The post Nothing but Melt: Lake Helen Mackenzie Snowshoe Trip Report first appeared on Pack & Trail.

Where is Mount Elma?

Mount Elma is across Paradise Meadows from the Raven Lodge. Imagine sitting on the deck at the Raven Lodge looking out over the snowshoe and cross-country ski area. The big ramp of a peak in the background is Mount Albert Edward. Closest to the lodge, just over Lake Helen McKenzie is Brooks Mountain on the right and Mount Elma on the left. They are about 2 kilometers from the Raven Lodge parking lot via the snowshoe trails. Our route took us around the edge of Lake Helen Mckenzie because the ice wasn’t thick enough in the centre. Our weight is spread out being on skis but I’d rather not go for an icy bath and lose my skis in the lake.

Mount Elma has parking?

We took the steep but paved road up Mount Washington and took the left onto Nordic Road near the top. The Raven cross-country lodge is at the end of that road, and we parked there for the day. A quick walk around the lodge and we strapped on our skis and started our tour through the snowshoe and cross-country trails.

Hard snow

The snow on the way to Mount Elma was crusty and hard. Not having had fresh snow in a few days and a bit of rain on top of that made for some hard packed ground cover. On the one hand, that made the tour less tiring as we weren’t sinking into the snow with each step. On the other, the steeper sections were tough to maintain a grip on the ice if there were ridges and dips in the hard snow. When it’s nice and soft, the squishy snow gives you even grip with your skins on the snow.

We followed the trails through Paradise Meadows, meandering towards Brooks and Elma. We crossed a bridge over a creek that was piled high with snow. Don’t trip up there when your skis are at the height of the railings. You’d go for a swim!

Eventually we made it to the edge of Lake Helen Mckenzie. The signposts for the Strathcona park were barely visible above the snow and another foot will bury them. The ice was fairly thin on the lake so we decided to play it safe and skirt the edges. We were on the ice but close to the shore. If any one went through we’d be able to get to shore. The thin ice was visible in the middle of the lake. Another few weeks of snow and cold weather and you’ll be able to ski straight across the lake, shaving 20 minutes off the time to get to the col between Brooks and Elma.

Wandering Paradise Meadows

From the other side of the lake we headed up into the woods until we hit the ridge of the col. Here you’d head right to go up Brooks or left up Elma, as we did. The hill steepens here but nothing a little switchbacking can’t handle. In 20 minutes we were having lunch on the summit of Elma chatting to the other snowshoers that had come up the east ridge.

Little ski jump

The ride back down was a little hairy in sections where it was just icy hardpack. The patches of powder that were left made the trip worth it. If it had not been for a couple powdery sections it would have just been an icy snowshoe.

Skiing back to Mount Washington

How did the gear do?

All the gear performed well this trip. I was glad to be wearing polypro as the base layer. When we were in the sun it was quite warm and I’d sweat but once we got into the shade it would cool down dramatically. A polypro base and a merino mid-layer has been my go-to setup for the last few trips.

I tried Sole heat-moldeable insoles in my ski boots this time but they still gave me blisters on the insoles of my feet. This is an ongoing experiment to find out what fits for me. I might have to go to a different boot.

The Montana GPS screen was acting up as well. It wasn’t calibrated properly so it was hard to hit some of the buttons. I calibrated it on the summit which seemed to help a bit but didn’t quite solve the problem. It might have been too cold to calibrate properly. I was using my hands with no gloves on so it shouldn’t have had a problem. I’ll have to re-calibrate in a nice warm indoor environment and see how it does.

Raven Lodge

What gear did I use?

G3 Saint 170 skis
Colltex Skins
Scarpa Spirit 4 Touring boots
Black Diamond Contour Elliptic Shock Compact trekking poles
Helly Hansen long-sleeved polypropelene base layer
Merino 260 weight longsleeve
Arcteryx Gamma AR softshell jacket
Osprey Talon 33 pack
Garmin Montana 600 GPS
Montbell Alpine Light down jacket
Dakine Titan glove
Julbo Race sunglasses
Canon T1i DSLR camera
AdventureMobile: Subaru Impreza 5-door

Have you been up Mount Elma? What was the trip like and what gear did you take?

The post Mount Elma Ski Tour first appeared on Pack & Trail.

The dust is settling from a great weekend trip to Mount Washington for the Yeti snowshoe race. For the last 3 years we’ve made the trip up to the mountain to “compete” in the only snowshoe race on Vancouver Island. For the past 2, a bunch of friends and I book a cabin on the mountain and make weekend of the event. My birthday falls around the last weekend in January as well so it works out well for me as well. An exciting event, a beautiful venue and a bunch of awesome people makes for memorable birthdays.

The race is more fun than business for most of the participants which makes it even more appealing. There are regularly large teams that dress up in themes. One of the longest running is the snow queens who have fantastic queen costumes every year. Most of the costumed runners elect to spare themselves some pain and participate in the 5 km race. If you’re looking for scenery, you won’t need to go any further than 5 km the 10 is only 2 laps of the same track.

This year the track felt short. I was chatting with a girl that was doing the 5k for the first time as we neared the finish and she couldn’t believe that it was almost over. I was a little surprised when we got there how short it had felt. I had my Garmin 405 tracking the entire time (and accidentally for an hour after) and it didn’t look like the track was 10 km. I can’t point pinpoint the exact finish because I forgot to top my watch when I finished but it looked like it tracked out 8.6 km for the race. It was a little disappointing paying for a 10km race and then running 8.6 but I wasn’t going to go run another kilometer and a half to fill it in. You can see my track here on Yeti snowshoe race track on Garmin Connect.

The results aren’t in at the time of posting this but they’ll show up on Race Day Timing pretty soon. I’ll add in a link straight to the results when they get uploaded.The weather was perfect for the race, if a little cool. Most people had pants or tights on which was right for the weather. In years past, I’ve been ok temperature-wise with a short sleeve poly-propylene shirt. I have run into problems with the t-shirt though not because of the temperature but because of the snow. It depends on the type of snowshoes you have but when you run, they tend to flick up a lot of snow.

The Atlas snowshoes that are rented out at the Yeti are particularly bad for this. Because the Atlas snowshoe bindings are attached to the snowshoe by an elastic band of sorts, the flick up when they’re unweighted, bringing snow with them. This airborne snow usually ends up on your back, neck and arms, making for a bit of a chilly race. The wet didn’t bother me on my clothes but on bare skin it stung a bit. The back of my arms were red from getting barrages with snow pellets and near the end of the race my neck suffered from the assault as well. I don’t think I’m going to be wearing a collared shirt for snowshoeing any time soon but a long sleeve definitely helps block the snow.

Another thing I learned quickly in the race, and nearly every time I snowshoe, is to not kick your ankles. It hurts. I don’t recommend it.If you haven’t yet done a snowshoe race, I highly recommend it. If you’re not up for the not-quite-10 10 km race, you can sign up for the 5k, and don’t forget your costume.

The post The Yeti Strikes Again first appeared on Pack & Trail.

The Group

Last year when the MEC winter catalogue arrived, my girlfriend Kirsten was awed by the cover photo.  A group of friends camped out in the snow on a bluebird day surrounded by all the amenities one would have at home.  “That looks like a great idea for my birthday party!” she exclaimed excitedly in a way that made me think that things were about to get a whole lot colder.

A few weeks later, we were sitting in the snow beside Kwai Lake in Strathcona Park.  The fog was so thick it was difficult to see more than 2 meters and most of our clothing and gear was soaking wet; a far cry from the jovial scene on the catalog now unceremoniously propped upright in the snow beside us.  Five of us had made the trek and while we were all in a pretty good mood it certainly wasn’t the trip we had imagined it to be. 

Nonetheless, Kirsten decided that the event would become tradition and earlier this month publicized her plans for a bigger (including her twin brother) and better (not wearing one pair of cotton hiking pants) Twin Birthday Snow Camping Adventure.

This year we invited everyone who would listen to us and expected about 6 people to join us.  We were obviously surprised when more than 14 people expressed serious interest.  I have finally realized that people don’t need the newest and latest gear to be happy and comfortable, which is a change from my normal reaction of getting all concerned and scared about what gear and experience hiking partners have.  A couple people with little experience were to join us so I made sure they had enough stuff to be happy and left it at that.  This realization has been a long time in the making; my next outdoor related problem to overcome is convincing myself that every individual activity needs certain, specific (and usually expensive) equipment.  I suppose that after 3 years working at an outdoor gear store I’ve sold myself pretty well on most products.

Saturday morning arrived and we gathered at our favourite restaurant, Urban Beet, for a group breakfast and then we were off to the mountain.  Although it was opening day, the roads were totally empty and it took no time to get to the Raven Lodge at Mt Washington.  If you’ve never been there, the Raven Lodge is a beautiful facility that serves the nordic community at Mt Washington.  I’m moving to the Comox Valley in a month and am hoping desperately that school doesn’t get too much in the way of play and that I’ll get to spend more time there.

Our route out to the lake was non conventional to say the least.  Early on the group decided to take a slightly shorter yet steeper route but randomly drifted between that and the other option; a longer, easier route. It seemed as though every time a new person took a shift at the front we veered towards the other route.  The snow in the trees wasn’t as compact as in the open and Kirsten constantly found holes to sink into; despite her snowshoes her entire leg sank down into the snow every fifth step or so.  The combination of our reduced mobility (having snowshoes on) and her backpack made it quite a chore extricating her.  While this complicated path gave us all a great butt workout and let us enjoy incredible views of Paradise Meadows, Mt Washington and Strathcona Park, it ate up time in the already late day and just tired us out.  We quit that nonsense as soon as we reached Lake Helen McKenzie and just stuck to the standard Albert Edward approach trail; we made it around the lake and up to the ranger cabin in a new record time in the 12 slowshoers and 2 backcountry skiers category.  Kwai Lake is just a short jaunt from the ranger cabin and is almost entirely downhill.Once there we quickly set up our various forms of shelter – there were 3 and 4 season tents, snow caves, bivies and siltarps – and got started on a snow kitchen big enough for our group.  A quick probe test surprised us with a snow pack of 189cm!  As soon as the sun disappeared behind Albert Edward the temperature dropped rapidly and spirits began to sink too; there was a light misting rain beginning.  It was about this time we saw two faint lights in the distance – Kirsten’s twin brother and his wife had left late and hiked in after us, finishing by the light of their headlamps.  Their arrival brightened us up, literally and figuratively, as they had carried in a 4 hour burn fire log that we lit on a grill made of fallen branches (I know, I know – we’re not supposed to have fires in the park but the situation seemed pretty ok).  The fire (…and Crown Royal…) did wonders for our energy levels until the rain finally drove us to our tents.

Nobody believed me when I said I was going to sleep in till 10am until I poked my head out of the tent at quarter after the next morning.  Everyone else had already woken up and several people had eaten breakfast and packed their tents.  The cold had woken them early and driven them to movement, while I with my -13 sleeping bag, downmat and powerstretch pants slept warmly into the morning (or, maybe I’m just lazy?).  Half of the group left early to check out the sauna at the Raven Lodge and the other half followed shortly behind them.  The hike out was uneventful; we took the regular route the entire way, which turned out to be far easier than the route we took.  Maybe it was the ease of the route or the amount of complaining we did about how dumb we had been the day before, but the hike out flew by and soon we were back at the parking lot ready to hit the pub.  The kitchen in the Raven Lodge was about to close so we made our way to the Longwood in Nanaimo for a little more birthday cheer.

We had so much fun that we’re now picking uncommon spots for all our holiday festivities.  Next up?  An abandoned hotel out at Cape Scott for New Years!  Stay tuned for that report!

The post The 2nd Annual Twin Birthday Snow Camping Adventure first appeared on Pack & Trail.

Mount Washington has just opened so we decided to check out the snow but it would be in a different way than most. A group of friends decided to hike to Kwai Lake can camp for the night.

Unfortunately, I’ve not got the required gear for being toasty warm while camping in the snow.  My girlfriend and I would make the trip out there with them, then after some warm food and shelter building, we’d head back to a warm car and dry clothes.

We met at the Raven Lodge, Mount Washington for a later start than I had hoped.The weather report bordered on snow but we didn’t see any. The sun was trying to push its way through the greyness above but just couldn’t do it. The grey stayed dry though and I was thankful for that. I was ecstatic to be out roaming around in the snow with friends but I know some of our pack was going to be less than pleased with the conditions after several kilometers through heavy snow. Rain would definitely have put a heavy damper on the mood already made tense by anxious conversations regarding the actual whereabouts of the campsite.

Off to a great start. Loping down the valley trail, err, road, I’m suddenly veering off into the bush attempting to keep up with the rest of the pack. It doesn’t even look like they know where we’re going. After 100 meters of bushwacking we landed on a beautiful snowshoe trail, then headed off into Paradise Meadows.Our first big decision. Straight to the easier but longer way, or left and up the hill, a shorter but tougher shoe. After some deliberation, eating and layer-changing, we head left, up the bank. Little did I know we’d be in for a rough ride.

Up and down, up and down, up and down. That’s all I could feel for the next hour. Instead of taking the nice, fluffy, flat, route that was slightly longer, we took the gnarly, steep, crazy hill. Ok, it wasn’t that bad but it felt hard at the time. I’m sure those that were with me that spent half the time hauling their snowshoes out of large holes can attest to the effort that was required to get all the way through those side hills.

After some celebration, we arrive out onto a flatter area and our, ahem, guide takes half us back into the woods for some more side-hilling instead of following the first group across the flat, fluffy snow. Like a lost dog, I follow.

The clock is ticking, and by this time the sun is getting lower and my girlfriend and I need to find our way back to our car. I was a little anxious about finding our way out by a different route. The snow makes everything look completely different. Never mind that, I had never been there before! My GPS was working flawlessly and tracked us back to the lodge with no problems.

After a short break in the snow on the way back for some warm food and hot chocolate, we collapsed into the car and started the long foggy roll down the mountain.

It was terribly disappoint to go to so much effort and turn around before we got to Kwai Lake and the campsite but it was still a great time marching around in the snow. We’ll have to get out there again and actually achieve our goal of Kwai Lake. Who’s coming!?

The post Snowshoeing to Kwai Lake first appeared on Pack & Trail.