Event Report: Sometime probably between six and seven most of the 2013 Squamish Scrambler participants awoke to an uncertain weather forecast, and uncertain road conditions with a recent "huge dump of snow".
At seven I was out the door and on the way, the old Suzuki did not seem to be liking the uphills once I was on the highway. It was smoking pretty bad on a few of the hills, until I hit the climb up to Furry Creek, when a huge of white smoke billowed out. I backed off, and brought the temperature back down from max, and tried to get somewhere to pull over. Luckily I got over the hill to Porteau Cove, and although it stalled out on the way down I was able to roll it into the parking lot. I called Jackson but he was already in
Brittania Beach but he thought Jackie may have an extra seat, so I called her.
Her and Wade picked me up, and we got to the Tim Horton's at 8:20, catastrophe everted. We ogranised which vehicles we would take up and made our way up to the parking lot. The road was not in too bad of shape, and there was no ice or anything so getting up was pretty uneventful.
It was 9:30 by the time we started, and snow conditions were perfect for snowshoe running. The track was packed down enough that running snowshoes kept you afloat, but the snow was soft and pretty dry. Wade led the way up, I had my wisdom teeth out on Thursday, which were impacted, and I was dragging my ass off the back trying not to ooze too much blood. The skiers Jackson and Simon, and Eric stopped a couple times on the way up so I hiked with him for a bit, but more or less it was slow and steady for me. I turned around probably a kilometre or a kilometre and a half from the Elfin Lakes Shelter, because my stuff was in Jackie's car and I didn't know how fast I'd be able to move on
the way down. Pretty quickly I saw Eric one last time, who was right behind me, and then I ran into John Machray. We hiked together for a while, he is just coming back after some surgery, so we took it pretty leisurely enjoying some of the nicer parts of the Paul Ridge.
Just above Red Heather cabin, Wade came ripping down, with Geoff and Jackie in hot pursuit. I decided to run the last bit since it was steady downhill and just try to not let the heart rate get too high. It's always a fun little rip but it seems some of those sections go on for ever as much when your jaw is throbbing as much as when you've been pushing it the whole time and just want to get to the end.
Jackson and Simon had been skiing in the Red Heather area. Simon had an avalanche tranceiver, Jackson had a helmet and a piece of flagging tape tied to his index finger. They got in three runs and had hoped for more, but seemed to have enjoyed what they got.
Wade was the first finisher in 3:27, Geoff close on his heels for second in 3:28, I finished in 3:29 but didn't do the whole course, Jackie third in
3:30, Marc fourth in 3:38.
Afterwards we gathered at the Shady Tree. A cold beer went down a lot easier for me than the food, although the black bean soup was a nice menu choice
for me, and I did what I could with some ribs. All in all it was a beautiful day to be in the mountains, even the rest of my week would involve changing
a head gasket in the Suzuki in Porteau Cove.
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