I'm a bit overdue on some reports here and trying to figure out this new interface has been challenging too. But without further ado, our Locomotive report!

Alan and I decided to soak up the sunshine for a mid-week hike which happened to be the coldest day of the week. We had an ambitious goal of doing a five peak circuit but mother nature knocked us back to our senses. We determined we wanted a 7am start to get maximum daylight which meant a 3:30am wakeup to get there in time (yuck).

The road conditions were fantastic. The Hurley FSR was in great condition as it was still being used by workers and had no snow or ice until the trail head start. It was our first time up there so finding the start was curious but the easy way to find it, is that it's about 100m before the 23km marker (pull out on the left). A pink flag on a short 5-6ft tree marks the start.

You will want, crampons, an ice axe, and snow shoes to venture into this area. The trail was frozen and slippery in the bottom area and wind drifted higher above. I had no shoes shoes and was post holing through to my knees. It was exhausting so Alan lent me one of his and I gave him one of my poles and we bashed our way up, each half complete.

I need to describe the conditions because they had a major impact on our ascent time. With route finding and post holing we got to the Semaphore Lakes area in the allotted 1.5hrs (we had expected 1hr up). The area was pristine. No tracks, just frozen lakes. The snow conditions were awkward at best. In some places it was hard and frozen, in others it sat with a 10cm crust and champagne powder below. Two steps, surprise sink were the norm. We found some random cairns along the way but also got lost and did a bump we didn't have to. Most of all we were affected by the cold however. The temperatures in the Pemberton valley were -15 that day. My camel pack froze within a minute of stepping out of the car. My backpack which is normally a smooth malleable fabric, was stiff and sounded like a tarp. My iPhone which was inside the pocket of my Patagonia down jacket froze and my ciabatta salami sandwich that was INSIDE the top of my pack was frozen solid. Our feet of course were long numb with two pairs of socks and mountaineering boots. I was traveling with 5 layers (base, fleece, arteryx down insulation layer, patagonia down insulation later, and my Goretex to block the wind and I was just warm enough as long as we didn't stop for more than 10min. I've never been so cold. I'm guessing on the ridge with the wind gusts and up at 7,677ft it must have easily been -30.

The snow had a sound of frozen crystals rubbing across each other like when you take one of those Mexican cactus rain sticks and turn it upside down. The various snow textures were unbelievable and I wish my iPhone wasn't frozen or that I had macro. Some parts looked bumpy like dinosaur skin, some were wind blown like a topo map with contour lines, some structures looked like long reaching flowers. It was exquisite.

Near the summit my energy tanked. I was dehydrated having drank only about half a liter of water in 5hrs. We stopped and I gulped back Alan's Gatorade which was a huge help. Every step up the snow felt like an enormous amount of effort. Alan asked me, you good with one summit today? I just about shouted, OH **** YA. It took us 4hrs to summit which during the summer would have taken us two. The cold and the wind and post holing took everything out of us. We took a few summit pics and got off that ridge as fast as we could.

All that being said, the views were stunning in every direction. Pemberton valley was easily seen below and a crown of mountains (Tender, Cabose, Faceless, Face) was to our right. The trip was definitely worth it and I'm glad I had my old bud Alan to make it even better

Distance: 13km
Ascent Time: 5.5hrs
Elevation Gain: 1000m (3,280ft)

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Great descriptive report and photos! Well done on summiting Locomotive in those conditions.

That was probably a pretty cold beer.

Yeah, even water was hard to drink. It was so cold I had ice crystals floating in the Nalgene. That beer only survived cause of the alcohol content!

A real man would have offered both his snow shoes...I miss the toungue sticking out of mouth emoticon....

Cool report - great that you got in there before the road closed.
When on skis, the technical name for such snow is "sucks"

Ahh but he did offer on several occasions. But I felt guilty and/or stubborn and could only bring myself to take one. Perhaps something about what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger?

There was a sign that said the road was closed but clearly it wasn't. I'm not sure when they officially close it. Perhaps it's just a superficial sign?

Well that's my 1 winter trip done, You'll see me again in the spring when I can hike in shorts and a tank top.



It was a challenging trip but as always great company, sun was shining with views upon views and best of all I got to sleep in compared to my usual drive in from Tsawwassen.

I'm cold just reading the report!
When I was there conditions were a whole lot different, in early September.
Double points for Arctic ascent!
Also, here's a shot just for contrast...

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Nice to see a winter trip report for this one. Won't be long before the Hurley is closed for the winter.

Great photos indeed, but just noticed you managed to post 15 photos here. Did you post all of these at the same time or in stages. Also see the photo size is much smaller, near 100 to 200 kb.

K

"I had no snow shoes and was post holing through to my knees. It was exhausting so Alan lent me one of his and I gave him one of my poles and we bashed our way up, each half complete".

This is one of the funniest sentences that i have come across in a very long time.

Nice TR. I was in similar conditions on Needle Peak last week except it wasn't that cold, -15 with windchill. We couldn't summit due to icy rock conditions on the summit block and not enough snow for crampons which was to be expected for this time of the year. Plus we kept getting hit by some repetitive ferocious spin-drift half way up the summit face that's when we decided to call it quits.

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@Karvitk
I compressed all the pics in Photoshop first so they would be nice and small and then magically it let me post 15. I don't know why :S

You know what bugs me in the pics...you can never capture the WIND. It was howling up there and it still looks entirely pleasant from the images.