Halfway to Heaven

Just hanging out

The trip to Shangri La was coming up and this time we were going to be ready for it. Last year I'd torn the medial collateral ligament in my knee just before New Year's and so I missed out on the annual trip. This year was going to be different. I'd been training with the 5K running clinic since October and after my New Year's Day run had enrolled in a 10K clinic that ended in March. Let's just say that I was in a lot better shape than I was two years ago and was really looking forward to getting back in to the log hut for a bit of prime skiing. This year Col was coming in too so that was going to make it all the more enjoyable (or at least a little less smelly!).

Last year the guys had gone in halfway the weekend before and dropped a cache of non-perishable food along the trail so that they didn't have to drag so much weight all the way in to Shangri La. It worked out so well last time that we decided to do the same this year. Col was working at the hospital so she couldn't make it and the other guys (Andy and Mac) couldn't make it either so it was just Ken and I left to do the heavy lifting.


Trail in

We made it out to the Maligne Lake road and the parking spot in pretty good time and set out with half of the dry goods packed into my backpack and half in Ken's plus our usual stuff that we take along anyway (water, food, repair kits, puffy jackets, rain jackets, knives, tools, extras, shovel, beacon etc etc...). It wasn't nearly as bad a trip in through the forest as I remember from two years earlier but I suppose that could have been due to the fact that I've had a bit more skiing under my belt since then and this time round I'd been able to eat food for the previous three days (last time round I'd just recovered from a bad stomach bug before trekking in).


Croissants of snow

Snow iris

River of snow

There had been a lot of fresh snow in the previous days and on top of the very solid base the going was pretty good and the creek was well covered up. This meant that there were some really pretty sights on the way up where the creek had opened up a hole in the snow cover and exposed the layers that had been laid down, as shown in the croissants above.

Once we got about half an hour past Teapot Corner we crossed over the river and found the trees that the guys had used last time to set up the cache.


Getting things sorted out

Where did I leave that end?

Now a cache needs to be both waterproof (for the snow) and out of reach (of the animals) so we had to string it up on a rope system in the air between two trees. We ended up combining both of our bundles into one kayak bag and hooking it up with some heavy duty carabiners to the nylon cord that we'd brought along.


The final product

Of course this meant that we had to climb at least two trees in order to get the food up there and off the ground. Needless to say, this is easier said than done in thick pine trees whilst wearing ski boots and gloves.


Ken of the jungle


My turn

What doesn't come through in these photos is that this tree is frozen solid. I mean the air temperature is somewhere around -20C and holding on to the branches is like holding on to solid poles of ice. Which means of course that after about 5 minutes of holding yourself up in the tree by hanging on to branches your hands feel like they've just been dipped in liquid nitrogen. You can't use heavy duty mitts though because you need to be able to use your hands to grip and mitts just aren't good for that. The things we do for fun...


Not a bad cache for a half a days work

Once it was all set up we made our way back down the drainage where the river is and into the forest trail again. It didn't take us too long to get back either as there was so much fresh snow which slowed us down enough that we could scoot down the uptrack without skins on and not get too out of control. The trip down the drainage last time was done completely with skins on the skis and took as much effort as getting up it. This time was much more fun and much less effort. Hooray for fresh snow!

Back at the carpark I think we were pretty pleased with ourselves and looking forward to the next weekend when we'd be able to reap the fruits of our labour.


A job well done