A balanced perspective of this region

Someone pointed out to me that my blog seems to mis-represent the benign climate we enjoy here on the southwest coast of Canada. I have over-represented the local mountains with their snow and glaciers. I suppose it is true that as transplant who lived most of my life in eastern and central Canada, I have been drawn to the high exotic arctic tundra and gnarly snowy peaks that are within a day-trip from Bowen Island.

I did write an essay for Quora about what I find attractive about this region What are the must-see places when visiting Vancouver.

So for contrast, here this week, is a glimpse of the blossoms on one of trees beside my home — late this year because the temperature has remained cool this spring. This morning, as I write, it is sunny, breezy, and 14ºC.

That’s about to change. Environment Canada has posted a Weather Statement. (I think a statement is a notch below warning. It has a grey background instead of red.)

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

5:15 p.m. PDT Thursday 11 May 2023

Unseasonably hot weather will develop over coastal BC beginning Friday.

Timespan: Friday through Tuesday.

Hazards: Daytime highs reaching into the high 20s to low 30s with overnight lows in the low to mid-teens.

The South Coast and inland areas of the north and central BC coast will experience unseasonably hot weather beginning on Friday. The highest temperatures are expected on Sunday and Monday.

Daytime highs will be 10 to 15 degrees Celsius above seasonal values while overnight lows will be 5 to 10 degrees above what is normally experienced this time of year.

Freezing levels will rise throughout this event leading to increased snowpack melting with possible local flooding due to high stream flow levels.

With elevated temperatures, the risk of heat related illnesses will increase.

While the developing heat may result in daily temperature records being broken, it must be emphasized that the expected hot conditions will not approach those reached during the “Heat Dome” of late June 2021.

Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to BCstorm@ec.gc.ca or tweet reports using #BCStorm.

On Spring Snow

From the top of the main lift on Mt. Strachan, looking over the runs on Black Mt. to Vancouver Island

Yesterday the weather was fine and I was determined to ski. It was only the second time this season. I am out of shape, and skinning up was a grind. I’m feeling it this morning. The temperature up there was 8ºC (14ºC at sea level when I drove off the ferry) so the surface of the snow was soft over a firm base. Hero snow! Easy skiing. Just what I need.

After the ski resort closed for the season, we headed up on April 19th. That day, it was snowing furiously and there was an abundance of snow right down to the road.

Parking at the end of the Cypress Bowl Road

Yesterday I found that much of the snowpack has vanished, and there are places on the ski runs where it is beginning to patch out.

Looking toward the north end of Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast. Note the open patch in the snow.

In April, I thought there was so much snow we’d be skiing here until mid-June. Now, I’m not so sure.

Bowen’s Extinct Mastodon

In 2017 Guthrie Gloag created a sculpture of a life-size mastodon at a secret location in the woods. I had reason to believe it was somewhere on Bowen Island. One of the adventures I and my hiking friends had one day was a mid-country wilderness search and bushwhack using Google Earth to identify likely locations. Our reward was finding finding the magnificent mastodon.

Land Sculpture of a Mastodon by Guthrie Gloag

Today I read in the Bowen Island Undercurrent that the sculpture is gone. In an open letter to the Undercurrent, Gloag writes that earlier this week he disassembled the mastodon and removed it. He explains:

“Mourn” was a sculpture of an American mastodon, the first species that scientists recognized as having gone extinct. They are fundamental to our understanding of extinction. This art installation was a message of conservation. Let its loss be a reminder of the species that are in peril today, and an opportunity for reflection on how to protect our natural world.

“Mourn” was never meant to last forever; I’m happy that I made it and that people enjoyed it, but it was time. I am at peace with this decision and I hope the community can be too.

Keep on exploring: you never know what you might stumble upon.

– Guthrie Gloag

Guthrie Gloag’s website about the mastodon

Five years ago CBC interviewed Guthrie Gloag about his mastodon:

https://www.cbc.ca/i/caffeine/syndicate/?mediaId=948303427504

…and now I am curious about Gloag’s last comment, and what new wonders he may have left at other wilderness locations.

Fading Spring Snow

Because of operations, I have not been skinning up here since the spring of 2017. I am four years older, and I’ve lost some fitness. So, the uphill slog is a grind. But it is worth the effort to be back on the snowy slopes, surrounded by old growth trees, awesome mountain vistas, and constant booming grouse.

Looking toward Crown Mountain 1319m /4327 ft

There is still lots of snow here, above 4000 ft., but lower down it is starting to patch out, and part of the skin trip up is planning where to ski down.

This patch will soon divide this favourite cruising slope

Check back to the previous blog article and compare this view with the image from exactly two weeks ago.

Lower down there are more bare patches and they are larger
Unless some new snow falls, it will become grimier

Upgrade to our Mountain Weather Forecasting Resources

Link to Salish Sea Weather Forecasting Resources

It’s been three years since our Mountain Weather Resources web page has been updated. During this time some links have vanished and new resources have arrived. We maintain this information because there are few useful forecasts for mountain travellers.

Public forecasts are designed for urban areas and airports. It may be a benign rainy day in downtown Vancouver, but above 5,000 feet in the hills north of Squamish, backcountry skiers could be navigating the sub-alpine forests or high ridges and glaciers in a blizzard with fierce winds. With some thought, planning, and the amazing forecasting tools available, this is not a surprise.

Here, on the Canadian west coast the weather usually arrives from the Pacific Ocean and performs a dance with the mighty hills, valleys and fjords. Part of planning a trip into the mountains is knowing the land forms and anticipating how the weather systems will behave. Click here for Salish Sea Mountain Weather Resources.

Lisfranc foot injury — Hiking, chasing the mastodon

On Saturday, March 10, a small group of us were on a local mountain to visit the spectacular land sculpture of a life-sized mastodon.

Life-size mastodon at a wilderness location in Southern BC, Canada

Click here for more information on this amazing sculpture. Please follow that link because it is a wonderful story — but this article is about what happened to me that day. And no, I’m not going to reveal its location.

It was a lovely day, and after some time with the mastodon, we felt like doing a bit more off-piste exploring. And I made a serious error. In this blog you’ve read about my trading hiking boots for trail runners — that’s what I was wearing. Was it because I was on a familiar mountain, and not deep in the backcountry that made me careless? Whatever the reason, I found myself moving far too quickly through the thick underbrush. I must have put my foot in a hole, or slipped off a branch, but something hurt. By the time we regained the trail, I knew the foot was in trouble. Leaning on a ski pole, I limped off the hill. The next morning I took the foot to St Paul’s Hospital Emergency. First there were x-rays, then a CT scan, and the verdict was that this was a Lisfranc foot injury. Essentially the bones between the ankle and the toes which are normally held in position by tendons and ligaments, were pulled apart and out of alignment. I was provided with a mighty boot to support the foot, and a pair of crutches — and told not to put any weight on the foot. I was given the name of a specialist.

For my friends, and for the curious, I am prepared to show you what they did to me. If don’t like seeing the consequences of an operation, you may not want to continue with this article.

New Years Day Igloo — 2018 on Hollyburn Mountain

A decade ago my teenage daughters and our friends loved building igloos. I was surprised when I was requested to facilitate an igloo on New Year’s Day. Eight of us worked all day to build a 9-foot inside diameter igloo on Hollyburn Mountain, at 3020 feet, just up the hill from West Vancouver. Dave took a time lapse of the construction.

 

In the week that has followed, the weather warmed and there was lots of precipitation. Because of a local inversion, the temperatures at the altitude of the igloo meant that it rained… and then snowed. Today, January 9, I was in town, drove to the trailhead, and walked into the site of the igloo. Here is what I found.

 

When I arrived, all I could see of the igloo was a blocky mound in the snow. The catenary profile was gone. Had the igloo collapsed?

The door and tunnel was in good shape, and the ‘foundation’ had not sagged. But the top of the igloo looked very low

I cleaned up the doorway in preparation for entering. Note the size of the shovel compared to the height of the igloo.

As I crawled through the entry tunnel, I could see that the roof of the igloo had not collapsed

When I tried to sit on the floor of the igloo, with my legs in the entryway, I would bump my head on the roof. When the igloo was built, the top of the roof was 170 cm above the floor. Here, I cannot stand my shovel, and it is about 40 cm long. The igloo is slowly collapsing — like a balloon deflating.

The collapsing walls are restricting the size of the floor

There is a post about the plan for this igloo, and reports of our earlier igloos on the local hiking forum: Clubtread. Scroll the three pages of that thread for more details. The tool we use to make the igloo is Grandshelter’s Icebox®. We’ve made many igloos since we acquired it in the year 2000.

At this low altitude site, which is only a few hundred feet above the snow line, we don’t expect the igloos to last long. In a shady spot above 5000 feet, we might expect these structures to last for weeks or months.

A marvellous cold wet spring (2017)

By late morning, Wednesday May 17, There was blue sky over Horseshoe Bay, and we thought we could see fresh snow on the local mountains. We took the rest of the day off and headed up the hill to ski. As we drove into Cypress Bowl we noted that there was plowed fresh snow along the side of the road. We parked at the top of the public paved road (3010 ft.) and marvelled at the recent dump of new snow.

As we skinned up Mount Strachan the fresh snow became deeper. There were a few day-old tracks so the dump of snow arrived a couple of days ago.

We quickly climbed into a dense cloud. By the time we reached the summit ridge, the clouds had thinned and occasionally we glimpsed the disk of the sun.

With my ski pole, I measured the depth of the fresh snow: 16-inches!

This has been an unusual spring. The local temperatures have remained cold and we’ve had lots of precipitation. The size of the snowpack up on our hills is awesome.

The drone pictures and commentary in this Clubtread forum thread provide an interesting perspective of the current snow the conditions high up on Mt. Strachan: North Shore Cornices.

Cypress Beach

Sunday, May 7th was a stunner – deep blue sky, temperatures just above freezing, and the local mountains were making some of their own cloud. If you scroll back to last year at this time in this blog, you’ll see we were  walking up the hills around Cypress Bowl to find some snow to ski. Not this year! The snow is deep right down to the parking lot at the top of the paved road.

Last Tuesday I noticed that outside the lift shack at the top of the main ski lift (no longer in operation for this season) there was a small deck with a stack of plastic beach chairs (short legs). On Sunday there was a group of people using the chairs and enjoying the view and sun at Cypress Beach (elevation 4130 ft.).

Cypress Beach

on Mt. Strachan, Cypress Bowl

The snow on the mountains that form Cypress Bowl is deep even down to the parking lot at the top of the paved road.

Trail runners instead of boots on steep snow

The spring snow is rapidly vanishing in the local hills, and I wanted a tougher test for my system of replacing hiking boots with trail runners. On May 21 I suggested to my hiking buddy that we leave the skis behind and head up for a local bushwhack. Click here for a full description of the system.

Disclaimer and warning: this article describes a route that is potentially dangerous, and is therefore not a recommended hike. A fall is very possible and could be fatal. The north face of Hollyburn Mt. is very steep, gnarly, and drops into a deep gully. Rescue would be difficult. Although this is close to urban Vancouver, the old trail is no longer completely marked, and the spring conditions increase the hazard. Wayfinding is difficult, the weather is changeable and very different from that at sea-level, and there are no easy ‘escape’ routes. This article is a report, and is not advice to adventurers.

I had heard that there was an old trail that leads from Mt. Strachan, over to Hollyburn Mt. via a steep ridge. I thought we’d be on spring snow most of the way, and the steepness would give me a sense of how the Saucony trail runners and Microspikes managed in conditions that are typical in these mountains. Since I am taking the pictures, you are looking at my companion, yet I am discussing my experience with my footwear. These are thumbs, click for full-size images.

The ‘system’ is a Saucony trail runner with Gore Tex, Microspikes, and short gaiters.	GPS track on Hollyburn Mt. Note the drop-off to the climbers’ left.	A tag on a tree showed that the beginning of the trail was a narrow vertical line with a horrific drop to the left.
At first we were on and off snow. The Microspikes provided me some grip on both. There were no more trail markers and we were just bushwhacking.	Side-hilling meant kicking my shoe into the slope. I love being up and alone in these high old forests.	We had to navigate a number of these short steep snow pitches

As we emerged onto the summit dome we looked back and saw the warning sign.

What worked with those shoes, and what didn’t? Generally, I am thrilled with the system. The runners are not boots, and kicking steps in the snow worked because while the snow was often hard, it was not icy. Runners are much softer than boots, so I was kicking tiny toe-holds and I blew out more steps than I would have with boots, but I never really felt insecure. The Microspikes are not as aggressive as crampons, which meant that when it was really steep I could not keep them from slipping — I was better to kick a hole for my toe, or better-yet, zig-zag up the slope in a diagonal ascent. For this manoeuvre I was kicking the side of my shoe into the slope until I had a little shelf to stand on. Here, I found I had to be careful. While boots would provide the support to keep my foot flat, the runners could allow my ankles to roll out and lose the grip on the hill. It required a slight adjustment to my technique.

After an hour or so with the shoes constantly in the snow, my feet became cold. This didn’t bother me because this has always happened with my hiking boots. Also, the boots became much heavier as they became wet. The runners are so light that I was amazed at how easily I could keep climbing. I felt 15 years younger. For me, this is a wonderful revelation! There was a bit of sun and dry rock at the summit, so as we rested I took off my shoes. By that time my feet had already begun to warm, and I was pleased to find that my feet were dry! I am very impressed with the Gore Tex liner in these shoes. While on the way down the benign southern aspect of Hollyburn, plunge stepping down every steep slope I could find was fun. At one point I put my foot through a cavity under the snow and into a stream of melt-water up to my ankle. My ankle came out damp, but my foot stayed dry. The next weekend we were back in the hills where the heavy rains had produced several inches of new snow at the top. I happily tramped through the spring snow in my runners. Microspikes are for more than ice: I am pleased at the security that the Microspikes provided walking across wet and sometimes mossy ground where the snow had melted.

Conclusions: These runners are not for mid-winter, high altitude, cold hiking and climbing. For everything else, they are truly a breakthrough development for my hiking. I will try warmer socks for the shoulder seasons.