Following New Years we were booked to go the Wendy Thompson hut, which is located off the Duffy Road, north of Whistler and Pemberton. We headed up to Whistler Friday night and Saturday morning we got up, finished our prep, grabbed coffee and drove up the Duffy Road to our parking location.
The skin in took close to 5 hours. And my pack was HEAVY. I had a number of times where I lost my balance because of it and had a hard time getting up. The first part was not easy, especially on the steep sections, but I did eventually get the hang of it after a few there is no way I can do this moments. We did break for lunch during that time as well as a couple other breaks to refuel, and to put bodyglide on my back where the pack was chafing me, but aside from that it was straight cardio for hours.
Once we got to the hut, we relaxed. I wasn't feeling great and basically sat in the corner freezing, reading my book. Eventually I adjusted to the cold a bit, but it was still cold. Fortunately we had bought liners for out sleeping bags and I was actually warm during the night, though not very comfortable. I didn't sleep much Saturday night and still wasn't feeling that great, plus I was worried about the skin/ski out so I decided not to do any extra skinning/skiing and just stayed in the hut with my book while the boys went out. There is something about the complete pure silence of being in the middle of nowhere with no electricity that makes you appreciate how huge the world is.
I had wanted to leave around 1:30pm, worried about the darkness of the night, but we didn't get going until close to 3pm. In my head all I could think was, make it to the road before dark. Not the road where we parked, but an old logging road we had skinned up, that was pretty easy going and which I knew I could handle in the dark. And we did make it. Barely.
Eventually we stopped to put on our headlamps and did the last part in total darkness. There was one shortish steep treed part to get from the logging road down to the actual road. I just stayed close behind Graeme and took it slow. And I made it. I wasn't sure I was going to, but I did.
It was most certainly an adventure. One I am not sure I am ready for again so soon. But we'll see. I am sure feeling better would have helped!
Yes, this is me when we finally got back to the car.
2 comments:
Wow! That sounds like an amazing trip. Freaky to think about skiing in the dark like that! You are amazing.
Wow, quite the trip! Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well!! It sounds like quite the amazing thing to do, but skiing in the dark would terrify me! Well, actually skiing period scares me since I haven't done it before!
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