April 28-May 2, 2005, Garibaldi Neve Traverse
4/28/05
Canada BC
4217
5
Well, most people burn through this traverse in a couple of days, but we thought it would be nice to do it in style...so we could explore the area and make some turns.
We finished the car shuttle (parked one low down on Brohm Ridge and the others at Paul Ridge) around 9 or 10 pm on Thursday nite and quickly made our way through the dark to the Red Heather Meadows shelter. We were all sleeping comfortably by midnite...occasionally waking to the sounds of scurrying mice or to the bellowing snores of Richard.
Our group of seven dwindled to five by morning. Natasha suffered from new-boot pain and Roland was just feeling down right ill. Martin, Doris, Richard, Joel and myself set off for Elfin Lakes and beyond. It was a quick skin to Elfin Lakes in crisp sunny weather. We stopped in the empty Elfin cabin to melt some snow for the long haul ahead. We decided to drop down into Ring Creek instead of doing the high traverse from the saddle due to concerns of the warming snow pack. Crossing the gushing Ring Creek was a fun balancing act. All but one of us stayed dry!!! We soon made our way up the east side of the creek and gained the Neve. WHAT A SIGHT!!! Towering above was Atwell and Garibaldi!!! We camped for the nite on a snowy ridge.
Saturday morning brought incoming clouds...so we quickly made our way to the Neve high point below the Tent. From here we could see the route down to the Sharksfin. We easily avoided the crevasses (most of which were still covered...we never used a harness or a rope the entire trip) on our descent to the Sharksfin. Due to incoming weather we decided to set up a base camp on Brohm Ridge.
Sunday brought sun and clouds. The summit of Garibaldi was veiled for most of the day. So we decided to summit the Glacier Pikes. From the summit we could see far into the Park. We also noticed that Garabaldi Lake was still partially frozen. We had chosen to exit via Brohm Ridge because of conflicting reports on the conditions of the Lake. It was apparent that we could have skirted the Lake on its southern edge (maybe next time). Just as we were about to ski down we noticed four skiers descending from the clouds on Garibaldi. It appeared that a group had made for the summit earlier and were skiing down from below the still partially covered bergshrund. Their turns looked sweet from far across the valley!!! My run down the second Pike was awesome...a smooth corn face lead onto a steep roll over...but I soon noticed that the route cliffed out...WOOPS!!! I was forced to retreat and ski the line farther to the right that I had meant to ski originally.
Weather had improved on Sunday evening...so we had hoped Monday would be our day to summit Garibaldi and score the sweet turns we desired. Unfortunately, we woke to increasing clouds. We quickly descended down through the logging roads in rain showers. Upon descnding we realized we had taken the wrong logging road down...but Scott the Snowmobilier from Squamish offered me a ride to my car...he saved us a LONG walk!
A great route with some funny characters...hopefully I can make some turns with them in the future. To really enjoy the Neve...take your time.
P.S. I may add some photos of the Neve to the Route Photo Section for those interested.
We finished the car shuttle (parked one low down on Brohm Ridge and the others at Paul Ridge) around 9 or 10 pm on Thursday nite and quickly made our way through the dark to the Red Heather Meadows shelter. We were all sleeping comfortably by midnite...occasionally waking to the sounds of scurrying mice or to the bellowing snores of Richard.
Our group of seven dwindled to five by morning. Natasha suffered from new-boot pain and Roland was just feeling down right ill. Martin, Doris, Richard, Joel and myself set off for Elfin Lakes and beyond. It was a quick skin to Elfin Lakes in crisp sunny weather. We stopped in the empty Elfin cabin to melt some snow for the long haul ahead. We decided to drop down into Ring Creek instead of doing the high traverse from the saddle due to concerns of the warming snow pack. Crossing the gushing Ring Creek was a fun balancing act. All but one of us stayed dry!!! We soon made our way up the east side of the creek and gained the Neve. WHAT A SIGHT!!! Towering above was Atwell and Garibaldi!!! We camped for the nite on a snowy ridge.
Saturday morning brought incoming clouds...so we quickly made our way to the Neve high point below the Tent. From here we could see the route down to the Sharksfin. We easily avoided the crevasses (most of which were still covered...we never used a harness or a rope the entire trip) on our descent to the Sharksfin. Due to incoming weather we decided to set up a base camp on Brohm Ridge.
Sunday brought sun and clouds. The summit of Garibaldi was veiled for most of the day. So we decided to summit the Glacier Pikes. From the summit we could see far into the Park. We also noticed that Garabaldi Lake was still partially frozen. We had chosen to exit via Brohm Ridge because of conflicting reports on the conditions of the Lake. It was apparent that we could have skirted the Lake on its southern edge (maybe next time). Just as we were about to ski down we noticed four skiers descending from the clouds on Garibaldi. It appeared that a group had made for the summit earlier and were skiing down from below the still partially covered bergshrund. Their turns looked sweet from far across the valley!!! My run down the second Pike was awesome...a smooth corn face lead onto a steep roll over...but I soon noticed that the route cliffed out...WOOPS!!! I was forced to retreat and ski the line farther to the right that I had meant to ski originally.
Weather had improved on Sunday evening...so we had hoped Monday would be our day to summit Garibaldi and score the sweet turns we desired. Unfortunately, we woke to increasing clouds. We quickly descended down through the logging roads in rain showers. Upon descnding we realized we had taken the wrong logging road down...but Scott the Snowmobilier from Squamish offered me a ride to my car...he saved us a LONG walk!
A great route with some funny characters...hopefully I can make some turns with them in the future. To really enjoy the Neve...take your time.
P.S. I may add some photos of the Neve to the Route Photo Section for those interested.
Matt, Sounds like you had a good trip. If you do the traverse again, I would suggest you spend a couple of days in the Sphinx Glacier area plus a day around Black Tusk Meadows and ski the lines on Black Tusk. It's a great addition to the traverse.
Zap
Zap
Nice trip Matt, way to take your time and enjoy it. I look forward to next time when I can join you for the summit of Garabaldi.... I would like to see a picture or two. Post 'em, then tell me how to post pictures, because I still don't know how! I see Zap uses "Big Lines". How does that work?
Thanks Zap. Actually, our original plan was to camp in Sphinx Bay and attempt a few peaks in that area. But when we decided to exit via Brohm Ridge we scrapped the idea of camping there. Maybe next time.
Toby, now that I know which logging roads to take we should have no problem accessing Garibaldi...especially with your truck. I too would like to know how Zap uses Biglines.com to post photos...I didn't think that was possible. I guess the downfall of using Biglines is that they delete the photos from their website every so often. I think this would destroy your link and the photo would no longer appear in the report (unless I am mistaken???).
Toby, now that I know which logging roads to take we should have no problem accessing Garibaldi...especially with your truck. I too would like to know how Zap uses Biglines.com to post photos...I didn't think that was possible. I guess the downfall of using Biglines is that they delete the photos from their website every so often. I think this would destroy your link and the photo would no longer appear in the report (unless I am mistaken???).
Matt & Toby, I just started using Biglines.com for my trip report photos because the process was easy and I haven't been spammed by them yet. I'm uncertain if they delete photos after a period of time. If so, I still have the original images. Since we've been ski bumming it for two months, I haven't had the time or desire to search for an appropriate photo site. I just wanted a site to use for trip report photos and Biglines.com seems to be aneasy solution. Zap
Regarding photos in trip reports: I think there are two other solutions which are much better than Biglines.com (or any such site).
One is to just use the free web space which comes with your dial-up or broadband internet connection from home. For example, my comcast.net account (which came free with my cable modem service and which I've never used) includes 25 MB of online storage for web pages or photos. This is enough to store several hundred typical photos (640x480 or 800x600). Another option is to get a free ad-supported website from someplace like 50megs.com, which provide 50-100 MB or more of space. If you only use the site for photo storage, then the ads which they would place on your (nonexistent) webpages are a nonissue.
One is to just use the free web space which comes with your dial-up or broadband internet connection from home. For example, my comcast.net account (which came free with my cable modem service and which I've never used) includes 25 MB of online storage for web pages or photos. This is enough to store several hundred typical photos (640x480 or 800x600). Another option is to get a free ad-supported website from someplace like 50megs.com, which provide 50-100 MB or more of space. If you only use the site for photo storage, then the ads which they would place on your (nonexistent) webpages are a nonissue.
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