Skiing near Squamish, B. C.

Alex skiing on spring snow. Sledding supplies in to Sentinel Bay. Mt. Price, the source of two major lava flows. Looking up glacier. Don't try this. Wind is the primary source of power at Sentinel Bay in winter. Going skiing for a few days near the Duffy Lake. road. Mt. Rohr, 8000 ft. The end of the ride. Paul, calling home through a ham radio repeater. 80 km away. Cerise Cr. There is a cabin on lower right tree line. Alex within the icy labyrinth. Frank preparing to work deep under the snow Keith approaching top of Sasquatch Bump late evening. Alex and Paul in a muddy approach to the Tricouni area. Late ski at Sasquatch. Now who is faster... Frank or John? Paul ridge at 5300 ft above Squamish.

Sentinel Bay Hut

The Sentinel Bay Hilton is the definitive mountain cabin. Being there gives one the impression of total remoteness, while being accessible within a days travel.  Typically, it take me around 7 to 8 hours to get there. My pace is slow but steady. It has taken us as long as 16 hours  under storm conditions. I have spent as long as 14 days there and still did not want to leave. Over the years, it would seem that the conditions at Sentinel Bay is divided up into equal amounts of  perfect weather, marginal conditions and absolutely desperate conditions. When the wind blows, one wonders what are the limits of the structure.   So far it has survived. The gusts sometimes cause the walls to move,  and your ears to pop with the rapid pressure changes. The hut sits on an outcropping of rock in the middle of the valley, so is relatively safe from avalanches. In March 1981, after heavy rains a wet snow slide from Deception Pinnacles came within 150 meters of the cabin. The slide was 100 meters wide and the front  was 4 meters high, very impressive indeed.

Rutherford Creek to Squamish River

Just off Hwy 99, Rutherford Ck.	Start of 20 km tow....	Broken belt.
Stove built by Martin Thiokol?	Rutherford Creek cabin.	Route goes to upper right.
Manon at start of climb.	Approaching the first glacier.	Alex waxing his skis.
Top of first climb.	Alex checking the route.	First decent.
Soo River drainage.	First decent is in background.	Camp with high wind blowing.
Morning at last -15c.	From whence we came.	Strong winds and very cold.
Approaching Squamish divide.	On the Squamish Glacier.	Route goes around Ring Peak.
John	End of Squamish Glacier.	We traveled through the night.
This traverse covers four glaciers with three divides. Alex and I had checked out the far end at the start of the winter, although things looked very different at night when we came to that section. This trip started on March 22/96. Rob towed us in the 20+ km in a series of  leap frog maneuvers. Without the snowmobile support it would have been a very long ski approach on the logging road. We all arrived at the cabin quite late. Ivan, from Pemberton, took the machine back to the highway. The next day brought clear conditions, but with strong Arctic outflow winds. We were comfortable wearing full Gore-Tex while moving, but cooled down rapidly whenever we stopped. The trip took four days to complete. The most tiring part was driving back to recover the vehicles from the start area after travelling all night

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