Over the Labor Day weekend, I had the opportunity to join Jeff Mottershed, Adam Steele, and Sean McKay for a summer traverse of the Garibaldi Névé, where we would also do an improvised glacier school. As it turns out, it’s kind of a lot to be doing both in one go.

I’ve been in a reflective state for the past month or so, and this trip report will, well, reflect that. About a year ago when I started at UBC and joined the VOC, I found myself amazed by all the opportunities for exploring the mountains and waterways of British Columbia. I got very involved with the club but sometimes found that it took priority over my schoolwork – which proved to be a bit problematic. At the beginning of the second semester, I told myself I needed to focus more on school, but I allowed myself to be somewhat involved and aimed only to complete the Steps to the Neve trips. That plan quickly went south, and like many others that season, I did not make it across the Neve. I backtracked on my original plan, set different goals, and let myself be involved in other ways. The more involved I became, the more people I met, which opened doors for future trips.

Flash forward to a few weeks before this Labor Day weekend, I get included in an email chain outlining a potential glacier school. I figured it wasn’t likely that I would get the chance to do the Neve anytime soon so I decided why not, and replied stating my interests. I also had just begun subletting a new place and had a few days to futz around in the kitchen. I had found a dehydrator and took this as the perfect opportunity to develop some backcountry recipes. I set out with two objectives for the weekend: learn some glacier skills and perfect my backcountry Chili Mac recipe.

On Saturday morning Sean, Adam, and I headed up to the parking lot of Valhalla Pure Outfitters in Squamish to meet Jeff and sort out gear. We then headed up to the Rubble Creek trailhead before loading literally everything from Sean’s car into Jeff’s, and then heading back down to the Diamond Head Trail parking lot. I admired the views on the trail, only ever having been in the winter. Others on the trail gave our group lots of strange looks questioning our ice axes to which we patiently explained our glacial objectives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we headed up towards Opal Cone, crossed the bridge over Ring Creek, and then diverged from the trail towards the Neve. The valley became less vegetated, then suddenly opened to a vast glacier. The hot air temperature and cool glacial surface were reacting to form a mirage, similar to that of a hot road in the summer. As we headed towards the old VOC Neve Hut, we chatted about other glacial fascinations –  is a glacier a mineral? We took a brief stop to look down a waterfall that disappeared into the abyss deep under the glacier and took a moment to appreciate the unique sound it made. We continued across the glacier eventually reaching scramble territory. I was pretty tired at that point, both mentally and physically – not a great state for an inexperienced scrambler. Slowly I made my way up. Eventually, we reached the remains of the squished Neve Hilton and continued a bit further passing some red snow (source: super cool algae!) before finding our camp for the night. I wondered how the hell Jeff did our long weekend within a day.* *[Curious? See Neve in a day in October -editor]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was excited to try out my first attempt at a homemade dehydrated meal of Chili Mac. For those who have yet to be blessed by the taste of this scrumptious meal, Chili Mac is what the name describes – macaroni and cheese with chili. It’s hearty, cheesy, warm and comforting. Conveniently it can all be made within one pot, making it a popular camping meal. I’d been fortunate enough to have access to an extensive dehydrated food room for my summer job, but I had also only ever made Chili Mac for upwards of five people. Making a single serving from scratch would be a new challenge. I was also a bit nervous as I had just patched five holes in my sleeping pad and hadn’t tested it properly before taking it out. All I could do was hope it would hold up and keep me off the ice. The sleeping pad went well, and the Chili Mac went worse, but it would be okay because I had another night to test out different methods.

On Sunday morning we practiced a plethora of anchor systems and improvised belaying before leaving camp. Then we roped up and headed up the glacier weaving around crevasses and doing lots of turns as a rope team. Over one of the snow bridges, Jeff and Sean had marked an ‘X’ over where not to cross, although avoiding the ‘X’ I still managed to step waist-deep into snow. I was fine but it showed me the importance of probing.

Just before lunch, we reached an ideal self arrest practice spot and threw ourselves down the glacier a few times. Overcoming the mental hurdle of doing that the first few times was tricky. I nicked myself in the neck with the adze but there was thankfully no blood or open wound of further concern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we practiced crevasse rescues. Adam went into the crevasse first and I self arrested while Sean set up the anchor. Holding a human and overnight pack on my hips while using my upper body to self arrest was the most stretched out I’ve ever felt. If your parents are like mine and have ever joked about putting you or your siblings into stretchers overnight to make you grow taller, this felt like the real life version of that. All I could do was lie there and wait for Sean to get the anchor and pulley system set up. Then it was my turn to be in the crevasse. Again, throwing yourself off the side of a glacier is quite terrifying. We set up our 3:1 pulley systems, and all seemed to have troubles with minding the prusiks. In wilderness medicine, they teach you to talk through what you’re doing to your patient even if they’re unconscious. For future reference, I think it is a key step to communicate to the person in the crevasse what is happening on the surface.  Due to the prusik issue, Jeff decided he would later tinker with his pulleys to make a more effective prusik minding device. We each got to practice every position in the rescue before continuing to travel as a rope team.

We descended and got to a beautiful valley where I looked back in awe of what we had just navigated through. Adam shared some Swiss chocolate which proved to be a delicious and wonderful surprise that elevated the already-awesome moment.

We continued towards Warren Glacier and stopped near the Shark Fin. We practiced using ice screws and making V threads – a ‘water mining expedition’ as Jeff put it. I was almost speechless to learn that people leave behind rope in the V anchors. I’m a big Leave No Trace advocate, and I’m still flabbergasted.

We landed on the decision that we would walk off Warren Glacier and take the south side of Lake Garibaldi to the switchbacks – going up the north side of the lake towards the Sphinx Glacier and Burton Hut would turn the day into an overnight epic. It seemed that none of the students were mentally prepared for that, and I especially had dinner plans to tend to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a spot to set up camp in the valley that was nicely sheltered from the katabatic winds coming off the glacier. I used a different method to cook my Chili Mac that night. It was better and I took more notes and figured the preparation needed improvement.

On Monday we headed towards the lava fields of Clinker Peak. As we walked away from the glacier through alluvial plains we passed patches of vibrant wildflowers which only added to the views of the distant Tantalus range in front of us. The valley walls were jagged and the ground was sparsely vegetated minus some patches of alder and willow. Most of the time these trees grow low and densely around riverbeds to protect themselves from the harsh conditions of the valley. This makes them an extremely fun maze of branches to navigate. It reminded me a lot of my time in Alaska.

I was thinking out loud as I maneuvered through the branches and Jeff called out “You did say you love a good bushwhack”. And I do, I love hearing myself giggle as I try to trudge through the brush, and I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I reach the clearing on the other side.

After climbing up a nice stretch of boulders in the lava field we entered into the forest. We were working our way up a steep bit and I suddenly began to feel weird welt-like pain all up my arms. I looked down and saw wasps. Fuck. I started running uphill but the stinging only continued. Running did not feel like it was helping but they told me to keep going. Eventually, I made it to where Sean and Jeff were waiting and felt something hard hit the top of my head. It was Jeff killing a wasp. I caught my breath and tried to collect myself as I took off my pack to assess the damage. Adam continued upwards, taking a wide curve around where the wasps had been.

I took out my first aid kit and downed some antihistamines and ibuprofen before slathering myself in Benadryl cream. The wasps had gotten me on my arms, shoulders, head, and butt. Thankfully, I hadn’t noticed any on my legs, but we all felt it was best to continue trekking uphill to take my mind off it. I had painfully eaten my previous words – my whack through the bush quickly became not lovable, though I’d argue wasp stings do not make anything good.

At that point ‘miserable’ was a great way to describe how I was feeling. It felt like nails being hammered into my body, my butt felt like it was on fire, and I felt absolutely disheveled. All I wanted was to be submerged in an alpine lake.

Earlier in the trip I had asked Jeff what motivates him, but now I was grappling with my own motivations. I reflected on my summer, and how this trip was still going better than some I had been on this summer. It’s a long story, but at this moment I was just grateful that it didn’t smell like poop.

My thoughts also landed a little further back, how and why did I end up here? I guess it’s just been trying to make the best of my time here and to enjoy whatever I do – both in BC and life in general. I thought back to where I had been two years ago: on a plane headed from Seattle to Fairbanks on my way to my first backpacking trip. I didn’t grow up around any sort of elevation, so as I looked down seeing the snow-capped mountains for the first time, I was amazed and in awe, and a little bit scared of what I was about to get myself into. I told myself that if I enjoyed backpacking, I would get to BC to explore those mountains one day. On that trip, I saw my first glacier up close and in person. So I decided that presently I was going to continue up the mountain to live out sixteen-year-old me’s dreams.

Presently I was also getting really itchy. There were some gnat-like bugs in the forest and I asked if they were biting anyone else. Everyone said no — turns out I was just mildly breaking out in hives under my sports bra. I told Sean I was going to keep an eye on them. I tried not to be an “are we there yet” menace but my motivation only went so far. I asked what the distance was until we got to Garibaldi, or at least to a place where I could see the lake and regain some more motivation. They took out their phones to check and reported no GPS signal. I wasn’t necessarily looking for an accurate answer, I just needed some number to keep in mind for motivation. Something was better than nothing so I asked for a fake number and got a hesitant variety of answers which helped a little.

I took some acetaminophen at lunch and was feeling much better after we got going again. As I suspected there was a false high-point, Clinker is a volcano so we had to dip into the cone a bit before climbing back up the other side. But I was stoked to be in a volcano and it also kind of looked like we were on Mars, epic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued down the lava fields on the other side with views of Garibaldi Lake, these new views and the down-hill lifted my spirits. After a short and treacherous but wasp-free bushwhack, we found a beautifully defined trail on the ridgeline (this trail is marked well on Google Maps). We followed this trail to the Garibaldi campsite, discovered a very high lake water level, and went for a swim. Sean, Jeff, and I practiced ascending over the rafters in one of the eating huts while Adam chatted with a ranger about Burton Hut. Then we were ready to head down the switchbacks to the car. Adam and I exchanged riddles and drove Jeff insane. He reminded me that I’m a terrible person after I left him without an answer to a riddle back in December. I reminded him that that’s how riddles work.

After gear and car switcharoos, we returned home late at night. A warm shower, lots of Benadryl, and my cozy bed awaited. I counted up my stings, it was a bit hard to tell because of the swelling, but I totaled 25. Random bruises only topped that number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve since been told that the Garibaldi Névé Traverse is the traverse quoted by many guidebooks as *the* trip to do if planning any around SWBC. And by some amazing chance, I had the opportunity to do a summer traverse. I’m so incredibly grateful that I had this opportunity, and even through the hiccups, I thoroughly enjoyed this trip – I loved learning glacial travel skills and the views were exquisite.

I’m still learning to go with the flow, this weekend proved that it’s important to keep an open mind. For me, this trip wouldn’t have happened had I not allowed myself to shift focus and explore more. It seems the more I get to explore and look out at the distant mountain ranges, the more I add to my to-do list. It also seems that the more I get out on cool trips, I meet more cool people. On that note, I’m so thankful for the people who made this trip possible – mostly Jeff, but Adam and Sean too, of course.

Reminders: things will work out to be okay, get comfortable with being uncomfortable and know that you can do hard things. Enter situations with an open mind, and never stop striving to meet your goals : )

Chili Mac Recipe

The story’s not over yet – and sorry about the VOC not having a ‘jump to recipe’ button.

Last year in the dorms I struggled with food options for camping. I didn’t want to succumb to an $11 pre-packaged meal. So most of the time I resorted to Mexican style rice with beans or tofu. Now with my own kitchen, I’m stoked to try out more recipes. But as it turns out the dehydrator I found is actually a steamer. Not exactly helpful for extracting moisture. So I had to improvise with my oven…if you are the lucky duck owner of a dehydrator, good for you.

This recipe yields two meals and can range from however homemade to store bought, or vegan to carnivore the chef prefers.

Two sorta scientific notes on this recipe:

- It is important to not use any fats if trying to dehydrate, as they won’t satisfyingly dehydrate

- Cooking the pasta and then dehydrating it may seem silly, but it allows for a quicker cook time and easier clean up later as the pasta is no longer raw and the starch has already been removed.

 

 

Ingredients

• Chili
  • I used a can to make clean-up easier for myself this time. But I have used a similar process with individual ingredients to make chili while camping.
• Mac and Cheese
  • I used boxed and took advantage of the already-dehydrated cheese.
• Optional add ins:
  • Spices, fresh cheese, hot sauce, true lime, etc.

Preparation

1. Prepare the two sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. Cook the noodles. Strain and rinse once done. Do not add any fats. Set the cheese packet aside if using a boxed recipe.

3. Thinly spread the chili onto one sheet pan and the noodles on another – one layer is best, there shouldn’t be any stacking of noodles or chili contents, use more pans if necessary.

4. Dehydrate for 8-10 hours at 150-160F

• If you’re using an oven that doesn’t go that low (mine only goes to 170F) find a way to prop open the oven door slightly for airflow. I was able to turn one of the sheet pans 90 degrees to keep the door ajar.

5. At 8 hours check the crispness. Add more time if needed. When adequately crisp, take out of the oven and let cool

6. Put into two bags – one bag for noodles and the cheese packet and one bag for chili.

• I also added spices to the chili bag (garlic powder, onion powder, cumin)

 

While camping (for one meal)

1. Boil water

2. Add half of the chili into the water and let soak for a few minutes

3. Add ½ the noodles in and let soak

4. Once both are at consistency add in the ½ cheese powder and any other things you may want.