Trip Report: After-work Red Heather

I'm cheating a little with the photos since I didn't actually take any on this outing; the header is from New Year's Eve last year, when I camped at Elfin Lake and took a very pretty sunrise shot of Nch'kay.

The Land of the Pines

I was finally brave and strong enough to put my winter tires on, and bought myself an air compressor from Canadian Tire to address the slow leaks since I was sick of paying a twoonie to the fiends at the gas stations every time I wanted to top the tires up. The air compressor is in no way saving me money, but it delights me to own one.

Anyways, all that to say, I made the trip up to Squamish after work on my fresh and well-rounded tires for my first ski tour with Gabriel. Gabriel, unfortunately, proved to be much faster on the uphill track than me, which made me dwell on the injustice of the world, ways I could blame my equipment, if I should fake a hamstring injury, etc. On the other hand, we started skinning from the parking lot, which was absolute bliss compared to the tragic journey I'd undertaken last May where I'd only put my skis on at 1400m, and the snow was incredible. It was good to be out among the snow-covered trees, the great muffled quiet of the night surrounding us.

We attained a transition spot on the ridge and had a couple nice turns down past the Red Heather hut and out the road. It was my first time skiing that season and I found the first part a little scary since I'd both forgotten how to ski and because my headlamp was way too dim. I could barely see a couple feet in front of me. However, I remembered how to ski eventually and started having fun, like it was a reflexes game, bopping over little obstacles and avoiding trees.

Once we got to the road it was clear sailing until I saw Garbriel's headlamp stop up ahead of me. When I reached him, he'd found a lone skier, injured and trapped in the snow-filled ditch. Gabriel managed to extricate him and assess his injuries while I hovered in the background helpfully. It's important to have a witness for the rescue, probably.

The guy's knee was injured so Gabriel got him to walk a bit to assess if he could potentially ski out. At this point it was around nine at night and it was looking like a potential two or three hour hike out, and I'd then have to head back to Vancouver. I was ungenerously not looking forward to that. However, another party of skiers came up and after they stopped to see if they could help, they offered to hike out with our injured guy so Gabriel could get me back to my car.

I was very careful to stay away from the ditches on the ski out. Despite everything, it was really fun. I love the Red Heather exit; straight downhill, nice and gentle, and it drops you right at the parking lot.

After reuniting me with my car, Gabriel went back to meet the guy and the other two skiers while I headed home. I was happy to get dinner and get in bed before midnight, but I was feeling pretty guilty for quitting the scene. I caught up with him the next day and got the conclusion of the story: they made it off the mountain and to the hospital, and then safely home.

Like last year when I was at Elfin when the three mountaineers went missing, I had to think about risk in the mountains, and whether what I was doing was safe; I could have gone into the ditch as well, since I was pretty blind with my dim headlamp. There's nothing that protects me from getting lost or injured except my own sense of judgment and some luck. And I guess Gabriel would have performed another rescue if I managed to get in trouble. Anyways, no clear takeaways from this episode, except for the fact I don't think I'll be going touring alone at night anytime soon.