March 9-13 -- Wendy Thompson Hut, BC
3/9/13
Canada BC
2757
1
Had some very enjoyable skiing in the Marriot Basin with a group of eight Mountaineers and Washington Ski Touring Club members. (Randy, Greg, Denis, Dan, Justin, Matt, Petra and Jenny)
Left Seattle area ~6:30AM -- spent a little time at the border with the Canadian Border Patrol did a bunch of record checking -- thankfully we didn't need to unpack the cars. We arrived at the trailhead a little before one and were soon skinning up the well marked route along an easy to follow skin track. We joined large group (9) of college kids on an outdoor leadership course using the hut -- with 17 people in the hut it was a little busy during mealtimes -- but didn't feel cramped. The kerosene heater was working well and created a shirtsleeves environment during the evenings. Sadly the dual burner Coleman stove was beat up enough that the valve dripped raw gas.
Sunday we farmed turns on the pleasant snow on the north aspect slopes to the south of the hut. In the morning clouds moved in and out, but in the afternoon clear conditions unexpectedly prevailed.
On Monday we did a loop, dropping in the Haylmore creek drainage to the north of Marriot basin and climbing over a pass and dropping into the Spruce creek drainage before climbing back to the ridge to Marriot basin -- unfortunately a dropping cloud ceiling and limited time blocked us from skiing over the high peak and more directly back to the hut -- we had to backtrack a bit and then drop down to Marriot Lake on unbreakable crust slopes and skin back up to the hut as darkness fell.
Tuesday dawned much warmer, with several inches of new snow and lots of snow falling -- But the thermometer on the outside of the hut read 40F -- we tried one run on the gentler south aspect slopes to the north of the hut -- but visibility was pretty bad and the new snow was very poorly bonded to the old sun crust, so we retreated to the hut for rounds of hearts and gin rummy.
Conditions were again quite warm Wednesday morning with the snow around the hut feeling very heavy and visibility still being very marginaly. So we skipped any extra runs, before packing up and skiing out. Some periods of heavy rain as we approach the trailhead on the Duffy Lake road.
Left Seattle area ~6:30AM -- spent a little time at the border with the Canadian Border Patrol did a bunch of record checking -- thankfully we didn't need to unpack the cars. We arrived at the trailhead a little before one and were soon skinning up the well marked route along an easy to follow skin track. We joined large group (9) of college kids on an outdoor leadership course using the hut -- with 17 people in the hut it was a little busy during mealtimes -- but didn't feel cramped. The kerosene heater was working well and created a shirtsleeves environment during the evenings. Sadly the dual burner Coleman stove was beat up enough that the valve dripped raw gas.
Sunday we farmed turns on the pleasant snow on the north aspect slopes to the south of the hut. In the morning clouds moved in and out, but in the afternoon clear conditions unexpectedly prevailed.
On Monday we did a loop, dropping in the Haylmore creek drainage to the north of Marriot basin and climbing over a pass and dropping into the Spruce creek drainage before climbing back to the ridge to Marriot basin -- unfortunately a dropping cloud ceiling and limited time blocked us from skiing over the high peak and more directly back to the hut -- we had to backtrack a bit and then drop down to Marriot Lake on unbreakable crust slopes and skin back up to the hut as darkness fell.
Tuesday dawned much warmer, with several inches of new snow and lots of snow falling -- But the thermometer on the outside of the hut read 40F -- we tried one run on the gentler south aspect slopes to the north of the hut -- but visibility was pretty bad and the new snow was very poorly bonded to the old sun crust, so we retreated to the hut for rounds of hearts and gin rummy.
Conditions were again quite warm Wednesday morning with the snow around the hut feeling very heavy and visibility still being very marginaly. So we skipped any extra runs, before packing up and skiing out. Some periods of heavy rain as we approach the trailhead on the Duffy Lake road.
Nice work Randy and crew :) Looks like some sweet terrain up there.
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