Ladies Takeover the Phelix Hut!

When I saw the posting for the ladies-only super spooky Phelix Hut weekend, I was quick to pay my membership fee and sign up. I had been to the Phelix Hut once before, for a Thanksgiving scramble in 2019, and it was easily one of my all-time favourite memories at UBC!! I was absolutely stoked to be spending a weekend at one of the most beautiful places with a bunch of rad ladies. After a long Friday night of Halloween festivities, getting up wasn’t the easiest and I quickly regretted agreeing to be a driver. Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to catch up on lost sleep on the drive, I chugged two cups of coffee, took an Advil, and shoved all my gear in the car. After scraping all the ice off the car for the first time this year, I was finally on my way. In classic Anna fashion, I was about 30 minutes late to pick up my group, but with way too much caffeine pulsing through my veins we made up for lost time on sea to sky. The car ride was quite the time, as we learned all about Norwegian toilet culture from Sina (did you know that Norwegians use wood chips instead of toilet paper?! Or maybe that was referring to the compostable toilets… I can’t remember. Either way they’re tough as nails up there!). After a few hours, we made it to the Mcdonald’s parking lot in Pemberton! Surprisingly, we were on time to meet everybody and we did a group check-in. Shoutout to Melissa and Lucy for successfully coordinating all of this!! After a few logging roads, some Norwegian music and a lot of laughs, we made it to the trailhead. Let the walking begin! The long slog up the logging road definitely woke up my legs and the lifesize banana in front of me really kept them going (see photo below). The logging road was absolutely STUNNING and the sun was out for the first time in what felt like YEARS. Off to a great start! After about an hour on the road, we took a quick lunch break and started up the actual trail! We encountered the first bit of snow and a ton of mud, so we were all glad we brought gaiters:) We were so hyped to be catching the last bit of the autumn colours!! The beginning part of the trail was beautiful – see photo below for evidence. A couple of hours passed, and so did all of the dry, snowless trails. It really felt like we went from 0-100 in snow level, because all of the sudden Melissa and Swantje were having to trailblaze the entire way up with their snowshoes (again, big shout out to the trip leads for being so incredible). The snowshoes really helped, but I think Rekha falling in every single hole in the snow was truly the main event. Although it was a pain in the** to walk up, the snow did make for some beautiful pictures! 10/10 scenery:) We were all getting pretty tired of the freezing cold trek up the mountain, spirits were a bit down, and then all of the sudden we turned the corner and BAM the lake! I definitely shed a tear, but it also definitely froze to my face because it was so damn cold outside. At this point, the sun was setting so it was getting a bit chilly. After a little time looking over the lake and freezing our butts off, we started the speedy walk to the hut! Getting to the hut was a magical experience. We all helped sweep the inside, get the snow off the steps and make a fire (props to fire master Adriana for really getting her going)! We all set up our sleeping area, bundled up, and began our potluck! I stuffed my face with some vegan meatloaf, Swedish sticky cake, the DIP, and date bars. The highlight of this entire trip came right after this when Lucy and some others whipped out the guitar and started playing some tunes. Sitting by the fire, I definitely took a moment to reflect on how I was in an incredible hut in the mountains with some incredible, beautiful and strong women/femmes. To top off all of the good feelings, we went outside to see the entire milky way above the lake. Here is where I cried for the second time (out of the pure joy of course). We all went to bed between 8 and 10, absolutely pooped. Some of us woke up at 2:00 AM to try to see the northern lights, but no success. In the morning, we all compared how well we slept. I got a solid 11 hours of sleep but I’m not sure if that was a universal experience.. The morning was full of lovely chats and tasty coffee. The hut was warm and welcoming compared to the cold snowy landscape outside. As we all woke, spirits were back up with excitement for the day ahead of us. After the obligatory hut photo and a bunch of side photoshoots, we began our descent. The hike down was speedy, full of big hearts and singing (thanks to Rekha’s beautiful voice). Trekking through the snow with no snowshoes was a breeze on the way back, but it was full of slipping and sliding. I’m not sure about others but my total fall count on the way down was 7. Once down, we reflected on the incredible weekend we had, gave lots of hugs and said our goodbyes. Overall, I would rate this weekend a 10/10, partially because of the beauty of the mountains and the warm hut, but mostly because of the incredible company. Cheers to new friends, some badass ladies, and screwing the patriarchy:)