Squamish and Whistler

I spent a week in Whistler at a Keystone conference, and had the opportunity to get in a bit of outdoor activity (although not much). It was a great conference, I had never actually been to Whistler before, and it was really fun to have a meeting there!

Whistler village

 On one of the free afternoons I drove down to Squamish and did a quick hike up the Chief. It has very weird to be on that formation in the snow!

View of the Chief from Howe Sound Brewery

Heading up a snowy Chief trail!

South summit of the Chief

 I even managed to get in a day of skiing with my student. I have not been skiing in 12 years, but it came back quickly. Skiing is pretty darn easy, but its fun. Maybe I'll invest in some AT ski gear next year. Overall - fun meeting and a fun time on the BC coast.

Ski - fun

Windy Mt. Shasta

Lesson - probably should have listened to the forecast. 

Michael and I made an attempt on Mt Shatsa, but got pummeled by hurricane force winds and did not even make it past Helen Lake.Still, we had some nice winter camping, and of course a mandatory trip to the Black Bear Diner :)

This is how good climbing trips start!

When we arrived at the parking lot, the sky was blue, but there was a conspicuous lack of cars in the parking lot. This made me immediately suspicious that the locals knew something that I didn't.

Well, we drove all this way, might as well head up the mountain.

Packing up

Blue-bird? What cold go wrong?

On the approach up we ran into a couple of guys who had been up at Helen Lake the night before, what they told us did not bode well. They had been hit by insane winds all night that collapsed their tent. They didn't even bother to try and summit in the morning because things were so bad. 

Still psyched

We decided to put our tent at Horse Camp, and then head up and see what conditions were like. Conditions turned out to deteriorate rapidly as the day wore on.

How do things look Michael?

Starting to get worse.....

And then the winds, they were so strong we could barley stand!

We made a strategic retreat, and dug our tent in for a night of winter camping

Camping - Michael likes orange a lot apparently

Crappy selfie

We then packed it up, and headed home, tail between our legs. Next time, I will actually listen to the forecast before making the 6 hour drive to Shasta!