Exploring Phelix Creek-February 25, 2006(转)

lulululu

Exploring Phelix Creek by Klaus Haring
Range Hierarchy: Pacific Cordillera / Coast Mountains / Pacific Ranges / Cadwallader Range
Region Hierarchy: BC Coast South / Coast-Chilcotin / Bendor-Birkenhead / Cadwallader
Value: 24 . Automap . Radius Search
February 25, 2006   (2 days) Calculated Length: 8 km   92J10
Participants: Klaus Haring, Nico Brul, Leoni
Equipment: Alpine touring
Difficulty: Dense tree skiing
Abstract: A weekend trip in deteriorating weather.

Last weekend I was leading an ACC trip. Interest was low inspite of some clear weather towards the end of the week. I had the usual problem of lack of transportation. After putting one person on a waiting list and a cancellation I had only two passengers with skis and packs inside my Suzuki Sidekick, a full load. Driving up Blackwater road it soon became apparent that this approach is suitable for 2WD. The first 2km were bare, then smooth ice and compact snow, a generous 2 lanes wide on gentle grades. The road was plowed to a few 100m beyond the 11km marker, that is 13 km from the highway. The Phelix Cr. junction is at the 12km marker just beyond the bridge. The yellow km markers appear to be measured from the Blackwater Cr. bridge.

There is at least 1/2 m snow at the start of the road, becoming more higher up. From the car it took us a little over 3hours to the end. All day long it had been overcast with the sun only a fuzzy ball of light that gave no heat or shadow, now it began to snow lightly and continued all weekend. In spite of all the snow there was quite a bit of alder showing. We first stayed in the flat valley bottom which was quite uneven with many well covered dead falls. When the valley steepened we soon were forced to steep sidehilling in very dense forest, short, steep switchbacks alternating with level sections and even small drops. It was tough going and difficult route finding, any flagging we saw soon disappeared. On the road we had followed old ski tracks, but they headed up the alder slope where we traversed to the creekbed and we never met them again. The hut register showed no entry for 2006. On the final steep slope below the lake the boulders were capped by huge snow mushrooms, it looked like an icefall. It was tricky finding a way and on the descend we had to watch out not to take too much air. The good thing about the hut is that once you gain the lake you can see it in the distance. That gave us renewed strength to plow through the deep snow. The door was drifted in up to the latch and around the hut the snow came up to the window sills. I have never been there in the summer, so I dont know how much of a snow depth that makes. In an attempt to dig a well on the lake I hit solid ice 40cm down. But we had just enough daylight to get some water from the small creek that comes in at the NW end of the lake. It was -10C and when I got my skins wet they froze immediately, making them drag terribly.

That was one reason I was not too keen to explore the area near the hut the next morning. There does not seem to be any good ski slopes around. The forest is quite dense and to the south where it ends soon the slopes above are very steep. In the north a broad avalanche path leads to the open terrain between Aragorn and Gandalf, but in the flat light and poor visibility it was not worth risking it. So, after a leisurely breakfast we headed home. Skiing out is a poor skirun too. In spite of a foot of fresh powder we found few places were we could link any turns. It took us more than 2 hours to the road with a slow skier. In the morning it had been -6C, in the forest it became 0C and the snow began to melt on our packs and clothing, but it stayed powdery all the way into the valley. So the steeper parts of the road were pretty good skiing.

Back at the car we found the road was freshly plowed to the bridge across Blackwater Cr. but not below even though there were at least 20cm, but that was no problem driving downhill.

白枫叶

那个地方很漂亮哦!! 特别是那另人震撼的,近距离的大冰川!