Cerise Creek overnighter

Daily Vert: 2150m

Total Vert So far: 22,565m

With plenty of sunshine in the forecast and some consecutive days off, Runar and I hatched a fairly ambitious overnight plan. The goal was to skin into Keith's Hut, dump our overnight gear, tour around Vantage Peak all day. The following day the idea was to carry our all our gear to the Joffre-Matier col, summit Joffre, then ski out on the Matier Glacier side and go out to the highway via Joffre Lakes.

There were just a few things that we didn't count on thou. Firstly, howling, howling winds about 2000m. Second, horrifically poor snow conditions about tree line. Third, 9 rowdy nurses also staying at the hut, and finally, a horrendous bout of vomiting at the start of the second day.

Everything started off according to plan. We left Whistler at about 7.30am, and were on the skintrack/highway to Keith's Hut not long after 9. To avoid detouring to the cabin we stashed our overnight gear behind a rock at the bottom of the glacier, and attempted to summit Vantage peak from the ridge line between the true peak and the lesser summit. We were buffeted by extremely strong winds the entire way, and the ridge line is slightly on the sketchy and exposed side. Gaining Vantage peak from the Matier-Vantage col may well be the better route.

After some sketchy traversing we entered the summit couloir and then skied about 500 vertical meters on extremely disappointing snow. We were hoping all that wind had blown some nice pow into the north facing bowls, but it was not to be. It was wind hammered breakable crust. Boo.

Undeterred we went up for a second lap, this time skiing off the slighter lower sub peak of Vantage. The smaller and more protected bowl here had slightly better snow, and still good vert, a definite improvement on the first lap.

After that we returned to the foot of the Glacier to collect our gear, and then continued on to the cabin. There were 3 other guys already there who had stayed the previous night, and after a quick hot snack we headed out for a sunset lap. We climbed the shoulder above the hut and then skied the bowl on the east side of Joffre. This was another good run although the snow was a little variable, and if you ski this run you're self be a little care- skiers left is good, skiers right is good, in the centre there are some cliffs and frozen waterfalls.

We reached the approach trail just as it got dark and happily skinned back around to the hut by headlamp. To our surprise the another group had arrived in our absence- 9 emergency nurses from Vancouver and Squamish with 2 dogs, a cheese fondue and enough peanut butter brownies to feed the third world.

After a sociable dinner and a couple of card games everyone turned in between 9 and 10, and surprisingly for a group of 14 in the hut, there was not a single snorer.

Runar and I had decided to put the summiting of Joffre on hold pending a reassessment of conditions in the morning. We had skied good snow and bad snow on the first day, all the good snow was below the tree line, all the bad snow above it. Maybe focusing on the peak wasn't the best idea when we could just take a few more mellow pow runs in the morning.

In the end we didn't need to make that decision. Although I had been feeling fine all day some unexpended light vomiting before breakfast was followed by some severe vomiting after breakfast. My ski trip was over. I lay shivering and sweating in my sleeping bag for a few hours while Runar took a few laps with the ladies, and some of the other nurses were able to hook me up with some hospital strength anti-nausea pills.

Runar returned after bagging an additional 800m, and after saying goodbye to the rest of the hut's occupants we made our way back to the car.

All in all wer achieved considerably less than originally planned, but we still good a few good turns and enjoyed our first hut trip of the season. Touch wood I only usually get sick once a year, so hopefully now I'm in the clear for the rest of the season!