short but fun trip close to home - Mt. Fromme ski ascent in the future?

New Years Eve Search

The Christmas busy period for Search & Rescue continues.

Killaine & I were up in Pemberton for four days - in the meantime, there was a major search for a man missing from the Mt. Seymour ski area for three days.  The chap was found alive the afternoon of New Years Eve.

Killaine & I arrived home later that afternoon.  A few hours later, I received a page indicating that the aforementioned fellow may have seen other tracks in his descent down Suicide Gully, and that we needed to check them out.

Stan, Jimmy & I headed up the Mt. Seymour roadway and snowshoed into the Suicide Creek area.  We hiked up the escape trail a short distance until we met up with the fellow's footprints.  We followed his path for about an hour, back down to the road, but did not find any other footprints.  We had searched through the area that the subject described as having seen the footprints, so we were quite comfortable that there were none others to be found.

We reached our conclusion at around 10:30, and we all managed to make it home for midnight for new years celebrations!

Nadda to the Bonnington This Year

Gord, Jenny, Ron, Carole, Killaine & I were planning to do the Bonnington Range traverse, near Nelson, over New Years this year.  Unfortunately, we decided not to do it.

The initially low snowfalls for this winter had, by about December 23rd, left very little snow in the Bonnington range area - meaning that travel below treeline would have been very difficult (i.e. not enough snow to cover up the bush and rocks), and above treeline, it would have been equally tricky (same conditions, but more windblown).  This low snowpack, coupled with a period of very cold temperatures, also set up a snowpack that was very weak.

Sure enough, about a week before we were to go, it started snowing.  The new snow load on the weak base created very high avalanche conditions - boosting the hazard to at least considerable to high for the period that we would have been skiing.

We definitely made the right choice not to head out, although it was a very painful one to make.  One of the things I look forward to every winter is meeting up with my friends to do some fun backcountry skiing together.  It always pains me when a date draws near, and one has to continually start watching the weather and trying to figure out what the conditions will be like.  

Christmas Rescue

Unfortunately, Killaine & I's Christmas tradition of doing a backcountry ski up Seymour was pre-empted by a rescue for two stranded backcountry skiers in the Mt. Seymour backcountry.

In a nutshell, a couple of backcountry skiers who seemed to be inexperienced with the Mt. Seymour terrain went off for a tour on Christmas Eve.  They ended up lower down on the east side of Mt. Seymour, between De Poncier Lake and Theta Lake.  They had run into very steep terrain and apparently had both been caught in an avalanche, yet were able to extract themselves.  They spent the night out and called (via cell phone) for a rescue Christmas morning.

We were paged at around 11am to respond to our SAR station at Bone Creek.  At that time, the weather was generally clear, although clouds were starting to form on Mt. Seymour.  Our team leader was able to locate the skiers from the helicopter.  Originally, the plan was to do a long line rescue, but the clouds closed in before it we were ready to do the rescue.

So, Plan B was quickly formed - knowing the location of the stranded skiers, a ski team was dispatched from the Mt. Seymour ski area.  They encountered very deep snow, and called for a backup snowshoe team to help flatten out the trail for the climb back out.  Curtis, John, Doug & I were this team.   We took the Mystery Peak chairlift up Mt. Seymour, met up with one of the ski area's snowmobiles, and were transferred to the alpine trail near Brockton Point.  

From there, we made good progress along the alpine trail and then down into De Poncier Lake.  In the meantime, the ski team had made contact with Behnad - another backcountry skier stranded in the deep snow.  The ski team advised us of their contact with Behnad, so when we reached him at De Poncier lake, Curtis took him back up to the alpine trail and back to the ski area.  In the meantime, Fiona & Keith had skied down to us and proceeded onwards to meet up with the first ski team.

The ski team shortly made contact with the original two backcountry skiers - they were in good condition, though a little tired from their ordeal.  They started skiing them out as when kept snowhoeing in - we met up with the team, then the whole 12 person group (10 rescuers & 2 subjects) went back out as a single group.

The group in the darkness at De Poncier Lake

Doug offers me some M&Ms.  Note how well-dressed he is in our new Arcteryx team jacket & pants!

During this period, it was looking increasingly likely that I, plus most of the other rescuers, were going to be missing Christmas dinner.  That was more than a little disappointing for most of us. Fortunately for myself, however, I was back out at the parking lot by about 7:30pm and managed to get over to Hugh's place (Killaine's brother) just as everyone was finishing up Christmas dinner - they saved some for me, so that was great!  Unfortunately for some of the other rescuers, Christmas dinner was fully missed, so that was a shame.

However, it was a beautiful night out in the mountains.  Coming down from the peak of Mt. Seymour, low cloud was over Vancouver, so there was this cool orange glow coming through the clouds - the sky was clear, and it looke very beautiful with the snow blanketed over everything.  

Snowy!

In the "be careful what you wish for" category ... Vancouver has been receiving truckloads of snow in the city.  Here's our place:

Note sure if you can see the stacks of snow beside Killaine ... I had to shovel the driveway twice yesterday - a day after spending a couple of hours at the NSR embassy shoveling the snow that was collapsing our vehicle canopies!  I actually enjoy shoveling snow ... but this is getting to be a little silly ...

Rescue off Hollyburn

A very successful rescue last night / this morning - a snowshoer fell ~30m down into a steep gully off the west aspect of Hollyburn Mountain - one of his companions was able to climb down to him, but both of them ended up being stuck on a 70 degree slope, hanging on to branches protruding from the snow.

Two members, Al & Jackie, hiked in quickly to the gully, but were unable to access the snowshoers from below.  Myself, Bob, Hannes, Paul & Connie made our way to the top of the gully.  Bob lowered me down into the gully and I made contact with the very cold and very scared couple.  I got harnesses on them, and Bob & team lowered them down the rest of the way to Al & Jackie.  Bob lowered me down, and I hiked out with our subjects.  

Both subjects were fine - the snowshoer who fell in had a few minor scrapes - but both were very cold, but warmed up quickly on the hike out.

A great rescue, and I was very happy to put my rope rescue skills to work.

Some news reports:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/12/16/bc-northshore-cypress-park-snowshow-rescue.html?ref=rss

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081216/BC_cypress_snoeshoers_081216/20081216?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

http://www.news1130.com/news/topstory/article.jsp?content=20081216_084705_15556

A photo of Paul, with me in the background:

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/12/16/bc-081216-snowshoers-saved1.jpg

Quick Toodle up Hollyburn

Did a quick toodle up Hollyburn on Sunday while Killaine did some laps in the x-country ski area.  

Snowshoes were a good choice ... still lots of exposed shrubbery under the unconsolidated snow.  Beautiful, clear but cold day.

A photo taken by some folks on their camera-phone.