1986 - Harrison Hut, Twin Sister, Seventh Heaven

Harrison Hut
Location of the Harrison Hut
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Harrison Hut looking south.

Bob Cuthbert and I travelled in Ryan Shellborn's jeep up the long gravel road to the Meager Creek hotsprings, or at least a couple of kilometers from it. I had talked to Steve Grant about the route and he said that a group from UBC was headed up before us. We had a map, directions, and a desire to get to the Harrison Hut. Our first night was spent in a three sided shed just before the hot springs as daylight was quickly fading. The next morning we headed up logging roads before we were forced into the trees. We skinned our way up a moderate slope and soon found the tracks of the UBC group. They were heading in the direction we wanted to go so we just followed them. Eventually we broke out of the trees and made our way to the hut. Knowing the map coordinates helped, as it is hidden from below.

Bob enjoying the view of the Lilloouet Icecap.

As I remember it, we spent the first night in our tent. We headed south the next morning with day packs until we got to the divide allowing us to see south across the Pemberton Ice Cap that you see in the picture above. I was so different from the coast mountains closer to Vancouver that I was used to. It seemed that we had been transported to an arctic region as it truly was an ice cap. I was very impressed by the site. The strong cold winds on the divide just added to the arctic like feeling of the place.
That night was spent in the hut as the previous group had left during our ski. The hut even had a wood burning stove! What luxury!
The ski out the next day was challenging. To begin with we had to contend with breakable crust and inconsistent conditions. You would go from quickly skooting across hard packed boiler plate to suddenly slow down in a small area of soft powder. Needles to say, most of us took more than one tumble. In the trees, wet snow had fallen down and it was easier and safer for me to ski down with skins on. At least things were predictable that way.

Ryan and Keith enjoying a hot bath.

Not the most enjoyable trip down, until we got to the hot springs where we enjoyed a hot bath! After another hour or so we got back to the jeep and a long trip back home. A memorable trip. West Ridge of Twin Sister - North Peak - Washington State Location of the North Twin Sister Peak Enjoying the high friction rock. The west ridge of the north Twin Sister is a great class three climb. I don't know what it's like now, but in 1986 you could drive about a kilometer from the start of the trail, and the trail was less than a kilometer from the rock! A lot of the rock is rough like sandpaper. You have the opportunity to do route variations on the way up, but it will be difficult to avoid some stiff class three. From the summit you have the choice of retracing your route, or if you have ice axes, drop off the north side and descend the north face on steep snow until you can traverse west and get back to the beginning of the trail. A great class three climb. Seventh Heaven - Blackcomb (or) Climb a Vertical Mile with Full Packs Location of where we camped. Ken and I thought we would make an attempt on the Spearhead Traverse. We borrowed Chuck's Omnipotent and off we went. You have to remember this was before the lifts operated during the summer, and this was also before the Seventh Heaven lift. Anyway, nothing was in operation so Ken and I set out with heavy packs from the very bottom and hiked up the vertical mile to where the top of the Seventh Heaven lift ends. Needless to say it took what remaining daylight we had to do it and I was very tired when we finally pitched our tent. During the night one of the strongest wind storms I have experienced hit us. By about 04:00 we thought we had better get up before the tent was ripped. Needless to say the weather had taken a foul turn. Needless to say we retraced our steps of the previous day.  I made a trip in 1990 with Ken and Randy to see what things were like further east of Blackcomb and Ken and I went up Blackcomb, Spearhead, Decker, and Trory. It wasn't until 1992 that Chuck McCafferty and I did the complete traverse.