Ski Resort Series: Sasquatch

January 29, 2025January 27, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you might be aware that I’ve been going on a ski trip with friends every winter since 2016, we missed two years because of the pandemic, so this year was our 8th Annual Ski Trip. We always go to a different resort every year, with the goal being to ski as many resorts as possible!

Last year we went to Manning Ski Resort, but it didn’t result in a blog post because the skiing was so terrible last year that only one run was open! This year, we’d planned to go down to Mount Baker. Unfortunately, our AirB&B fell through at the last minute and we ended up going to Sasquatch Ski Resort instead because it was easier to find accommodations there at the last minute.

Sasquatch is located northwest of Harrison. It’s quite close to Vancouver, with the driving distance similar to Whistler, but it’s not very popular considering the proximity. I think the main reason for this is that it’s a relatively small resort and it’s not super easy to get to. In addition to winter tires, you are also required to carry chains when driving up the mountain to the small ski town. The road is only paved halfway, which is why tire chains are needed. That said, I’d heard it’s a fun little mountain with low crowds and good snow, so I’d been wanting to visit for a while. We were able to scrounge up enough sets of chains on facebook marketplace and decided to go for it!

There were 8 of us, plus 2 dogs. We left after work on Friday, with most people arriving early evening. We had a really nice townhouse near the lifts. It wasn’t completely ski out access, but only a short walk to the lodge. As is our custom, the trip was as much about eating as it was about skiing! I made pisco sours (which I learned how to make in Chile last year) as a welcome drink, and Brandon provided a delicious raclette, while we took turns lounging in the hot tub.

Sasquatch has a relatively small village. There is a lodge and rentals and a cafeteria, but there’s not a lot else in the town besides accommodations. The stargazing is surprisingly phenomenal at night though! We had a bit of a slower start to the day. We all bought our passes online because it’s $20 cheaper to buy in advance. Once you have an RFID card, it’s easy to load up, but the line to pick up your card for the first time is pretty long in the morning. If we had our time back, we would have gone down to get our passes the previous evening since there is night skiing available until 8pm.

We ended up not needing chains to get up the mountain. It has been at least a week since the last snowfall, so the roads were clear the entire way up. There was a good base of snow on the mountain, but given the lack of fresh snow, it was pretty crusty. There are two main lifts going the whole way up the mountain, and a half lift in the middle.

The groomed runs were in really nice condition, but all the other runs were in rough shape. There’s lots of spaced out glade runs all over the mountain that I think would have been really fun on a powder day, but after giving one a try, we steered clear for most of the day because they were so crunchy and hard to navigate. There are several key groomed runs that cut back and forth across the mountain, and a lot of more rugged terrain, but we mostly stuck to the groomers on this trip.

The lifts are really slow. One seems to have been upgraded and is not too bad, but the other one (Sasquatch chair I think), is REALLY slow and pretty uncomfortable because there’s no cushions on any of the seats. We played a lot of Harry Potter 20 questions on the way up to pass the time. While the snow wasn’t the best, the runs were all open and we had the real benefit of a beautiful view! Sometimes you get cloudy powder days and those are great, other times you get sunny, crunchy days, and I’ve learned to appreciate those for the views! It was warm and sunny and we could see all of the Harrison backcountry, which was very beautiful!

Carolyn and I had a good time making reels on the slopes and skied until around 3pm in the afternoon. I cut out early to cook up a Jiggs Dinner for everyone! Jiggs Dinner is a traditional Newfoundland feast – I used to do it every year on the ski trip, but it is a lot of work, so I haven’t done it since pre-pandemic. I didn’t end up having Jiggs for Christmas this year, so I decided to bring it back for the ski trip! While it was cooking, we sang karaoke on a machine Adriana found in the games closet and did a boxed escape room that Carolyn had brought. After a delicious meal and far too much dessert, we all relaxed in the hot tub!

My original plan had been to snowshoe on Sunday, but I was feeling pretty wiped out, so me and Seth slept in (as much as Sadie would let us), and then drove back to Vancouver after check-out. A few friends stuck around to do some more skiing and snowshoeing on the local trails. While I had a better experience than at Manning, I’m still keen to re-visit both mountains again. I still need to ski most of the terrain at Manning and I would really love to come back to Harrison on a powder weekend. Both resorts are close enough that you could get up early and drive there just for the day. Especially since Sasquatch has night skiing! it was a fun little mountain and I would like to explore it more.

Rockwall Trail Backpacking Trip Part I

October 4, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 5 Comments

Backpacking the Rockwall Trail was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my time in the Rockies this summer. There are a lot of iconic multi-day trips in the Rockies that I’ve been wanting to do and this year we landed on the Rockwall Trail. It’s a 56km backpacking trail in Kootenay National Park that is extremely popular and requires permits for camping. There are several entrances to the trail, so it’s not a bad option for beginners because you can exit out if needed, or you can just do a portion of the trail.

The full trail goes from the Paint Pots trailhead to the Floe Lake trailhead. There’s a total of 5 campsites on the trail to choose from and most people do it in 3-4 nights. You only need a park pass to visit as a day hiker, but if you’d like to visit overnight, prepare early. The campsites are released for the entire summer in March from Parks Canada and they disappear within minutes of being released. Me and Carolyn were both online trying to get permits in March and it was still a challenge to get what we wanted.

The trick to the Parks Canada site is to log in on a lot of devices (I had mine and Seth’s computers and both our phones). Before the sites release, it puts everyone in a random queue, so you’ll be in different places in line on every devices. Whatever device is the lowest in the queue, focus on that device and abandon the rest. I was actually #700 on my computer, which is really low, but I had a brain fart when booking the sites (it’s a lot of pressure!) and accidentally booked the wrong campsite for one night. But we watched for cancellations for months and were eventually able to switch to our preferred site about a week before the trip. So even if you don’t get what you want, don’t lose hope. A lot of people do cancel because you have to make the bookings so early and plans do change.

That said, I do feel very lucky to have scored 2 campsites for our 3 night trip. Me and Brandon tented together and Carolyn had her own site. We started hiking the day after attending my friend’s wedding outside Calgary, so we didn’t get an early start and it wasn’t the most well rested I’ve ever been, but fortunately it was an easy-ish day.

We dropped Carolyn’s car at the Floe Lake trailhead (which was easier said than done because it’s a small lot, so we had to wait for a spot to open up), and then all drove in Brandon’s car to Paint Pots to start the hike. It was around 1:30pm when we finally hit the trail and we had 15km to do to our first campsite at Helmet Falls.

Fortunately it was an easier day terrain-wise. It’s pretty easy forest walking and there’s limited elevation gain, only 400m over 15km. The trail starts at Paint Pots, which is characterized by the red ochre in the ground that has tons of traditional uses, particularly as a dye. We did the first 6km to the Helmet-Ochre Junction Campground relatively quickly and ate our lunch there. It’s a nice little campground next to a beautiful river, but it was completely empty when we arrived. We did pass a small group later in the day that were hiking there, but they were the only other people we saw all day and I suspect there were multiple empty sites.

We had 9km left after lunch and most of the uphill is after the campground. The entire trail is a gentle incline, but I only noticed in it for the first half an hour after our lunch break, after which it levels out. The trail continues along the river through the valley and it is very beautiful. I was a bit worried for the hike because I still have plantar fasciitis in my right foot, but I did lots of preventive care and it managed really well. Mostly that just meant that we stopped every ~4km for me to stretch and roll my foot with one of my dog’s tennis balls. So halfway to Helmet Falls we took another break along the river. It was hot out, but not too hot, and I put a lot of effort into starting this hike hydrated (which wasn’t the case with the HBC Trail), so overall I was feeling really good!

We got to the campsite after 5 hours of hiking and immediately set up camp. There were a lot more people at Helmet Falls than the ochre junction campsite, but there were still several empty sites around. The campground is located in the forest, but it’s surrounded by mountains and you can see Helmet Falls thundering down from the cooking area. Despite the hot afternoon, it cooled down really fast in the shade and we immediately had to add some layers. It ended up being our coldest night on the trail, but me and Carolyn kept warm filming some dancing reels for instagram!

On Day 2 we had the option of going to either Tumbling Creek or Numa Creek and we chose Numa Creek to get us closer to Floe Lake for our last night. It’s 20km from Helmet Falls to Numa Creek, so it was our biggest day on the trail and I was a little nervous about my foot. But Day 2 ended up being my favourite day on the trail! I’ve come to the conclusion that 15-20km of hiking is really my preferred distance for backpacking. After 20km, the day starts to feel long and your feet get sore. You have less time to actually enjoy the trail and the tiredness compounds day after day when you don’t give yourself enough time to rest.

We tried to get up early, but it was ~9:30am when we finally made our departure. The day started with a big climb, but I found the Rockwall Trail has a lot of switchbacks on the climbing sections, so overall, not too bad. Plus it was still cool. We took a break at the top of the pass before starting the highlight of the trail, the aptly named, “Rockwall”.

Floe Lake has a big reputation as being the most gorgeous place on the trip, but personally I think the actual Rockwall was my favourite. It’s easy to understand the trail name when you do it because you are essentially hiking along a giant wall of rock all the way from Helmet Falls to Floe Lake. You get to the top of the pass after 4km and then you’re hiking along the Rockwall for at least the next 10kms. It’s incredibly beautiful and I had the best time hiking it with Carolyn and Brandon.

Unlike the HBC Trail, where I was super worn out, we had a great energy on this trip. I was honestly giddy for most of it and the more we hiked the sillier the 3 of us got. I was genuinely thrilled to be hiking with my friends and the mountains brought me a lot of joy that translated into a lot of laughter while on the trail. There’s always things that characterize a trip and they’re usually challenges. When I think of my time on the North Coast Trail, I think about the tiring and muddy terrain; when I think about Assiniboine, I think about how draining the heat wave was; when I think about HBC, I think about overdoing it and injuring my foot. But the characterizing feature of the Rockwall Trail for me was how much joy it brought me, and I think that’s really special.

We spent a lot of time goofing around, singing, and filming tiktoks. Say what you want about Reels and Tiktoks, but I always have so much fun filming silly things to put on the internet and embracing that only makes me happier. I don’t actually have Tiktok anymore, but check out my Instagram for lots of fun content from this trail!

That said, I did encounter some difficulties on Day 2, they’re just not as memorable as the joy. I was on my period for this entire trip, so we had to make an emergency stop along the ridge for a period poo (just being honest) and after that I popped some advil and pepto and then I felt a lot better. It was a Tuesday, so we all celebrated Taco Tuesday for lunch, which is my favourite cold soak that I make (dehydrated ground beef and veggies). I just crunch up doritos into mine for a taco salad, but Carolyn goes the whole 9 yards and brings taco shells into the wilderness!

We had first lunch on the ridge along the Rockwall, where we met Jason, who was doing the final section of his 30 day hike along a portion of the Great Divide Trail! The GDT is a bucket list hike for both me and Carolyn (it’s 1200km of hiking through the Rockies), so we were both keen to hear about his experience and ended up making a new friend along the rest of the trail since we were all on the same track.

Then we had our second lunch at Tumbling Creek Campsite, which meant we had done 12km of trail and had 8km left. Tumbling Creek was also pretty empty, but it was earlier in the day, so I know it got busier later. We ate by the river, which is really beautiful, but very silty. We decided to cross the river in order to shave off ~1km of walking down to the bridge. It wasn’t that deep and was totally safe to cross, but it was very wide and very cold, so it was an appropriate post-lunch wake up!

Unfortunately we had a really big climb after lunch. It’s not the biggest climb on the trail by any means, but I remember it as the most draining because it was mid-afternoon and quite hot when we climbed it. But once you get to the top, there are incredible glacier views before you start your descent down to Numa Creek.

It’s a really big downhill to Numa Creek and it’s totally exposed along the side of the mountain, so I was really glad I didn’t have to climb up it. It was around 5pm by the time we got to it, so it was starting to cool down. It was hard on my feet to end the day on a huge downhill, but we made it to Numa Creek after ~9 hours of hiking. In total we tracked 21km and over 1000m in elevation gain.

Unlike Helmet Falls, Numa Creek was extremely busy. We were the last people to arrive, so it took us awhile to find a campsite. We thought they were all full at first, but then we found 2 tucked away next to each other at the back by the river and somehow I think we actually may have scored some of the nicest sites there! We all had river baths and then Jason joined us for dinner and Carolyn treated us all to ‘worms and dirt’ for dessert.

Growing up in Girl Guides, I am very familiar with ‘worms and dirt’, but it took us awhile before me and Carolyn realized that Brandon and Jason had no idea what ‘worms and dirt’ was and were reluctantly pretending to be excited about this mythical dessert. Once we explained that it’s actually chocolate pudding with crushed oreos and gummy worms, they quickly got on board! But we all agree that the worms are best eaten on the side rather than mixed in – but both me and Carolyn are purists and insisted on eating it all together. So overall, an excellent first 2 days! Stay tuned for Part II.

Ski Resort Series: Stevens Pass

March 1, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 1 Comment

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might recall that every year my friends go on a big long weekend ski trip to one of the local resorts. To date we’ve been to Big White, Sun Peaks, Silver Star, Apex, and Mount Washington. But even though we go every year, unsurprisingly we missed a few due to covid over the past few years. We’ve been really keen to resurrect the trip, but it is a lot of planning and Karen and Grant have since moved back to Newfoundland, so it was hard to find the inspiration.

I was convinced to buy the 5 day pass for Whistler this year because it was really good value. I knew it would be a struggle to use all the days, so a bit of research revealed that we can use the pass across the border at Stevens Pass in Washington! I’d never even heard of this mountain before, but it turns out it’s the place to ski if you’re in Seattle, so we decided to make a long weekend of it and drive 3 hours down for a few days. We downsized the trip for ease of planning, but there were still 8 of us that headed across the border on Friday for the weekend in late January.

It’s not that far of a drive, but it can definitely chew up a chunk of time. Me and Seth crossed at truck crossing and didn’t have too much trouble, but Megan and Nick crossed at Peace Arch and ended up stuck at the border for over 2 hours. Then we had to make a grocery stop at Trader Joes (which was a lot of fun I admit) since bringing groceries across the border is complicated. Then finally, we hit traffic coming from Seattle on the way into the mountains. So it ended up taking most of us between 4-6 hours, depending on our success at the border. So I wouldn’t recommend it for a day trip.

We booked an AirBnB in Index, which is about 30 minutes before the ski resort. It was a gated community, so it made for a very confusing turn-off in the dark, but was a beautiful house right on the river. We had a fully stocked kitchen, fireplace, and 4 bedrooms. We decided to take Sadie with us, which ended up actually being a lot less nerve-wracking than I expected. I thought it would be hard to cross the border with her, but none of the border agents really had any interest in her and no one asked to see her vaccination record (which is required to cross).

We had a fun first night celebrating the lunar new year with bai tai’s and raclette and playing the AirBnB’s old school nintendo! On Saturday we drove out to the ski resort and had a full day to explore the runs. A word of warning, visiting Stevens Pass definitely requires some pre-planning and coordination if you want to be successful. They do sell out of passes (one friend ended up bailing on the trip when passes sold out), so make sure to get them in advance if you want to be guaranteed to be able to ski. Fortunately half of us were using our Whistler passes, so all we had to do was show up.

Parking was also a challenge though. I drove up with Brandon and he pretty much got the last spot in the main lot on Saturday. Carolyn and Steve had to park further down the highway and take a shuttle to the resort. What’s worse though is that Carolyn and Steve tried to go back again on Sunday (they were the only ones) and by the time they arrived, there wasn’t actually any parking available and they were forced to take a refund on their lift passes and leave. So even if you do buy the lift ticket in advance, you could still drive up there and get turned away, so go early!

The weather was a bit touch and go. It was lovely when we arrived and the sun was shining, but the mountain got caught up in a cloud for most of the day and the snow kept coming and going. That said, it’s a nice little mountain. I was expecting long line ups because of the parking situation, but the mountain never felt crowded. There’s one lift (Hogsback Express) that’s a bit more popular than the others and has longer lines, but for the most part we didn’t have to wait too long. Plus, the resort is open until 10pm, so there’s lots of time to get your runs in.

We started the day on Skyline Express and gradually explored as many of the lifts as possible. We didn’t bother with 7th Heaven, which was stuck in the clouds and was all double blacks, but we hit almost all the others. I did like Hogsback Express, but Tye Mill and the back side of the mountain were probably my favourite. There’s a few nice runs right along the Tye Mill lift, but the backside was really the best runs. There’s a lot of terrain to explore back there and very limited people. We skied down the transmission line first and then went exploring some of the other runs. The backside isn’t open very late though, so I’d recommend going there early. We got hungry after a few runs over there and left for lunch and then it was closed when we returned.

Brooks Express has a few nice runs as well and we finished the day with one run on Kehr’s Chair. One run on this one was enough for me as it’s pretty much the most terrifying chairlift I’ve ever been on! It’s a two seater chair, but it doesn’t have a safety bar and has really low side rails, so I was basically clinging on to the bar in the middle of the chair for dear life. Great for thrills seekers, but I wouldn’t take a child on it!

Seth couldn’t join me for skiing because we didn’t want to leave Sadie alone at the AirBnB, so him and Lien ended up taking her snowshoeing. We all stayed in for supper and spent the rest of the evening playing some games and learning to line dance. Yes, you read that right. Megan and Nick are getting married in Alberta this summer and they’re determined to get the party started at the reception with group line dancing, so every time I see Megan these days she teaches me a new line dance and we got some really quality instruction on the trip.

Sunday was pretty low key. We slept in and packed up before slowly making our way back home. Me and Seth stopped in Fairhaven and visited the beach with Sadie for lunch, but it was very windy and cold, so it was pretty short lived. Megan told me about an awesome bookstore called Village Books, so I made a quick visit there, but couldn’t give it the full attention it deserved because of Sadie.

We decided to cross in Aldergrove to avoid border traffic at Peace Arch and crossed the border in less than 5 minutes. So it was a much faster drive home and we had plenty of time to decompress from the trip. It’s the shortest ski trip we’ve done (we’ve always go for 3 nights and this was the first time we only did 2), but it was also more low key and easier to plan than previous trips. I would have loved to ski the second day, but mostly it was nice to get away with friends and re-visit some of the magic of pre-covid times. I would definitely return!