When I woke up in the early morning light, I felt a little tingly creature running around my mat and my sleeping bag. The hut is full of mice. We got rid of one yesterday, but there’s more.
Slowly, I make my way to the bottom of Cayoosh hut and started a fire. All the collected wood that the boys gathered yesterday is now nice and dry, in a minute a hut was getting warmer to the sounds of sparkling pine.
The air outside is fresh. There’s silence. I take a walk around the hut and nothing. We are alone here and I love that feeling. the sensation of not belonging to anyone or anything but nature. Snow is falling like it’s falling just for us. Special delivery on this Saturday morning. The area has so much potential. Pillow lines, shoots, steep terrain, and trees. I really don’t mind the heavy snowfall, as this place is perfect for some spring powder.
We got here yesterday, and I really don’t want to leave. No plans, we stay until we run out of food, that’s the only rule. We don’t know what’s going on in the world, staying in a spot with no signal is basically cutting us from all the COVID-19 updates. Is there a complete lockdown? A closure on the streets? Did our Jeep get towed because we’re not supposed to be outside?
Those are all the worries of tomorrow, for now, I am focusing on making pancakes in the hut. An art that I’m yet to master.
In front of the hut, two big avalanche shoots connected the valley with the peak of the first mountain we wanted to summit. The idea was to get as high as possible and get some sort of geolocation and feeling about the place we set ourselves to stay for the week.
Over the creek and up the shoot. The first part was flatter so I decided to stay on the right side of the trees, out enough to have the freedom of movement. After that part, we head into the trees. The first approach ended about half an hour after that when we gave up with dead hopes of good snow.
Sticky wet snow on top of a frozen spring crust. Very unessential to keep going up and continue the climb. The temperature was perfect. Got to change our skins and enjoy the run down. Snow is deep, not paying attention to the condition of it. Short and sweet 5 minutes later we were at the hut.
(At this point, the boys arrive at the hut and I had to spend about 10 extra minutes to walk in snow that was too deep to even make a proper step.)
Kept repeating to myself. “I love snowboarding, I love it I love it.) I do. But there are moments where I really think about how much worth it, snowboarding really is. Not carrying about the run or the snow, we carried on with the day. Shortly after a quick snack, we got ready to hike again, this time to the other side. The pillows behind the hut and everything above that. Staying close to the trees, paying attention to the snow and seeing where it goes. As we were about to leave, our friend Nico from Chile skis into the hut. He came up with us, and we took off. The boys continued to go up for another hour and I stayed just under the tree line, having issues with my skins and not feeling 100% with the snow.
The run down was fine as, but the snow was heavy. The evening rolled in before we knew it. You can really feel the days getting longer, and despite our love for the snow, it is a very good feeling.
Our friend Euge was the next one who showed up. It was rad to have another kick-ass lady to join the team.
The effection and natural teamwork spirit surprise all of us when we hit the point of spontaneously doing things we don’t need to talk about!
Another way of describing how we spend the last week is by simply looking into the moments captured on our (again) handy devices, like pictures and motion pictures.
We had packed on one or two mini-missions around the area of Cayoosh hut. Steep, less steep, trees or open. The weather and it’s spring warmer conditions told us to stay in the trees, why occupy the hospitals who might be flooding with infected covid19 cases. We didn’t want that.
Each day brings more snow, more walking, and more skiing. The pilows run above the hut was everyone’s favorite way to finish the day.
Tremendo. Otra semana lejos de todo.
The third day was awesome.
And on our last day (4th day), I finally had the feeling of accomplishment. The snow was finally dry and fluffy. It snowed a lot on our third night in the hut, as well as the temperature dropped a bit. Riding was more than anything, the best riding of the season. We did two runs of trees and pillows above the hut and I was happy. I was stoked. Didn’t even feel tired, just magnetic.
☽ Follow me on Instagram – @alenkaamali – to see more of my adventures ☽
More about Alenka
“My name is Alenka and I’m a Squamish based photographer. I love using my medium to capture sports, adventures, underwater shots, adventures in the mountains and days on snow! Very simply put, I’m one stoked girl, ready to get up at 2 in the morning and hike for sunrise, go to the airport and take a random flight…you name it!
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