Wednesday, March 7, 2012

... Longest Day Ever

So the forecast was looking good. It had snowed a few feet and it was now about to become sunny. What a great time to head up to the SECRET zone that the YES guys discovered a few years back. The boys even went up to blaze part of the trail a few days prior.
  I got no sleep the night before due to nerves, wake up at 4:45 am, drive to Squamish, then head out to the secret headquarters, another 45 min drive along a logging road. We unload the sleds, another 25 km til we had to start digging the trail in more... Holy hell.. we don't stop digging til 1:30, when we at last arrive at the zone.

YAY! Then, oh wait, avalanches are SO bad, JP triggers one on the smallest hill. We have to head back into the trees. Oh jeez, the snow in the trees is too low, we must go higher. Awesome! We have a good 2 hours to hang (even though we're all way too tired).. and now we have to start heading back since one hill climb needs to get dug out. Another 2 hours and we've all somehow made it up this sketchy hill. It's dark now and we still have 30 km to go. A few more sticky situations and we get back to the trucks.
   But.... Romain isn't there. He was behind me but I thought he passed me when I had to pull-over due to an engine overheat. JP, Stian, and I wait about 20 minutes. Now JP unloads his sled and goes searching. Romain was a few km's back with an empty gas tank. Bummer. Now drive back and get to the highway around 9:45. Wowee.. as I said before, .. longest day ever.



~ Digging a trail
~ Pascal on top of a tree, trying to break it so he can get his sled un-stuck

~  Mini slide... yikes!
~ The moon... and we weren't even close to being done our trek back.