Marriott Basin - Backcountry Ski Trip

After waiting all winter for the opportunity to try out backcountry skiing, I decided to take the bull by the horns and just do it. I had been watching for a BCMC trip that was rated less than a C3 to no avail. The backcountry skiing/avalanche awareness course had registered for at Canada West had been canceled. It was time to take matters into my own hands. Mark had gone to Dallas for the week to see his sister who had just had twins so I put the call out to see if I could organize a trip.

Lynne answered my plea and to my great relief was up for something more adventurous than a low elevation slog through the trees in the rain. We were originally planning on an overnighter but for surprisingly (you'll understand in a minute) our better judgment prevailed. We decided that for our first time on alpine touring skis might not be the best time to be carrying a heavy pack.

On Thursday, I picked up the gear at MEC (note: renting backcountry ski gear is rather time consuming), picked up Lynne, and we headed up to Pemberton. We spent the night at Home Comforts B & B so we could get an early start in the morning. We decided on Marriott Basin as our destination. I'd done it in the summer and knew it would be spectacular. Since neither of us had any avalanche training we gave ourselves a crash course with the help of "Avalanche Safety" by Tony Daffern. We drifted off to sleep with visions of avalanche paths dancing in our heads.

Next morning we were up early and on our way. Neither of us had slept very well. Probably a combination of excitement, anxiety, and just not being in our own beds. I guess I'll blame the sleep deprivation for our navigational skills, or lack thereof. Long story short, we ended up in the wrong place. Everything looked different with all the snow. We thought we had followed the directions and at the specified odometer reading there was a very obvious pull out so we assumed that was it. Getting ready to go was interesting. We had a hell of a time getting the skins on Lynne's skis and the boots on my feet.

One of our two way radios wasn't working. Perhaps the most telling omen of the day happened when I turned on my GPS. According to my handy dandy GPS we were facing East. I knew for a fact that we were not facing east. Whipped out my compass only to be told we were facing West. Lynne got her compass out which seemed to be working as it said North. The UTM on my GPS was just as screwed up as my compass reading but I made a waypoint at the car anyway just in case. By the time we were ready to go, the brand new batteries in the GPS were almost dead.

We were finally ready to go and struck out. After 15 minutes or so we came to a creek we could not cross and it became pretty obvious we were in the wrong place. We headed back to the truck and figured out what we'd done wrong. Since we'd wasted a lot of time, we decided to do Cerise Creek instead. We had left a trip plan that morning so we were a bit worried about varying it now, but we had said we were going to do either Cerise or Marriott so we figured if something went wrong, and they didn't see the truck at Marriott, they would check Cerise (they're very close to each other).

After 15 minutes in the pull out at Cerise Creek we still had no idea where the trail was. We got back in the truck and headed for Marriott which we found easily this time. By the way.... driving with alpine touring boots on is a bitch.

We pulled up behind a car and a van so we obviously had company. This turned out to be a good thing. We grabbed our gear and followed the trail of the group that had head out a head of us. The weather looked a little sketchy. It was beautiful to the south but there was a big dark gray cloud where we were heading. There were 3 guys still getting ready when we left but they caught up pretty quickly. We were just meeting up with the logging road when the guys caught up with us (Brian, Eric & Walter). They're Alpine Club of Canada members and we hit the jackpot when Eric told us that he was an avalanche course instructor with Whistler Alpine Guides.

In about 5 minutes, our crash course from the night before suddenly made sense. We were SO grateful. They went on ahead, but we got moving soon after. We passed the larger group that had headed out before us (They turned out to be with Outward Bound) and caught up with the guys as it started snowing. We soon realized that we would have been completely screwed if we'd been on our own. They broke trail for us which we couldn't have done on our own since the GPS wasn't working, not to mention the fact that this backcountry skiing thing is a lot harder than it looks..... especially if you're breaking trail!

We ascended steeply up above the summer trail. It got easier as we got used to the skis and the grade eased up a bit. The sky was clearing and by the time we stopped for lunch in the meadow the sky was blue and the snow was sparkling in the brilliant sunshine. It was absolutely spectacular. Had another avalanche lesson over chocolate & took in the view. Once our hearts had stopped pounding it got pretty chilly and we got moving again.

Before long, we were at the frozen lake. The guys had gotten ahead of us again as Lynne and I had been so busy taking pictures and shooting video. We sprinted across the lake and followed their trail into the trees. The last stretch up to the hut seemed to take forever. It was steep and I kept expecting to burst out of the trees after the next switchback but the trees went on forever. I had lost Lynne but I knew if I stopped now I might not get moving again so I caught up with Brian and tailgated him all the way to the Wendy Thompson Hut.

After a short rest in the luxurious and spacious hut it was time to turn back. The guys and the Outward Bound group were staying in the hut so we were on our own. Eric convinced us that it would be a good idea to take off our skins so we did. Pretty soon we were careening wildly down to the lake, dodging trees and trying to get used to having our heels locked in the bindings. Any illusions we held of the trip back being easier quickly melted away. This was no groomed run. If we kept our skis in the tracks, we went way too fast and had no control. If we tried to ski outside of the tracks our skis would get stuck in the snow which was quickly crusting over and/or one ski would get stuck in the track. Its hard to describe but it wasn't pretty and it was exhausting. We made it down and crossed the lake. We then faced the challenge of going uphill without skins on.

Thank god no one was looking. I'm sure we looked ridiculous. A few more out of control turns later, Lynne and I both fell. Sitting in the snow, we made the executive decision to put the skins back on. The going was slower but much easier.

We were soon across the meadow and into the woods. It was getting dark so we were really moving. The trees were much thicker which made it interesting but we persevered. We wanted to at least make it back to the logging road before dark. Skiing out on the road with headlamps wasn't optimal but it was doable. The trail seemed to be going up a lot more than we remembered it going down on the way in but you know how it is... you never really notice the gentle downhill parts so I didn't think too much of it. Imagine our surprise when an hour after heading into the woods we found ourselves back in the meadow.

We decided to take 15 minutes to assess the situation and decide what to do. We were 2 hours from the hut. We couldn't make it there before dark BUT, there was a SAT phone there so we could call home so no one would worry. It would be faster to go down but we had already established that skiing downhill was tricky at best at the steepest part were in the most dense part of the forest. It was snowing pretty heavily now and our tracks were already disappearing. We had enough equipment with us to spend the night out so we weren't worried about our physical safety. We just didn't want our husband's imagining the worst and having a search party out looking for us. We decided to try to get back to the truck. With the map and compass, we took a reading to ensure that we would not make the same mistake again and struck out again.

We quickly realized what we had done. There had been one particularly tricky spot on the way in. The Outward Bound group behind us had bypassed it by making a loop around it. We had followed their tracks and then taken a wrong turn when we met back up with ours. It was a really educational experience. We had been so stupid... blindly following the tracks without regard for our actual surroundings. Believe me, it won't happen again!

We hurried on but soon decided that it was probably safer to make our way out in the dark than it was to be reckless and go to fast. Even so, we made it out a little after 7:00 with plenty of time to get back into cel phone range before the search parties were called out.

In spite of a few hitches, it was an absolutely wonderful trip. If things had gone according to schedule in the morning, we would not have met Brian, Eric and Walter and would never have made it all the way up to the hut. So things worked out for the best in the end. We learned a lot about backcountry skiing, avalanche awareness, and what NOT to do when navigating in a hurry, when you're tired, and in the snow.

Thanks again to Brian, Eric & Walter for all their help and support. I can't wait to do it again!

Trip Report | Photo Gallery | Video

<< back

top