Archive:4july2009 alcoholic

Veenstra's Semi-Alcoholic Traverse

Synopsis

Message Board

Motivation

The past couple summers I've been leading "beginner-friendly, but not easy" traverses. The idea is to do something interesting and hard enough that you feel you've accomplished something, but not so interesting or hard that you actually perish.

If you've been on a few trips, perhaps nothing too serious, but are reasonably fit (or at least very tough), own (or can borrow - maybe from the club) the gear you need and are looking for a challenge this is the trip for you. If you're wondering whether or not this is the trip for you, go ahead and email Veenstra or post on the message board. The idea is for the trip to be pretty cool without requiring any special skills (maybe you'll even get a chance to learn, or at least find out about, some of these special skills).

It's beginner friendly, but as stated above that doesn't mean easy. It means you might suffer a bit, but I'll try very hard to make sure you survive and guarantee that you'll enjoy it (although maybe only in retrospect). Packing light will help.

Ok, real synopsis

The plan is to do the "Alcoholic Traverse", almost. What's nominally called the alcoholic traverse is going from Mt. Brew (where the VOC build their Brew Hut) to Brandywine (where, legend has it, some railroad workers bet a bottle of Brandy against a bottle of Wine over the height of the nearby Brandywine Falls). This is normally considered a 3 day traverse. We're going to cut out Mt. Brew and instead traverse from Brandywine to Cypress (which is across the valley from Brew) which should bring it within weekend range. Besides - the views from Cypress will be better anyway, and this follows what most would consider the main divide if it wasn't for the names.

The views will be great - there'll be views of Cayley, the Ashlu-Elaho divide as well as Garibaldi Park. There'll be the opportunity for two summits - Brandywine and Cypress, both of which are rated at three star scrambles in Matt Gunn's book (and that's the most you can get!).

Both days should be around 1500m elevation gain and 10-15km of hiking.

Dates

Trip: July 4-5 Early Saturday morning to late Sunday night, weather dependant.

Pre-trip meeting: Tuesday June 30 in the clubroom at 7:00. Not mandatory if you know what you're doing - but if I haven't communicated with you (in person, over the phone, email) before the trip meeting I'll assume you're not actually coming. If you can't make it to the meeting let me know, and try to either arrange car/tent/stove (and let me know) on your own or get somebody to represent you at the meeting.

Getting There

This is tentative, until confirmed at the trip meeting, when I'll take this notice down

All drivers please be heading over the Lions Gate Bridge with all passengers picked up at 7 am. Most cars will rendezvous at the Squamish Tim Hortons.

From there we'll drive together to the Brandywine Trailhead together, to avoid getting lost. From Squamish drive north on highway 99. Turn left off highway 99 at the Callaghan Valley road. From the Callaghan road take the first left, less than 1 kilometre up the road, past the Whistler recycling facility, continue past huge snowmobile parking lot and on to the old Brandywine main. After about 4.5km ignore the Brandywine Meadows spur on the right (unless you have 4wd) then ignore the Brew spur on the left 775m. At 920m elevation is a wide parking area (with toilet and info board) (the last hill before the trailhead is reportedly a little bit rough, but still 2wd - you may need to loose some weight by making passengers walk a short distance, or park early. If parking early don't block the road). In case you were wondering, the trail intersects with the 4wd spur road higher up but it's not worth shuttling.

Some cars will leave Vancouver at 6am, to shuttle some getaway vehicles to the end of the traverse early. They'll meet us at the trailhead.

Gear

There will still be snow in the mountains, lots of it. Probably enough that if you really really liked skiing you could still use your skis - but the snow should be getting hard by now, so we will be leaving skis and snowshoes behind. Skis and snowshoes are heavy, and we need to be fast and light.

If the weather is sunny it will be hot. All that snow will reflect the sunlight, and we'll be the only things around which don't. Long sleeves are a good idea, to protect you from both the sun and the insects and you could go snow-blind without sunglasses.

Real Essentials

You might not survive without them!

• sunscreen
• sun glasses
• something to protect you from mosquitoes (I like long sleeves and a bug-net, some people like to cover themselves in poison)
• gaiters and waterproof boots

Almost Essentials

People call them essentials, and you should really have them but really you'd probably survive without them.

   * water bottle (at least 1L, 2L is better)
   * headlamp and batteries
   
   * map
   * compass
   * backpack
   * pocket knife
   * whistle
   * lighter and/or waterproof matches
   * first aid kit
   * TP (natural substitutes may be available) 

[edit] Clothing

   * hiking boots
   * warm jacket (fleece or down)
   * long underwear (top and bottom)
   * toque, mitts
   * weatherproof jacket (goretex or coated nylon or softshell if weather is forecast to be sunny)
   * weatherproof pants (goretex or coated nylon or softshell if weather is forecast to be sunny)
   * gaiters 

[edit] Food

   * Lunch and snacks x2
   * Breakfast x1
   * Dinner x1 

[edit] Sleeping

   * sleeping bag
   * sleeping pad
   * ear plugs, because somebody will snore (optional) 

[edit] Cooking and Eating

   * bowl, spoon
   * Stove with fuel. If using white gas, for each person bring 75 mL
         o 300mL to run each lantern 
   * Pot and matching pot gripper
   * Toothbrush
   * water treatment 

Signup

Post here if you're interested! We'll sort this into "actually coming, for sure" and "other" later. Please indicate if you've got a car. Ideally we have 1 or 2 more cars than normal, then we can simplify the car-shuttle somewhat. Probably we'll just suck it up and head out early. Both trailheads are 2wd, although a bit rough, so even fully loaded you should have no problem if you're careful.

There is currently no limit on participants, but if we get large numbers (and it looks like we already have) we will carry out our waste (read: poo into a bag) since there are no outhouses along the route, to minimize our impact on future enjoyment of the area. With large groups it's the responsible thing to do, especially when the ground is mostly covered in snow.

1. Veenstra (Veenstramobile, seats 5)
2. Line
3. Scott Webster (car for 4)
4. Anne Webster
5. Sam Mason (car for 4)
6. Geoff Martin
7. Ilia Slobodov (car, 4 passengers max)
8. Bob (car seats 4) [A]
9. Paul Lanfranchi (car for 4)
10. Allison Boothe (interested - not sure about coming till work stuff gets sorted!)
11. Nick Chng [A]
12. Nick Matwyuk
13. Pascale
14. Ignacio
15. Jill Kennedy
16. Greta [A]
17. Maria M. (maybe have car, will know 1 week ahead of time)
18. Lisa Pittl
19. Jack Montpellier
20. Craig T. (Car, seats 4)
21. Adam Palmblad (car, 5 seats)
22. Eddie R.
23. Veronika Schmitt
24. Ankur Gupta
25. Stephanie Schmitt (car, seats 5)
26. François Mettra
27. ileana (cannot come to meeting on tues)
28. Andrew Gertge (House-sitting, may not be able to attend Tues. meeting)
29. Noriko Okamoto

Cars

Try and pick cars close to where you live, if possible

(A) Bob's car (sits 4, pick up around Fairview or Kits)

1. Bob
2. Greta
3. Nick Chng