Wendy Thompson and Keith’s hut
A week running from Pemberton to Lilloet and skiing Duffy Lake Road
I made friends and decided to stay an extra night. Eric, Ellika, Christian, and i explored the Mt Marriott ascent. We bailed soon after getting onto the ridge due to more snow climbing than anticipated and wind slabs from the storm the day before. From there I did a lap on the lower half of Honey Bronzed and then a couple laps in the trees north of the hut. Excellent mini golf.
I made more new friends. Jacob and Liam from North Vancouver felt like old pals fast. Jacob got this shot of me at the end of the day. I was wasted 😛
After my second night, I skied out from the hut with Tim and Kelly, firefighters in Vancouver. They drove me four kilometers down the road to the trailhead for Keith’s hut where I planned to spend one night.
I made more new friends at Keith’s hut and decided again to stay an extra night. Max and Christina from Germany are spending the year roadtripping around the US and Canada to rock climb and ski. Felix flew in from Munich to join for the skiing. We skied some epic lines at Motel 66 and Vantage Peak!
Yesterday morning I skied out from Keith’s hut and started running towards Lillooet. I got out around 11:30, unpacked and repacked everything to transition from ski to run, started running at 1pm and arrived at Roger Creek Recreation site at 5pm. Big day!
This morning was clear skies again but cold 🥶 I started running at 8:30. The valley walls were so steep, I didn’t get much sun until 11:30 or so. The highlight of my day was when Christina, Felix, and Max passed me on the way down and stopped and gave me hot tea and snacks. They drove onwards to Revelstoke.
When I got to Lillooet I went to Totem Chinese restaurant. The owner asked where I came from. I said Seattle. He said to please help myself to the buffet. It was on him! How nice.
At last my luck ran out. The Warm Showers hosts I reached out to are off on their own ski trip today. After searching for camping in town, I was successfully scared off by warnings about wolves and cougars in the area. I’m staying at the shelter now. Oddly enough, I fit in quite well, smelling like shit and wearing the same clothes for seven straight days. Being here reminds me of my first night of boarding school. With that, my Pemberton to Lillooet adventure has successfully completed. I ran 100 km with no services over a mountain pass, skied two huts, made good friends, and had a goood time. That’s what I’m talking about.
no time to waste here. Tomorrow I’m hitting the road again to Kamloops. The services are sparse between here and there, so I may not be able to post more blogs before then. I’m looking forward to being out in nature and camping in my cozy tent again.
Now that is a welcome update, especially after the days you spent off the grid. If one of your goals is to be hyper-conscious of and grateful for the moment (hint hint) and not be distracted by worrying about the future or the past, you seem to be wildly successful. For Phil and Mary Oppenheimer, the power of the moment is unleashed when looking at a beautiful painting in a museum, for Nelson, it's watching his horse nose first across the wire , for Mommy it's hanging with Bruce backstage in his dressing room, and for you, well, any reader of this blog knows that answer. My prediction is that people will always want to give you a ride, take you in, and feed you if you continue to appreciate the moment with every cell in your body. Some of us find that doing so takes more effort as we get older. A hope I have is that you are permanently imprinting that ethos into your being on this trip.
A pleasure to meet you on the ice this evening. Hope your run into Cache Creek tomorrow is glorious. Hungry Herbies is an iconic Burger joint in town. It was in a famous Canadian movie called Hard Core Logo about a million years ago.
Hope you had a good dinner tonight. 😀