November 15, 2024 -- Manning Park
Stats: 9.11 km / 641m gain / 1951m high / 3:20 hours MT
Our first snow hike of the season and what a beauty! Contrary to the forecast of clouds, we had an astounding mix of cobalt blue sky, puffy cumulus white cloud and contrasting dark storm clouds. The fresh powder snow was knee-deep at the higher levels.
We did a pit-stop at the Hope 1965 land slide.
We all left our snowshoes at the parking lot by the maintenance sheds at Allison Pass. Once across Hwy 3, it didn't take too long before all of us put on our micro-spikes. Hind sight, it would've been better to have taken our snowshoes.
There wasn't as much snow in the forest.
Blue sky!
Our excitement mounted when we saw the sunshine lighting up this winter wonderland.
With the steepest part behind us and the open meadows before us, the land plateaued somewhat and the views opened up.
Looking back at Charlotte.
And looking forward at Mary who did all the trail breaking.
The Three Bros. -- east.
Almost at the summit.
east
We arrived 2 hours from the start, after passing the summit-with-no-view and dropping down steeply about 30m, then going north to a knoll along the ridge for less than 10-minutes -- northeast.
video
north
Memaloose Mt (1830m) with Shawatum Mt (1950m) to the left and Mt. Brice (2070m) to the right -- west.
Group shot, left to right: Denise D, Irene H (thanks for organizing!), Iraj F, Mark S, Dave B, Charlotte H, Mary R, Patty A, Sandra O, Lucy S, me + Karen S in front
The Three Bros.
Nordheim Mt (1950m) briefly exposed it's two humps just before we left. It's located at the end of the ridge -- north.
Heading back.
Winter's long shadows.
We had a rather traumatic experience while driving on Hwy 1, not far past Hope. Beside me in the right lane and just a bit in-front of me, there were two dumptrucks with trailors driving about 100km/hour. Suddenly a rock the size of a baseball ricocheted from the road between the truck & trailor and hit the lower front of my car. Still in shock mode, I barely had time to digest that and a second rock the size of a golf-ball shot like a bullet from the truck & trailor in-front, hitting my windshield with such a force that there were glass shards on my dashboard and a star 5" in diameter! At that point, I decided to floor the gas peddle and get ahead of them, not risking a third hit. As I laid on the horn, Patty (one of my four passengers) saw that the trucks had no mud flaps and no business name on the doors of their trucks.
When we stopped to drop off Mary by the Bridal Falls exit, we immediately checked the damage. The center of my grill was smashed in and a thin spray of water was squirting out of my radiator. We didn't get much farther down Hwy 1 before all three red lights flashed on my dashboard so I had to pull over and phone my mechanic son. He said if I kept filling the radiator with water on the way home, I should be able to make it. Thankfully I didn't drink much on the hike/snowshoe. After dropping off the other three passengers in Chilliwack, Patty followed me home. Thus ended a beautiful day. Thankful to God that we were all safe and hoping that those dumptrucks didn't damage anyone else's vehicles.
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