A new day, a new bigger objective in Squamish to Alpen Mountain. Access is in Squamish off the Mamquam FSR. We made it up to a parking lot where there seemed to be hunting practice that happens, but good to have a capable vehicle to make it there. We were able to skin up directly from this parking lot, directly up Alpen FSR.
It was a little moody and overcast on the way up. Snow felt good, but it seemed to be much warmer than anticipated, and I was warm enough in a short sleeve, with no gloves or toque. We took turns creating the skin track, as there was fresh snow and no others around. This is a slower going process, but it was fun to be able to take part. I had my splitboard still, so I was able to make wider tracks than the others when I was in front, and still had to make slightly wider tracks when I was in the rear - so it felt like I was cutting a new track the whole way! (Maybe exaggerating a little).
Cool off and let off some steam, literally.
Alas, we made it up to Alpen Hut (Hidden Valley Hut), that appears to be for snowmobile's and ATV's. There's no warming fireplace here, and it felt like we were actually getting colder in it (from not moving). So we had a quick lunch and got back out to continue on our way.
This next little bit flattened out, and you can see the peak where we made it to (didn't make it all the way to Alpen Mountain peak).
Finally we made it to this peak. Due to the reduced visibility, time of day, and distance to Alpen peak, we decided to transition and head back down from here. It took longer than expected and we didn't want to get caught up here too late.
With all the views still!
We had a fun bit of time heading back down, as we still had the only tracks, so there was a lot of fresh snow to ride - unfortunately for me, in addition to the previously mentioned flat spot where I struggled after that first descent (eventually hiking with the board to catch up to the skiers), there were a couple others on the way down that I had to keep up some speed, but altogether not that bad at all. A nice full day! The weather was beautiful when we arrived back down as well, but you just never know when you're up top.
At this point, I still recognize there's something not right with my setup. I haven't gotten the comfort on a splitboard yet like I do with a snowboard. Having recently changed my snowboard to a YES Warca and instantly being way more comfortable on it, I started looking at a different options and got an order placed for a Ride Splitpig to get a very similar volume-shifted profile. Now I wait..
Nice bit of exercise on this trip!
