Rogers Pass - Feb 19, 2011 - 8812 Bowl

Skiing with Rohri

The damn coastal mountain drainages

There has been a lot of news items recently about a hiker who failed to return from a solo trip in the mountains east of Squamish. A massive ground search was undertaken which found evidence of his passage - mainly in the form of footprints. Sadly, the hiker himself has yet to be found.

What struck me, were the reports of the terrain in which his footprints were found:

Searchers were scouring the Bull Creek area after discovering Wright's footprints in the creek bed the previous day.

They believe Wright attempted to climb out of the bed and slid back down.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/bc/Missing+hiker+footprints+sighted+Bull+Creek+area/3444707/story.html#ixzz0yLLKR0HD

The RCMP news release also talks about a 15 m slide in that area as well as a steep snow slope that the missing man attempted to climb in order to get out of the creek bed. After that failed attempt, the footprints continued downstream.

It is an all too familiar story. Although it must seem to be a reasonable thing to do, following any creek bed downstream in the coast mountains is a high risk activity. The drainages in the coast mountains are heinous. The further you go, the greater chance you have of being cliffed out as they often get steeper as opposed to gentler as you get further from their source. The folks that work with North Shore search and rescue are often called to find skiers and boarders who left the bounds of the local ski hills, got into the wrong drainage and got themselves into significant trouble by continuing to follow it.

So, for the next time you are in the backcountry, here's my advice:

1) before you enter any drainage, make sure you know its the "right" drainage. Some are used as well established routes, but often the drainage right next to the one you are aiming for will turn your trip into an epic.

2) if you are in a drainage and you don't know where you are or where it is going (and you'd better be damn sure if you think you know where its going) - go UP. I know it seems like more work (especially for skiers and boarders!) but its often the safest thing to do. Remember, if you are lucky enough to have people trying to find you, they are most likely following your trail - why make them go further?

3) whenever possible, travel on ridge tops.

4) if lost, get to high ground or where there is less ground cover so you can be seen from the air.

have fun, be safe...no trip or line is worth the lifetime of adventures you have in front of you.

M***ntain aire

When preparing for a trip, Mr BCshuffler and I usally go to our local outdoor coop....er midsized retailer, and are confronted by a display wall of dehydrated food. On this wall the packets are displayed in a pleasing manner creating a kaliediscope of outdoor gastronomie and yet, we are seldom enticed. Instead, we head to the grocery store for some just-add-water or just-add-water-and-butter convenience foods which are cheaper and, in our opinion, just as disgusting. Generally we carry one of these dehydrated outdoor pouches only as an emergency meal should we get delayed by weather or man-made disaster (equipment failure, physical failure, emotional failure etc). This poor neglected dinner usually "expires."

A quick survey of my colleagues (n=2) during lunch time taught me that these dehydrated meals are universally carried on trips because:

"nothing is lighter"
and...
"you're so hungry after a day of exercise that you'll eat anything"
and...
"I wonder if NASA makes better food. Can you imagine three months in the space station?"

I have several dearly held opinions about these packages of convenience.

1) I hate their names. They all seem to be called things like "outdoor kitchen" or "backcountry gourmet" or "chef on the trail." Those titles overpromise and underdeliver. There is nothing gourmet or chef like about this food...it isn't even PLATED. Ramsey would NOT approve. Besides, what I often want in the backcountry is something like "grandma's comfort food that she made for you when you were five and feeling sad about someone being mean to you at school." This is especially true after nine hours of logging road (hello Lizzie creek cabin!) or incliment weather or BCShuffler's overestimation of what we can do freshly off the couch.

2) I hate their excess packaging. The packaging weighs nearly as much as the food! I hate packing them out and I hate the way they pack in my pack. They just don't seem to fit or be pliable enough to work well in these modern packs that are really stuffsacks with harnesses attached.

3) I hate the flatulence. What you save on food weight you make up when you are forced by your companions to carry a tent for your very own personal use! No matter what I do, I can't seem to get rid of this problem. I suspected this was due to under-rehydration but even if I put in more boiling water and let the contents sit longer than called for the by instructions I am left with a cold soupy meal that still separates me from my friends. Now I suspect it may be due to soybean oil or guar gum or other strange ingredients that don't grow on trees or allow themselves to be pronounced by anyone without a biochemical degree.

4) I hate their price. Presumably this is where the "gourmet" comes in.

5) I hate that suspect little packet of oxygen absorber. Egad...the day will come when I forget to take that out and we'll be down a meal and hungry for days....

6) I hate the volume of food/ calorie content. The average calorie content seems to be about 600 and these packets claim to feed two. Hmmm....Two what? Two six year olds? Two slovenian fashion models? Two percent of what BCShuffler would like to have eaten for dinner?

I think that's enough objections for now. The only thing I think I like about these meals is that there are no dishes to do. My colleagues tell me the secret is to read the reviews on the outdoor coop's er...I mean midsized retailer's website and to pick things that sound innocuous like vegetable risotto and spaghetti in meat sauce.

They might be right but for now I'll stick with what works for us. Lots of soup packets, convenience foods from the grocery store (noodles and sauce on sale for 99 a packet! Gold!), landjaeger sausage, chocolate, hobnobs and tons of snacks in the form of bars, GORP and dried fruit.

What do you think? Have you found a dehydrated meal you'd eat again or serve to your in-laws the next time they just "pop over" for dinner?

BCShufflette

Lizzie Creek Cabin

Visited the Lizie Creek Cabin a few weeks ago. Besides being a long slog in (and out), and receivng alder lashings on the road, it was a pretty cool place to visit.

A couple things to note...the Baldwin guidebook sugggests that there is a bench at 1680 M (5500 ft) that takes you into the entrance of the hanging valley (gates of shangri-la)...but it's actually at 1580 meters (5100 ft)...it's amazing what a difference 100 meters of elevation makes.

Also, if you're not an experienced trapper/woodsman, and you rate your wood burning stove skills as beginner/intermediate, here's a simple tip:

If you want to produce a fire with little heat and lots of smoke (i.e. you're smoking some fish), leave the bend on the top of the chimney in place when starting a fire.
But, if you want to produce a fire with lots of heat and little smoke, remove the bend at the top, untill you have the fire really going, and then replace the bend (to keep snow/water out).

To Review:

If you want to achieve Low Heat/High Smoke-> Leave the bend in place
If you're looking for High Heat/Low Smoke -> Remove bend temporarily