Discovery Hut - 2022
Hmm, I guess I really screwed myself over by finishing that last post… Now I feel a slightly elevated desire to keep this thing going.
I’ve got a bit of catching up to do, but there were some great trips in the interim between the Central Coast and now (October 2023), and so it feels a shame not to capture them here. I’m also 94% off social media these days, so it does feel important to capture some especially magical moments in some fashion beyond the opaque infinite that is “The Cloud”.
If I’m going to carry 47 fucking pounds of expensive camera gear up and down the mountains, I damn well should do something with the photos!
Disco Hut is a backcountry cabin in the Caribou Range north of Kamloops. It’s within a very small sub-range of mountains in Wells Gray Park, that gets consistent good cold snow as the first range east of the arid desert lands to the west. Ian Eakins has owned and run the Wells Gray Adventures for close to half a century now, building a series of 3 remote cabins starting in 1988 with his partner, Tay.
Ian is an absolute gem, and a pleasure to spend time with, which was fortunate as the weather grounded the subsequent heli rides after the first bird flew a 1/3 of our party in, and we were forced to enjoy the cultural experience that is Clearwater, BC for a few days.
I had been to a different Wells Gray Adventures hut, Trophy, twice previously, and absolutely loved the experience. As I’ve rambled about previously, it’s hard to beat a warm hut in the mountains after a terrific day of powder skiing, and the Wells Gray cabins have a sauna to really up the bougie-yet-rustic mountain experience. The mountains have less vertical relief than elsewhere in BC, making for quick up and down laps, with tree skiing being the name of the game, with well spaced tall and skinny old growth framing playful little gullies and chutes for safe and fun pow plundering.
To play a bit of catch up, and to save the world and my future self from having to read through paragraphs of mediocre metaphors and poor prose, once again, the photos will do most of the talking here.
It’s seems practically impossible for Dylan to sit still for any lengthy period of time, so he decided to show off his artistic skills while we waited for the heli to arrive on the last day. It worked especially well, as the shaft created a runway of sorts that Ken the pilot enjoyed navigating his bird down to land right where I’m standing in photo #2. Apparently, he almost crashed the helicopter he was laughing so hard!
