2011 - Squamish Scrambler - Year 7
12 February 2011
Event Report: The 2011 running of the Squamish Scrambler saw snow conditions we'd always wished for. However it was a case of be careful what you wish for.
The road was in pretty good shape up to the chain-up point. We went through without chaining up, because I knew the girls from the island were planning on seeing how far they could make it. With Jackson having already gone right up without putting his chains on, and the road not looking bad and freshly sanded, we headed up without putting ours on as well.
At a sharp corner midway up the park road, Lysanne, Katie and their passengers had run into a bit of trouble and were having trouble getting up the steep part of the hill right around the corner. There was a large plowed out area just before it so I pulled in there and myself, Jane and Bill decided to walk up with them so they wouldn't try driving up and then risk having to come down. We helped direct them back and around into the plowed out area. They had a rental car and the tires did not look to be too new. Jane and Bill were skiing and could ski right down to the car, because at this point it was pretty good snow.
I thought we were pretty close as far as I could remember, Bill and I set off with the others to follow and it turned out to be maybe 15 minutes walk. When we arrived, John and Glenn, who had stopped to chain up were just pulling in. We saw the crew from Jackson's car heading off down the trail already - eager beavers! Apparently despite barrelling up without stopping they were convinced I was ahead of them. Jane and Bill were eager to get going so they don't get dropped on the ascent on their skis. Those remaining gathered for a quick picture then we set off from the trailhead around 9:40 after leaving Tim Hortons at 8:35. And conditions were not even too bad on the road.
From the trailhead the conditions were excellent, nice fresh powder deep but only maybe knee deep at first, and luckily the crew from Jackson's vehicle had already broken the trail. John, Glenn and I were running pretty close together for the first bit. We started to see some of the folks who started just as we got there. Regan was moving good uphill, but we were determined to try and catch Jackson, Wader, Eric, and Jason. Jason came up just from Florida for the event, and we rewarded him with a good old fashioned Coast Mountain blizzard! We traded off who was in front, until they pulled off to eat. I pulled on, then John came surging past a little while later. I went on still running strong uphill for a bit thiking of trying to catch John quick, but then I started to think it would be a good idea to power hike up some of the steeper bits and save it so I would have the energy to really go hard along the rolling hills of the Paul Ridge, and then really hammer on the way down. Which normally would be a good strategy, except the running on the ridge part is not really a possibility on this day.
When we got close to Red Heather cabin the snow was obviously a lot deeper, but the trail still broken. The crew from Jackson's car were in the warming hut, we stayed in there for a few minutes and set off in a now much expanded group. There were a number of other people in and around the hut but none had ventured beyond, except John who went on a one man mission. We followed his tracks up beyond the outhouse and we formed a conga line with the front person breaking trail for a short bit, then dropping to the back. Unfortunately this meant whoever was in front was busting their ass, while everyone behind was barely moving and freezing. Soon there were a good dozen of us trading off (see the picture above), breaking trail, each taking our shot at pulling in short bursts.
When the wind could get you, it was a vicious cold wind that whipped the snow at you like ice crystals. In other areas it was relatively calm. It was very slow going, although we were doing fairly well. But people kept dropping off. Navid had borrowed some snowshoes off a friend and since they didn't have fully functional binding he attempted to attach them to his feet with bungee cords. They were bigger than he was though, he should have been breaking trail, but unfortunately he had to pull out due to gear problems.
Some of the women were getting cold and decided to head back to the hut. Jackson and the crew from his car pushed on longer, but eventually turned back. John, Glenn, Bill, Jane and I hung on a little bit longer, but the going was so slow. The snow was just so deep you're sinking up to your waist and beyond, especially on the little running snowshoes. On the way back we put the hammer down a bit on the trail we broke on the way up, especially after Red Heather, when John pushed me from behind all the way down. We were getting huge strides in pretty fast.
While their were no views to be had due to cloud cover and near whiteout conditions it was still a beautiful day to be in the mountains. In the morning some people suggested we head to the Howe Sound Brew Pub rather than the Shady Tree. It didn't bother me, although I can't drink the beer anymore because of the gluten, and everyone seemed to either prefer that or not care. We gathered there afterwards for some food and drinks, and when the first of us arrived they informed us that they were only open until 2:00 because of a special event and it was already 1:45, but we could order. We decided to rally up the troops as quickly as possible, and try to get our orders in. By the time we did it was nearly 2:00 so they moved us over to the restaurant side which was staying open a bit later.
We shared stories about all the snow, had some locally made microbrew from Squamish, and ate including a massive plate of nachos with pulled pork which I tried my hardest on but eventually had to split amongst those with any appetite left after eating their meals. All in all it was a great day, but the snow was just a bit too deep and a bit too powdery for real running until the trail was broken. Although we didn't make it to Elfin Lakes, it was still worth the trip. And it was definitely different to see those kind of conditions there this time of year. Usually its raining low down, or clear. Or if its snowing heavy, it hasn't been going for days and left over a metre of fresh powder. If you had fat enough skis I bet you could have a lot of fun on that stuff, but Bill and Jane said they had too lean back as far as they could just to stay up.
Photos:Click on the image below for a slideshow of photos posted so far:
If you have photos that you would like to add to this slideshow, please upload them to your Flickr Account, tag them with SquamishScrambler2011, SquamishScrambler, ClubFatAssEvents201, ClubFatAssEvents and add them to the CFA Flickr Group. Detailed instructions on how to do this are posted here.
Comments: You can add your own report or feedback either via the comment function below or through your blog (once you posted a blog it can be attached to a results page by admin).
Please also take a moment and participate in the online post event survey here.
Participants:
| First Name | Last Name | City | Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chessa | Adsit-Morris | Vancouver | 2 |
| Glenn | Cameron | North Vancouver | 1 |
| Ryan | Conroy | North Vancouver | 4** |
| John | Dove | North Vancouver | 2 |
| Jason | Eads | Tampa | 2 |
| Christina | Esser | North Vancouver | 2 |
| Ean | Jackson | North Vancouver | 2 |
| lysanne | lavigne | Victoria | 1 |
| Katie | Longworth | Victoria | 1 |
| Bill | Maurer | North Vancouver | 2 |
| Navid | Rahemtulla | Vancouver | 1 |
| Eric | Rannaud | Burnaby | 2 |
| Wade | Repta | Vancouver | 2 |
| Jane | Weller | North Vancouver |
 2 |
| Reagan | White | Vancouver | 2 |
| Jeannie | Zabukovec | Vancouver |
1 |
* Garbage Collection
** Event Host
- Membership not activated
Event Home - Registration - Backgrounder - Agenda
Course - Thanks! - Results - Contact Us - FAQ
The Scrambler 2011
The Squamish Scrambler has got to be my favorite winter running event. Held every February in the mountains above Squamish, BC, it's a magical half-marathon on snowshoes.
Getting to the start is half the fun. This first leg involves a commute to Squamish, a meet-up at the local Tim Horton's and a car pool up an icy dirt road. Reagan dropped $30 on a cab ride to my place in North Vancouver and he, Jason and I left for adventure on a rainy Saturday morning at 7:00 am. Straight up, I figured we'd be running in the rain and slush as it was relatively warm outside for mid-February. What a surprise Mother Nature had in store for us!
After getting stoked on double-doubles and maple glazed cholesterol bombs at the Tim's (special Canadian cultural and culinary treat for Jason from Florida), Wader and Erik joined us in the happy bus for the last push up Mamquam Road to the trail head. (Note: Don't leave your car at Tim's as it will be towed. Best to park beside the road next to the golf course.)
My old Subaru got us to the top without incident. Yes, I nailed a few potholes. (Sorry about your hemorrhoids, Wader. =;-) Yes, I did blow through the sign that said, "Chains mandatory from this point on", but my tires were fairly new and the Forrester is all-wheel drive, and the peanut gallery kept chanting something like, "Go! Go! Go!" so I caved-in and geared-down.
It seemed to me there were a lot fewer cars in the parking lot than in past years. As we put on our snowshoes, the park ranger scraped a deep layer of snow off a sign at the trail-head with a rake. "All of this came down since I left the lot late last night," he said.
Odd how the snow line started at the edge of the parking lot. Wader put the hammer down and dropped Jason, Eric, Reagan and me like a bad smell. The snow became deeper and dryer as we made our way up the trail. We passed some poor guy who dropped his camera in the snow. Sionarra, brother. Come back for a look in May!
As Jason and I came to the clearing before the Red Heather warming hut caught up to Wader was now breaking trail in snow up to his knees. We paused briefly to check in at the cabin and came across 3 dudes on skis who had spent the night sheltered from the howler of a storm. From this point on, we'd be breaking trail.
I've messed around in deep snow, but never in snow as deep as what we faced as we made our way across the wide meadow and up toward the ridge. Tour de France-style, we took turns taking a pull at the front of what had become a growing mule-train as the rest of our group caught up. Think a minute or two of intense effort trying to punch through snow that was waist to chest-deep snow followed by 10 minutes of shuffling along at a crawl. Given the biting wind, it didn't take long to get chilled to the bone if you were not taking the pull.
It soon became clear that we stood no chance of making it to the Elfin Cabin. For no other reason than to say we did it, our group pushed on to the ridge where the trees offered some shelter from the wind. At one point Eric disappeared in front of me in snow up to his chin!
While the trip back down to the Red Heather cabin went a lot quicker than the trip up, our trench had been almost completely filled-in with snow. Several runners were literally worried that they'd freeze their fingers off. (Thankfully, none did.)
As we dropped down into the trees, the trail was much more clearly defined and we warmed-up considerably. Wade was off the front like a bullet. (Forgot I had the keys, eh?) Hoping to share one of my simple snowshoe pleasures with Jason (who, by the way, had never seen snow like this and had never been on snowshoes before) I coaxed a handful of the folks with me into wading through waist-deep powder up a small rise above the trail. We packed down a runway and, one after another, took a running leap off into space. (Think jumping out of a second-floor window into a 3-meter deep duvet!)
By the time we got back to the parking lot, it was spitting rain. Wader was as good as frozen and Jason wasn't much warmer. All of us were starving and in need of beer, so the pressure was on to drive back down the hill bareback. However, twice in the past I almost slid off the road and down a cliff, so the warmer passengers and I installed one tire chain as an insurance policy. Apart from the obligatory potholes for Wade and a painful episode of crawling in the mud and rain to remove the tire chains, our decent back to the civilization of Squamish was uneventful.
Caving in to a large contingent of beer aficionados, Ryan agreed to move the post-event carbo load to the Howe Sound Brewing Company. Good call. Katie went for the licorice stout. I went for the special IPA. Many fine craft brews were served up as we took turns roasting our fat asses in front of a warm fire.
Good times. Thank you, Ryan, for some great memories!
Ryan's official report, other stories, some videos and photos about the 2011 Squamish Scambler.