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Posted - 05/21/2009 : 9:20 PM
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This is a few weeks old since I never got around to writing this till now. I thought a few people here might be into this though. The date is around May 3rd.
My friend Nick and I had a day off before starting up tree planting for the season and the snow conditions were perfect for a day of skiing somewhere. The weather was supposed to crap out in the afternoon and wasn't looking good enough to try a trip that I had failed miserably on twice in the past week. We decided a fast and light day on the neve would have to do.
We left our car at the Canadian Tire in Squamish and hitched a ride to the Elfin parking lot. I'd done the neve 5 times before with the fastest time being 7hrs 50min and thought there was still lots of room to go faster. The goal was to go as fast as we could given our combined total of 5 days of skiing between us this season. Conditions were nearly perfect with hard snow the entire way. We took our skins off at the top of Paul Ridge and skated and glided to Elfin shelter in 1hr 40min. We filled up some already melted water and headed down to Ring Creek. We ate a bite at the bottom and Nick set off on a blistering (literally, we both had big blisters by the end) pace that made me start to feel a bit of a suffer coming on. Nick hadn't done the route before and since he was ahead he ended up going the high route to get the the sharksfin which lost a bit of time but saved the ski through the worst of the crevasses (though they looked quite skiable). We took skins off and left them off till the other side of Garibaldi Lake. The lake was hard and allowed us to skate across in 35min. By this point I was getting quite tired and we put our heads down to finish the day. The snow ended at km 4 and required us to take skis off and carry them. We had about 35min left at this point to get to the parking lot before the 7hr mark so we jogged the rest of the trail in our boots and finished with just 5 min to spare for a total trip time of 6hrs 55min. The rain started to fall shortly after...
In total I ate 2 chocolate bars, some gummie candies, a pack of gloset raisins, and drank about 5 liters of gatorade. Given better trail conditions (skiable to the parking lot and less icy) and better fitness there is lots of room for improvement.
Anyone know the fastest time for this? Andy? I would guess a fast person could go sub 6 hrs, maybe sub 5 or much faster with light xc touring gear and perfect conditions...? |
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 canine loving, machete-toting bushwhacking lake seeker, Indiana Jones hat-wearing off-road 4x4 guru
Surrey Hole, BC
Canada
6871 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 10:47 PM
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I got tired and had 2 blisters just reading this  |
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Night owl posting,Subie driving, backpacking Dad who is perpetually trying to catch up to his kids on the trail.
Vancouver, BC
Canada
3064 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 11:22 PM
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| I don't know how fast the traverse has been done but sub-7 hours is very quick indeed. While I personally can't conceive going that fast under ideal conditions, it sounds like you left plenty on the table (e.g. if you had more ski days this winter as preparation and had the lightest equipment under ideal conditions). I'm going to guess you're right and it's been done under 5 hours. |
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bandana wearin', pole huckin', view lovin', dog herdin', 4x4 navigatin', lake huntin', butt-slidin' bridge crosser, who enjoys postholing with an overnighter pack
Surrey, BC
Canada
4663 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2009 : 06:46 AM
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| Nice going! |
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Garibaldi neve TR
