Fashion Risk (*and who cares?)

I am a hot person.  I don’t mean it in the slangy, cool way, I mean I’m a little warmer than most of the people around me.  Hiking at 7,500 feet didn't make me any cooler.

In my pack I carry rain-pants, a green rubber poncho(provided by Canadian Mountain Holidays ( http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com/en/), a parka, and a bottle of water that I am afraid to drink before noon.

I wear a thin 'wicking' t-shirt topped by a slightly heavier-weight long sleeve 'wicking' shirt.  Wicking means that it pulls the sweat away from your body so it evaporates faster. This is a good plan when you are working up a sweat, which, as you can imagine, a hot person does fairly quickly on a nice mountain hike.

Dawny the Hiker poses with guide

The first thing you notice in this photo is the flat shale, the snowy peaks, the white clouds in an azure sky and then there’s these two little people... oh wait... one is me.  With this view, why would I care what I look like?

Now...what should my outer layer be?  Some of my fellow hikers wear their parkas the entire time.  In summer.   I put on the parka and began to melt.  I take off the parka and began to freeze.  

I try a fleece jacket and that works great...  as long as there’s no wind.  Wind cut through that fleece like it's fishnet.  So when a wind blows in, I switch from fleece to parka, and get hot again. 

A couple of times I try the rubber poncho as a windbreaker, but it's rubber and has a huge hood which falls over my forehead and covers my eyes.  The first time I wear the poncho I fall in the snow (yes, snow) because I can’t see where I‘m going.

And as I flail blindly on the mountaintop, I began to sweat inside my little rubber world.  I looked like Little Green Riding Hood on acid.

Parka.   Fleece.   Poncho.   Parka.   Fleece.   Poncho.    all three....none

My fashion life is hell for a little bit. Not only do I feel like a fiery lunatic constantly changing outerwear, but I also have to stop more than anyone else. I end up at the back of the group most of the time,  And being at the back makes me bear bait... hot, sweaty, fashion-risk, bear bait. So as I try to catch up with the group, I sing loudly (and badly) to warn off the bears.  

Hiker with her fleece tied around her waist over her windbreaker 

has given up worrying about how she looks

 More interesting than what I am wearing is the hill I’m standing on,  the run off from a glacier at the bottom of the slope, and the snowy peaks behind me.  As always, billions of years of geology and nature give me a sense of what is important.  It ain’t my fleece.

Bugaboo Spire - another view that takes my breath away

By the second afternoon I get the right combo, and stick with it in one form or another for the rest of the trip.  That's good, because all I really care about now is wilderness in which I stand, and the exalted majesty of these snow-capped peaks and green valleys.   Can you blame me?

#     #     #

Up into the Air

In spite of the hot tub and masseur, I know this lodge-to-lodge heli-hiking trip will be physically more challenging than anything I’ve ever done, and I am excited.   Fortunately I come to find out there   are energy-saving tricks I will learn as I make my up and down the mountains, along the trails, and into the woods.

Canadian Mountain Holidays (http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com) provides a lot of gear for their patrons who may not be fully prepared for summer in the Purcell mountains (The Purcells are west of the Rockies.)  I *think* I’m prepared---I have wicking clothes and fleece, a rainjacket, and am prepared to wear (or remove) layers as needed. 

A typical day:  We wake up in a cozy room under a snuggly comforter,  peer out the window in awe at the view, and roll over.  Or maybe we get up to start our day with morning stretches (if we feel like it) and then a hearty breakfast, pack our lunch, and  choose groups based on the level of activity we think we can handle.  I wisely choose an ‘easier’ group.  If I think it’s too easy (ha ha), I’ll change on the next hike.

And we’re off...our helicopter awaits....

Janet and David's helicopter

Um....  that’s not the one we use to get to the trailhead.  

After I first wrote about heli-hiking, a friend called me and said, “I was there!"  Since then we’ve had a few conversations about how much we enjoyed it and how unusual it is to know someone else who’s done it.  At one point we noted that most people have never been in a helicopter.  We, on the other hand, can’t be sure just how many flights we took on our hiking trips... at least 3 a day?.... every day....

in one of these:

Helicopter Take Off
#     #     #

Return to Heli-Hiking in British Columbia

My last posts closed the tale of my first two-day heli-hiking adventure that ended a trip to British Columbia.  That trip was life-changing.  I started afraid of heights and small spaces, and I’m not known for my hiking prowess.  I have not ‘bagged any peaks’.   

Yet I have overcome my fear of heights and flying in something that looks like a giant mosquito.  I have become so enthralled with the beauty I saw from the mountains that I have to do it again. 

If you know the Dawny of today, you know I’m not hiking.  But I like to start each new set of trip posts reminding you that I write from the comfort of my home, using the journals I keep when I travel as the basis for my blog. 

A good travel friend and I decided to go for the ‘Lodge-to-Lodge’ helihiking trip that Canadian Mountain Holidays offers (http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com) So I returned to British Columbia and Canadian Mountain Holidays for a week long ‘lodge-to-lodge’ helihiking trip.  

Our hiking will start at the Bobbie Burns lodge and ends at the Bugaboos lodge. In between trails or meals or if the weather gets nasty, we have our trusty helicopter to make sure we arrive at our destination.

When we begin our trip, this is our destination:

Bobbie Burns Lodge--

I intend to enjoy the physical challenge, the natural beauty, and the opportunity to meet new people who have a sense of adventure.  I also intend to enjoy the whirlpool with the incredible view and the services of a skilled masseur.   :)  

There’s a hot tub with an exquisite view and a masseur; I was very happy to have both.

I said I was going heli-hiking.  I never said I was roughing it. :)

        #    #     #

Hiking a Glacier, Lunch on Ice, Changed forever

Our helicopter delivers us to the glacier early in the morning.  (Notice how nonchalantly I say that.  Three days ago I’d never been on a helicopter and I was terrified.  Now it’s just another form of transportation.)

It is cloudy and snowy and sleety and raw.  I zip my parka (provided by Canadian Mountain Holidays*) and head onto the ice, awaiting the rest.   I have a chance to watch the  helicopter leave to pick up the last group.  This photo of the helicopter silhouetted against the cloud cover above the rounded mountaintops and glacier has always been a favorite...something about the ancient and seemingly immutable natural background and the relatively tiny human device flying over it.  

A sense of vast space

I always thought glaciers were smooth, cool ice  with lots of ‘glacial’ blue that was a product of the weight and compression of the frozen water molecules.  There’s blue--that’s about all I got right.  As we make our way along the glacier I have the feeling of a child seeing a magic show.

Glaciers pick up pieces of the earth they traverse, and then drop them as they move, most often leaving them at the edge of the ice.  The uneven ice surface is filled with rocks and dirt;  with cracks and rivulets ; with deep holes (millwells) that were started by sun-warmed stones and then expanded by flowing water; with crevasses created when the glacier moved over  underlying rock protrusions.

millwell 

Crevasses are deep, wedge-shaped fissures as wide as sixty or seventy feet and up to one hundred fifty feet deep  Yes... 1-5-0 feet deep.  

Just for the record--- I take the picture below is from the point where the crevasse is widest--and though the ice isn't slippery 'watch out or you'll slide in' ice,  I am a little nervous standing near that deep crack in the ice.  When I cross, I do so at the same point as my friends in the photo below... where it’s quite narrow and I can’t fall in.  (whew)

crossing a crevasse on a glacier

Because of the debris on the ice, the surface is not as slick and slippery as I would have expected.  At home on ice I'd be thinking about Yaktrax or cleats.  I've never tried climbing ice, I imagine I'd want cleats and a lot more to help me move with some stability.  Hiking on a glacier---not so slippery because of all the dirt, which you can see in the photo below.

It may not be slippery, but it's stlll a strenuous activity, and we work up an appetite.  Where shall we dine?  How about a barbecue at the edge of the Canoe Glacier?  Of course, doesn’t everyone do that?

lunch on a glacier

Since I've taken a lot of time to rant about the beauty of this untouched and ancient space, I feel I have to clarify that the group that runs this tour respects nature at least as much, if not more, than I do.  Canadian Mountain Holidays has placed some seating, which can be removed easily by the copter.  Nothing else remains.  We scour the area for anything to make sure of that and then get ready to take our helicopter to the next trailhead.

Our last hike is the alpine meadow that I had been expecting when I first chose to take this trip.  The gradually sloping grassy land is an easy walk --still  not as easy as that sea-level walk of home, but easy. 

As I make my way down the gentle incline, the last few days of adventure play through my mind.  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been in a helicopter.  I've hiked through tree-filled hillsides to get above the tree line.  I've walked across a glacier, a natural phenomenon so great it shapes the earth around and beneath it just as a volcanic eruption might do from below the surface.

We are in a region so remote, the only people I have seen for the last few days are those people who arrived with me.  We are too far removed from civilization for anyone else to be here unless they have a lot of gear and a lot of time.  

I arrived afraid of heights, unwilling to stand on a mountainside.  I leave after crossing ridges, hiking switchback trails,  stepping over a glacial crevasse, walking on a glacier.  

Every new challenge brought me to a dramatic view of the world from a pinnacle I never dreamed of seeing.  In a few days, I’ve marveled at the succession of nature, at the way life overcomes almost every obstacle to carry on, at the almost incalculable age of mountains, the power of glaciers, and the beauty they all afford.  And I have faced challenges that used to scare me stiff--great heights, small spaces,  vast open spaces, and maybe....maybe...a spider. 

As I consider my upcoming departure, I realize I’m not the same person who arrived here a few days ago.

I will never be the same.

#     #     #

*Canadian Mountain Holidays is the company that conducted this heli-hiking trip.  Check http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com for information on their helihiking and hell-skiing adventures.

See that Cloud-Shrouded Peak Up There? Waaay Up There?

At the end of the first day, someone tells me that, for most of the time we were on the mountain, when I wasn’t taking a picture, all they could see was my hat.  My eyes were on my feet and the path I was taking across the ridge, negotiating rocky trails up, switchback trails down.  I was nervous and elated all at the same time.  

After a gourmet dinner (that was a surprise up here in these rugged mountains) I fall into a cozy bed with a down comforter to sleep better than I usually do...maybe better than I ever have.  I dream that I’m hiking.  

No-- wait---that was real.

The next morning, after a deluxe breakfast to nourish us through the activity ahead, we assemble our lunches and head for the helicopter.  Flying on the giant mosquito is no longer so shocking.  These mountains, though  are still astonishing--the rocky trail, the peaks in the distance,  the cloud cover teased to brightness by the sun.   

The progression of the planet through stages of life captures my imagination.  How does solid rock sprout plants?  In nutrient-poor and sandy soil, hardy growth has taken root, will spread seeds, and then make way for other species.  Life persists, one way or another.

flowers growing in rocks 

 We stop for lunch, using rocks for seats, eating sandwiches we made in the morning.  We are very careful to leave not even a crumb.  I flash back to our conversation last night and to the warnings about bears in Alaska’s Denali National Park.  Crumbs attract ground squirrels. Ground squirrels attract bears. Once bears find food in an area, they return.  If there are no ground squirrels and no crumbs.... hmmmm, would that human taste good?   Nope, we leave nothing behind.

After lunch we await the helicopter to go to Neck Roll trail.  I’ve always pictured helicopters landing in nice, flat, helicopter pads.  I may have less anxiety about being in a helicopter, but does this look like a flat landing spot to you?

                                                            land on a precipice

I'd like to remind you that I started this trip afraid of heights and small spaces.  Now I'm climbing onto a precipice to get into a helicopter.

Our next hike is on Neckroll Ridge.  I see  clouds hanging over the mountains in the distance, and down below, way down there... that’s our lodge?  According to the guide, that’s our lodge.

Lodge seen from Neckroll Ridge

On returning to the lodge, I photograph Neckroll Ridge from down here.  See that cloud-shrouded peak in the photo below?  

Neckroll Ridge from the Lodge

I was up there.  Me.  I was.  Yup....

#     #     #

For more information on the heli-hiking now available through CMH, visit http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com