Cross-Canada Trip #2 - May1st-Aug31st, 2007

[allochris]

Hey Everyone,

I think some of you might be interested in following our upcoming summer "expedition" trip in Canada.

So,... here is some details of our plan!

As soon as I get to finish preparing my truck & camper after my exams in on the 3rd wk in april, around the 1st wk of May, my girlfriend & I, our dog, and maybe another person, will be driving west bound the whole way until we hit the Pacific Ocean in British Columbia.

We will be leaving eastern Canada from Montreal, passing by Toronto, & pretty much fly through Ontario, Manitoba, the prairies, through the Rockies in Alberta, Selkirks in BC, & arrive at our 1st destination deep in the BC Coast Mountain... Whistler.

All this described above should take us minimum 4 days, pretty much with alternating driving amongst us the whole way non-stop.

I have done the exact same drive only 2 winters ago, dead in the January 05's -35°C Cold Snap. I don't know how I did it last time but I will not ever re-attempt to do Toronto-Calgary in 48hrs! :iagree:

 

[allochris]

Once we will arrive at the Sea-to-Sky Corridor (the Squamish/Whistler/Pemberton valley) after a +/-5000KM drive, we will pretty much settle at my friend's place for a week or 2, depending when the first May high-pressure system will move-in & settle in the coast range of BC.

From that point, it will be the beginning of our real expediton adventure.

Since my last visit in December, my whistler friend "Graham" & me have been planning a 2 weeks long ski-touring traverse in the middle of the coast range in BC, specifically on the "Homathko Icefield".

Here is some details of our plan.

Day 1:

-Drive 550km up to Tatla Lake from Whistler, ~8hrs or so.

-last minute pre-trip equipment check and drop off all of our ski-traverse related equipment at the local & only aircraft charter company "Whitesaddle Air"

-Sleep overnight at the local airport parking lot (more like an air strip)

Day 2:

-At the nearest Hwy Turn-off, we will get off the main road (hwy 20), and drive south as much as possible, to reach the southern end of Tatlayoko Lake, which is also the drainage where our ski-traverse will end.

(Because virtually all mountain access in southwestern British Columbia is by way of logging roads, our drive will be following a logging road that goes south along the lake. At the moment, the status of that logging road to us is still unknown, so we will expect old roads that might fall into disuse and become washed out or overgrown (especially bridges). :safari-rig: )

Our goal is to drive as far south as possible, for the purpose of getting as close as possible to our ski-out drainage from the North East of Homathko Icefield. Estimated distance: 50-60km

From there, we will find a place to park and secure the truck for the duration of our ski-traverse.

(If there are any suggestions about securing the vehicle, please don't hesitate to do so.)

-Once the vehicle is secured, we will take our mountain bikes that we brought along & bike back out the logging road to the airport

-Sleep overnight in a tent at the airport for the next morning flight

Day 3-14:

-Get up early on day 3 to do a final check of all equipment

-Get into a beaver plane that fly us south-west to a landing strip of a remote logging camp on Homathko River
(If we are luckily with the weather, we hope to be able to identify our route from air as we should be flying directly above it.)

-Once landed at the logging camp, we will begin our hike from deep down in the valley. We will be carrying all of our 2wks equipment at all time & slowly slog-up the forest floor with skis on our backs until we reach the south western end of Homartko Icefield.

-From there, it will pretty much be travelling on ice for about 7-10days, if the weather cooperates. Our objective will be travelling north-east bound, with possible attempt on Mount Queen Bess, if not ...we'll do other less gnarly looking peaks. The estimated ski-traverse distance is about 60km on the glacier itself

-Finally, the last day will be the day of ski-out. Once we will exit the glacier, forest slogging & great route-finding skills will be involved to find our only exit that will bring us back to the rest of the world, our parked vehicle.

Note... Some of you might think that we are over our head. We are not! I want to assure you to know that safety is our team's primary concern. Although our team members are all experienced backcountry travellers, hold wilderness 1st aid, avalanche tickets, and patrolling experience in various resorts, we still acknowledge of the risks involved. To assure our safety, we will be carrying a sat-phone & a VHS radio programmed with local logging road frequencies for the duration of the trip. In case of emergency or weather changed, our only exits will either be via air or ground, by skiing-out to the nearest road.

I'm looking forward to it...:arabia:

 

[Den.]

This'll be interesting to watch. Thanks.

I been recently trying to figure out if there's anywhere left in Canada for an "expedition" but am still working on ideas.

As for the trip you're taking.

I once drove from Hopeville Ontario (Just Northwest a bit of Orangeville) to Litton B.C. and back in 6 days.

The last leg was from Red Deer Alberta to Hopeville non-stop. 36 hours straight. I don't even think I CAN do that again!!!!