The other weekend we took a drive up the sea-to-sky highway intending to do some snow-shoeing at Cheakamus River but we were running out of time so stopped at Alice Lake Provincial Park instead. The idea was to do the Four Lakes Trail which we had snow-shoed last January and very much enjoyed, but when we got there we realised the snow was so compacted and icy that there was no way we could snowshoe on it, but also no easy way to hike on it either. We ended up doing an “ice walk” a third of the way around Stump Lake, and then a quarter of the way around Alice Lake. I was with two people who are much better hikers than me and I was really surprised that I was finding the ice-walking relatively easy compared to them, as I laughed at them falling all over the place and screeching. I think I have learned good ice-walking technique from walking to and from work during that period of heavy snow in Vancouver last year. Mind you, I was the only one who ended up falling on my bum, as they watched me slip and slide down a steep slope and fall over before deciding that they weren’t going to follow, and that they were going to give up and turn round.

We ended up sitting on top of some picnic tables next to Alice Lake soaking up the sun and admiring the view for about an hour before heading back to Vancouver via the Watershed Grill in Brackendale overlooking the river for a pint of beer . It was lovely to get out though, even if our exercise was a lot less vigorous than we had intended it.

The Alice Lake campground is supposed to open at the end of March but it is likely they will delay it this year because of the amount of snow. We’re finding it difficult to get out to the right places this year - most places are the same as Alice Lake - too much snow and ice to hike on, but too bad a quality of snow to snowshoe on. Add to that the extreme avalanche risk on the slopes and in the backcountry in the entire province, and this season has been a bit of a disappointment for most people. We are very much looking forward to Spring when we can get out and go camping and hiking and kayaking and maybe even swimming to make up for the disappointment!

As I like to share pictures and we took no photographs this time, here’s a couple from last year when the snow was good. The first is of me snow-shoeing ON Stump Lake and the second is the view from the Watershed in Brackendale where we had our drink.