Elfin Lakes tour

Elfin Lakes ski tour
Eric Meier and Jeff Schomaker
Friday-Saturday April 1-2, 2011

You're a grad student being hammered by research work.. sitting around day after day running simulations and writing papers. You're in Seattle near the end of the winter.. it's been raining something fierce and moss is growing between your toes. What do you do? You get your ass out into the mountains for a ski tour! I tell you, it's like a religious experience for me to get way up in the mountains, preferably in the sun with an expansive view of wild and ragged mountain peaks. This trip was no exception. Awesome. Everything comes into focus out there.

Some noteworthy things have happened since I last blogged (like getting engaged!), but I haven't gotten out on many good adventures this winter. In November, just before they shut down Hwy 20 over the Cascades, Reid, Jeff, and I did a nice skiing day trip up by Blue Lake. Also, the three of us did a day trip at Baker in January. Finally, I got out again! Jeff and I headed up to Canada. Jeff was none too optimistic that the weather or skiing would be any good. But it all turned out pretty well.

All pics (and a video somewhere near the end of the picture set) can be found at
https://picasaweb.google.com/remierice/20110401ElfinLakesWJeff#

We headed up across the Canadian border to Garibaldi Provincial Park on Friday. As usual when one of the infamous Meier brothers crosses into Canada, they want to do a full cavity search. Well, it's not that bad, but they always stop me going in for a few minutes. It's kinda hilarious how the Canadians have a need to waste their own time and mine. I joked with Jeff, who was driving, that they always stop me on the way into the US too.. but they give the driver the cavity search. (Actually, we did get stopped coming back into the US! They harassed us for 1/2 hr or so. Jeff was sweating bullets because he had some prescription pain killers for emergencies. They let him off the hook, telling him he should not cross with painkillers.. but if he was going to, he should crank up his operation some.)

We stayed in an awesome shelter in Garibaldi Park near Elfin Lakes. The shelter comes equipped with a heavy duty propane heater, a kitchen with four propane stoves and lots of pots. It's user maintained and is in good shape. Lots of propane.

Elfin Lakes Shelter upon arrival Friday eve.

On Friday night, the shelter was pretty quiet. Only three chicks from Vancouver were there. They were pretty cool and didn't smell too bad, which was good. One of them was a nerd like me and wanted to play some chess. I took her up and we had a good game. Two of them spoke French (one was a teacher of French), so I spoke some with them. She said she thought Americans like the French (so maybe that's why I would pick up the language). Au contraire, I told her. Most Americans are French-hating rednecks.

We slept like lazy bums until 7:00. When we woke up, things looked marginal. But after about 1/2 hour, it looked absolutely gorgeous and we seized the day. Good visibility was needed to navigate the terrain around there without being in danger of avalanche, cornice failure, etc.

Elfin Lakes shelter with Garibaldi in background

Elfin Lakes area panorama

After some vigorous exercise, we made it to the top of Diamond Head which is about 7,000 ft high at the shoulder of the larger Garibaldi. Looking around at the top was quite a treat.

Panorama from the top of Diamond Head. Garibaldi at right. Coast Range in distance.

Had some great turns on the way down... until I sprained my ankle during the last downhill run. It was a pretty bad sprain and made it quite painful to struggle down seven miles to the car. It's five days after the injury, and the swelling is basically gone, but it's still tough to go down stairs or to move aggressively at all. Anyway, it's a small price to pay for the pleasure of the trip.

On the way down (limping along), we ran into a weird dude from Vancouver who wasn't using his skis. They had good skins on them and he had good boots, but he was carrying them. He asked us, "why does anybody use these things on the way up.. I do better walking." We said "Uhhh. You new to this? You might want to try skinning again." Skinning is a great way to get around in the mountains.