runforit: Final Weekend of Bagging

Neil and I at the top of Deeks Peak.

This past weekend was the final weekend in the Club Fat Ass Bagger Challenge for 2011. On Saturday, we set out with the intention of bagging the peaks Hat, Fat Ass and perhaps Brunswick. We picked Dave up (just the 3 of us baggers again!)It had been raining during the night and the clouds were low and drizzling. No promises of time to Helen - we really were unsure of what the conditions would be.

We parked at Lions Bay at the trail head and made our way to the Brunswick trail head. This was my first time on this trail. I had heard it was steep and yes it was but it was a very nice surface underfoot and many places to put the feet!
On the way up we had an incredible view of Mt. Harvey to our right that showed us the vertical climb we did last weekend. WOW! Good thing I did not look down - Neil kept repeating as we were pulling ourselves up - don't look down!

The air started to cool as we climbed. I was starting to get chilled despite going straight up and working hard. My hands started to feel cold in the gloves and then my feet started to freeze. The trail was now covered in snow and quite slippery. It was OK to go up but I kept thinking that we also had to come down this steep snow covered trail. I stopped and put on another layer, hat and changed to my thicker gloves. We continued on and I soon realized we were going straight up Brunswick as we passed over the Howe Sound Crest trail to go to Hat and Fat Ass. I followed Dave and Neil's lead up and once up I made a hasty retreat down. There was a strong cold wind and the drop offs were severe. I was really unsure of my footing with my feet being so cold. The trip down was a bit slippery as the ground was covered with fresh snow. I was too cold to carry on to Fat Ass and Hat so we just kept going down. Once down I warmed up.

The decision was then made to go on to Depencier Bluffs one of the lower Peaks on Mt. Seymour that we had not yet done.

The trail was full of water and wet bushes but it is a pleasant trip to the bluffs. The weather was quite dense with fog so no views of Vancouver from the bluffs.

On Sunday morning we set out and picked up Dave and then Craig and Liza. We planned to bag Deeks, Windsor and Gotha. The weather was perfect and we managed to do all 3. We were a little off on our time estimates for Helen and arrived back to our car at 8:15. Another long day of bagging!

So that completes the 2011 Bagger Challenge. We returned to many familiar peaks but also had the opportunity to discover some new ones. We had many great laughs on the trails with fellow baggers. Some of the journeys were long and extended into the evening. Sometimes a bit expected other times a bit surprising. The nights were magical as we descended in the dark.