April 5-7, 2003, Cerise Creek, BC

After many years of a travelling to Elfin Lakes hut, we decided to venture further up Hwy 99 to another hut we had heard of near Cerise Creek - about 2 hours farther up the road.  You park right on the highway at about 4000 feet.  The hut is located at 5500 feet and is proximate to Mt. Matier (9100 ft).  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there.  Because warming was expected to weaken the snowpack, we elected to follow in others tracks and not try any summitting.  We did not regret this when we saw an avalanche narrowly miss a summiting party.  Our runs were from about 6200-6500 feet down to about 5000 feet.  On Sunday (when we managed to stay on north and west facing slopes) the powder skiing was wonderful (nearly a foot deep!), otherwise a bit crusty.  Monday brought high winds and wind slab, so after a short run in the trees (~5500 feet), we headed out.  This should be a good place for many more weeks!  Cabin holds about 20 and is packed on weekends.  We used tent Saturday and cabin on Sunday.  Looked like it was going to be close to full again on Monday.  We'll be back!