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Jen Higgins Fund - 2006

	Jen Higgins Fund		2002 – Las Hermanas de las Montanas
	2000 – Cascade Inlet		2003– Wallflowers
	2000 – 4 ½ Pimples in the Northern Sawbacks		2006 – Glaciers, Girls and Granite
	2001 – Peaks of Fire

A three week long self-propelled kayaking, mountaineering, and cycling adventure.

By: Krystil Koethler
Trip Participants: Krystil Koethler, Ellen Morgan, Greta Raymant, and Alex Wross

Time and again the debate regarding what “truly” qualifies as a self-propelled wilderness adventure will pop up. For us, it meant going on a trip where we used our own power to go “door-to-door”. No motorized vehicles were used to gain any distance, and we traveled from Vancouver to the North West region of the Tantalus Range (near Squamish), and back to Vancouver. Along the way we gained the summits of Mt. Jimmy Jimmy and Mt. Ossa. We traveled with sea kayaks, our feet, sometimes our hands and feet, and bikes.

How do these things start? A question that often comes up on trips during times of uncertainty. Ellen and I applied for the Alpine Club of Canada’s Jen Higgins fund back in January. Excited and honored barely begin to describe the feelings that washed over us when we found out we had been awarded the grant. Greta and Alex were keen to jump on board when presented with the opportunity, and we had our dream team of choice! All brought together through our Varsity Outdoors Club at UBC. Over the next several months we began to implement our plans, and for every one chore that we had accomplished two more would be added to the list creating an exponential amount of preparation for our multi-dimensional undertaking.

Never-the-less, August 14th arrived and we found ourselves carrying kayaks and gear down to Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver from Ellen’s house 2 blocks up. Our first two days were incredibly productive and we made it all the way across Burrard Inlet, along the Straight of Georgia to the town of Sechelt, through Sechelt, and to Porpoise Bay Campground on the Sechelt Inlet. Our success was attributed to amazing weather, and Greta’s ingenious idea of using shopping carts to help with the portage through town. Our presence did not go unnoticed and the great towns-folk of Sechelt encouraged us, offered us help (which of course we politely declined), and told us to get boyfriends; errrr, right. Our hard work was rewarded with a paddle through phosphorescence, and 4 casual days of paddling thereafter because we found ourselves ahead of schedule.

Our hiking began on day 6 from the North end of Narrows Inlet when we bid adieu to our sea fairing vessels, thanks very much to Porpoise Bay Charters who helpfully picked up and returned our kayaks for us. A task most of the other water taxi companies were reluctant to help with.

Our first attempt at gaining the alpine cost us 2.5 days when we tried to travel South-East up a tributary found at the end of the Tzoonie River logging road. Both nights were spent without tents due to the steep terrain, and the second was spent tied into trees just in case we thought of rolling during the night! Defeated, we returned down to the valley hoping that we could get to Mt. Jimmy Jimmy via a pass further up the valley leading to Tatlow Creek beside our destination. Our hopes were met, and we found ourselves finally camping beside Mt. Jimmy Jimmy on day 11 of our trip.

We were able to gain the glacier near the summit of Mt. Jimmy Jimmy by scrambling along its South-West ridge and making one 25m rappel just before its false summit. From there it was an easy, short, and pleasant scramble to the true summit. Perhaps it was the effort it took us to get there; the summit of Mt. Jimmy Jimmy felt like the most astounding mountain that I have ever stood on top of, and a feeling of accomplishment was felt by the entire group. There were certainly high-fives all around.

Feeling pressed for time and uncertain of our planned route, we decided to re-route ourselves along the Ashlu River Road towards Sigurd Creek to get into Mt. Ossa. We descended by following Mt. Jimmy Jimmy’s glacier North and after completing a solid 9 day program of bushwhacking we found ourselves at the Sigurd Creek Trail Head for Mt. Ossa.

Up the trail we hiked once again (we had gone in there before our trip to make a food drop). We camped on the moraine at the base of Mt. Ossa, and took our first true rest day due to poor weather the following day (it was day 16 in total). On day 17 we found ourselves with patchy skies, but we thought we’d give Mt. Ossa a try in case it cleared up. We made it quite far up the ridge before turning back because the weather did not clear. The following day our weather luck returned; we were given blue skies and found our way to the top of Mt. Ossa!

On day 19 feeling accomplished and a bit tired we made it back down to the road. Happy that everything had gone well, and with many uncertainties out of the way we were like kids the night before Christmas waiting for our friends to bring us our bikes, fresh food, and best of all; some new company! After a night of socializing and feasting we set off on our bikes for our homeward journey happy to be rolling along.

We found ourselves joking around that “the re-integration process to society is often a slow and painful one.” And as we traveled through Squamish and Vancouver we had to remind ourselves that the habits we are comfortable with in mountains are not necessarily acceptable social behavior. So we made an effort to keep our cloths on, pee in toilets, and most of all we tried to stay out of everybody’s way in an effort not to get hit by any cars.

Since the end of the expedition we have presented our slide show to 17 high school classes throughout the Lower Main Land. In doing so we hope that some of the students have been inspired to explore the amazing mountains surrounding their home.

Many thanks to all who supported us on our journey. Especially thanks to: The Alpine Club of Canada. Mountain Equipment Co-op. Earth Sea Sky Clothing Ltd. Nature’s Path. Pedals ’n’ Paddles. Porpoise Bay Charters. Harvest Foodworks. And finally, Ms. Laura Flynn.