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Whistler, BC
Canada
42 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 6:38 PM
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Preamble:
I had a few spare days this week and I decided I really wanted to get back in the Stein Valley one more time. I had done the full traverse in 8 days in both 2011 and 2012 and now I wanted to see how fast I could crank it out.
My wife dropped me off at the Lizzie Lake logging road at 4:15pm on Monday (Aug 13) and then the plan was to hike the 12km/+1000m up the washed out logging road to the proper Lizzie Lake trailhead. I planned to start in the wee hours of Tuesday to see if I could break the 35 hr, 45min fastest known time set in 2003:
http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/brown/stein/stein.html
That 2003 effort started at Lizzie Cabin - a bit in from the true Lizzie Lake trailhead. I hoped to beat their time while starting from the true trailhead, expending energy the night before hiking up the logging road (which was drivable in 2003) and dealing with significantly more overgrown trail than 2003 due to the numerous forest fires and creating vast alder/fireweed/devils club zones.
Monday
Unfortunately for me, I had a prior obligation that meant I needed to arrive in Lytton by 3pm on Thursday for a pickup by my wife. I hoped to start at 3am from Lizzie Lake on Wednesday morning, but I made good time up the logging road Tuesday evening (4:15pm - 6:45pm) and decided completing the hike was more important than the record, so I figured I'd get started right away. I hiked up to the Lizzie Cabin (7:45pm), over White Lupine ridge (9pm) and headed to Caltha Lake (10pm) for the night. By the time I was near Caltha it was getting much too dark to hike through the cliff bands/boulder fields without any moonlight.
Section Notes
The Lizzie logging road is brushy but still decent walking. At the lower washout(s), cross the creek using trees that are done instead of taking the detour. In this spot the creek meanders up against a cliff, so you either need to cross it twice, or go up and over the cliff. The detour over the cliff really sucks, so 'scootch' across the first crossing on a log and then on the second crossing an even better log will let you scootch or walk across. 10min vs. 30min.
The trail from Lizzie Lake to Lizzie cabin has ample blowdown, but the trail is obvious enough and no real complaints here. Beyond the cabin the walking is excellent to Caltha.
Tuesday
I got hiking as soon as it was bright enough to do (5:30am) and hiked around Tundra Lake (7am), across the east side of Tundra mountain to the main ridgewalk (8am). The ridge took 2 hours, and then I descended to Stein lake for noon - 2 hours ahead of schedule. It was great hiking, but now I was committed to getting to Lytton in the next 27 hours which was a bit daunting.
The hiking east of Stein lake is good for a while until the upper cable car. Then it goes from brushy to horrifically brushy. I lost my bear spray in here (likely tugged out of my pocket by some alder) and consoled myself by saying all the grizzlies are in the alpine and it should just be black bears in the valley. Then literally 5 minutes later I heard a crash and saw a lone adult grizzly about 50' away running off into the bush...hmm.
This was also the point where the excessive heat was really getting to me and I started to feel a bit nauseous. I kept hiking since I had to make it to at least log jam camp to have a chance of exiting in time for my pickup the next day at 3pm. As things cooled off I started to feel a bit better and wandered into Cottonwood creek at dusk (8:15pm). Some other (westbound) hikers left a nice note at Cottonwood saying the 1996 fire burn zone was so horrible then spent 7 hours trying to get through and then had to turn back.
Section Notes
Stein Lake to Upper crossing is good trail. Upper crossing for a few kms in somewhat brushy/not too bad (fireweed/devils club). Then the 1996 fire zone is really really overgrown with alder for 10km until you reach Grizzly creek. At the risk of sounding dramatic, some people would intensely despise the condition of this section. Then it goes back to moderately overgrown with fireweed until cottonwood.
Nice campsite a few hundred meters east of the upper cable car, about 50m east of where the original cable car is. 'Lookout' camp (at Avalanche creek) is also a nice spot although supposedly packrat prone (but not in my experience). Cottonwood is a nice camp. Logjam is a bit dismal.
Wednesday
I got started from Cottonwood at 5:30am feeling pretty good about having only 30kms and 8.5 hours in which to do it. The first 8km to Ponderosa was nice walking - perhaps a bit of a tease as it goes back to fairly brushy from Ponderosa until near the suspension bridge. I made it to the suspension bridge at 10am feeling pretty good, but also realizing the scorching heat + lack of shade was going to be tough. I slowed down from there as I had 5 hours until my ride showed up and I didn't want to heat stroke a few kms from the finish. I was also way too low on electrolytes. I stopped for a AMAZING cool down bath in the Stein about 10 minutes from the Lytton TH and then finished at 2pm.
Epilogue:
Because I hiked a few hours the evening before, the whole thing ended up taking 43.25. If I could have structured the 26 hours I actually spent on the trail around one night of sleep (instead of two) then I would have had a good chance of besting the 2003 FKT (fastest known time). I'm quite happy with my decision to get started a bit early though because making my pre-scheduled pickup was already a bit stressful with little margin for trouble.
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Edited by - dandurston on 08/17/2012 09:34 AM
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Squamish, British Columbia
Canada
1030 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 6:47 PM
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Amazing!
I'm personally interested in what gear you chose to bring and food. Was it all cold food? Did you have a stove?
What was your pack weight? It looks like you had some sort of cuben fiber pyramid tent. Is it MLD or some other brand? |
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Van, BC
Canada
2843 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 7:09 PM
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Great work :)
Count me as another interested in gear and food selections.
-Ryan
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Whistler, BC
Canada
42 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 7:18 PM
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Starting off, my pack was about 12 lbs: 4 lbs water (1.75L), 2.5 lbs food (all energy bars, jerky) and 6.5 lbs of gear.
Attached is a pic of my gearlist. You're right about the MLD cuben DuoMid shelter.
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Edited by - dandurston on 08/16/2012 7:19 PM |
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683 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 7:43 PM
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| i've seen your posts on Backpackinglight, way to go! well done. For people that hate backpacking, learn here. |
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677 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 8:20 PM
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| Very impressive! Now I feel a little ashamed of my two day (+short evening) Stein traverse. Started from Lizzie cabin at 7:00 am and didn't hit the trailhead until almost 7:00 pm the next day. And that was back when you could drive to Lizzie lake and save some extra energy for the real effort. My trail time totaled almost 27 hours, but again that was starting from Lizzie lake. |
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Super botonist, hippie chick who cuddles thistles with glee
Langley, BC
Canada
1541 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 9:25 PM
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lol, bear agitator.
You, and Alex, are crazy people.  |
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Whistler, BC
Canada
42 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 9:28 PM
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I should clarify, my 26 hour trail time was Lizzie Lake to Lytton (43.25 hr total with 2 sleeps). Hiking the logging road right from Lillooet Lake (and crossing the washouts) took 2.5 hours prior to that. I think times from Lizzie Lake to Stein Lake are pretty comparable between years, but the conditions in the Stein valley seem to vary widely depending on the current state of the brush/forest fires. 2010 was really hard because most of the trail markers from Ponderosa to Logjam had burned in the fire so spotting the burnt black markers was pretty tough. That section is a lot better now that it's been re-marked, but the 10kms of the 1996 fire zone continues to get worse every year.
I saw four other groups in there doing the traverse, which was more than I expected. I ran into a medium sized group on White Lupine ridge who got heli-dropped there and were planning 10-12 days to Lytton. I ran into 4 more hikers on the ridge above Stein Lake and 4 more at Stein Lake after they took the bushwack there from Puppet. Lastly I saw a couple heading west around Ponderosa shelter.
If someone really wanted to do this trip fast, they could plan it around a full moon. And/or, do it on a low snow year so you can get it there in July with more daylight. |
Edited by - dandurston on 08/16/2012 9:38 PM |
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
35 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 10:06 PM
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Impressive! What an amazing hike to have accomplished, and in such a short period of time  Great job, keep it up! |
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north van, bc
Canada
949 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2012 : 11:33 PM
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| I took 8 days. 2 seems crazy! |
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677 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2012 : 4:05 PM
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| Two days doesn't just seem crazy, it IS crazy. And painful. I'm glad I did it, I won't do it again. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
559 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2012 : 5:15 PM
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| I like your style of trip. Most enjoyable for me. Cool report. Selection of nice alpine pics. Thanks for the info. |
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Hope, B.C.
Canada
45 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2012 : 10:09 PM
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Formidable! What's next on your list?
Please consider registering your Griz sighting...  |
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Coquitlam, BC
Canada
96 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2012 : 10:51 AM
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| Great trip report, well don! |
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Victoria, British Columbia
Canada
1773 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2012 : 2:11 PM
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12 pound bag. :O
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North Vancouver
Canada
754 Posts |
Posted - 08/19/2012 : 11:00 AM
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| Great job. I did it in 4 days a few years ago, with what I thought was a light 30 lb pack. I will be studying your gear list with interest. |
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Whistler, BC
Canada
42 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2012 : 10:01 AM
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What's next? Lots of smaller stuff and slower big trips with my wife for the next bit. My next big 'fast & light' hiking trip may be the 2013 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open next May, plus a few training trips for that.
If anyone looking to hike the Stein wants more specific info on any section (ie. campsites, navigation, washout crossings) let me know and I can go into detail.
I highly recommend anyone interested in fast and challenging hikes to check out the Bob Marshall Wilderness Open. It's a low key event (ie. no cost, no registration, no t-shirts) that takes you through amazing wilderness in the Rockies at a very challenging time of year.
BMWO Page:
http://bedrockandparadox.com/bob-marshall-wilderness-open/
My trip report from the 2012 BMWO:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=64764 |
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99 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2012 : 9:09 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by dandurston
Preamble:
I planned to start in the wee hours of Tuesday to see if I could break the 35 hr, 45min fastest known time set in 2003:
http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/brown/stein/stein.html
In 2009 a guy from work did it in 27hrs, give or take an hour. I just checked my e-mails to see what time he had said and it took 17hrs to within 20km of Lytton before his stomach shut down and he had to stop. He didn't say his whole time in the e-mail but from personal communication I believe it was another 10hrs for the last 20km. |
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Whistler, BC
Canada
42 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 7:28 PM
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| Thanks for the info. I presume he spent all of that 17 hours hiking and didn't stop for the night. Do you know if he started in the evening from Lizzie Lake and did the alpine at night? Or was he in the valley at night? The former seems more feasible - especially in 2009 with the lower snow levels allowing for a traverse earlier in the year. If someone could start in July and coincide the hike with a full moon then it would really open up possibilities. |
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99 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 8:19 PM
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He started around 3am ish from lillooet lake meaning he was only in the dark for a few hours on the logging road. It was mid July.
There is also a entry in the lizzy log book from a pair who tried to run it in a day starting at midnight at lizzy lake but got turned around by rain at pip pass. I'd be very surprised if it had not been run sub 24hrs and just hasn't been posted. |
Edited by - salbrecher on 08/30/2012 8:25 PM |
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Fast Packin the Stein Valley Traverse
