Hiking Mt Cook with Sata
In just a few weeks, my good friend Neel is packing up his family and moving back to New York. I had to make sure before he left that he summit at least one mountain in BC. So on Sept 12th, we left Vancouver at 4:50am for a day trip that would turn out to be quite an adventure. We knew it was going to be a long day as we had an aggressive agenda which would take us from the Wedgemout Lake trailhead just North of Whistler all the way to the summit Mt. Cook and then all the way back down in one day's time. In all, we would gain a total of 6316 feet and hike roughly 25km. This would be a big day for the most seasoned of mountaineers...something Neel and I are not! The good news is that we made it...the bad news is we were so beat up by the end of the hike that we both exhibited the first signs of delirium. Here's a quick rundown of the day:
Left Vancouver - 4:50am (and made the mandatory coffee stop at Timmy's - I'm now addicted)
Started hiking - 7:15am
Arrived at Wedgemount Lake - 10:00am
Arrived at Summit of Mt Cook - 2:45pm
Back at the Car - 8:45pm (hiked the last hour in the dark with one headlamp)
Arrived at Whistler McDonald's - 9:00pm
Back in Vancouver - 11:30pm
It was a great day, we met our objective and Neel summitted his first mountain. It's definitely gonna take awhile to recover from the pain of this hike though...definitely had my fill of scree, rock, and tree roots. The legs, ankles, knees, toes, and heels are not real happy with me at the moment but it was all worth it. Thanks for heading up Neel.
A couple other high points from the trip:
- Pre Hike music included all the old goodies - NWA, Snoop, Warren G
- Coined new term - “bastardo rocks”, a new term in mountaineering describing the miserable, un-trustable rocks that tried to break our ankles all day long
- Hallucinating a mouse, 2 bears, and a skunk in the dark forest on the way back down
- Our “mini-feast” at McDonalds - Quarter pounders, nuggets, lrge fries, pies, sundaes, multiple large drinks. We were even offered a free chocolate shake afterwards because we spent so much money.
Read MoreLeft Vancouver - 4:50am (and made the mandatory coffee stop at Timmy's - I'm now addicted)
Started hiking - 7:15am
Arrived at Wedgemount Lake - 10:00am
Arrived at Summit of Mt Cook - 2:45pm
Back at the Car - 8:45pm (hiked the last hour in the dark with one headlamp)
Arrived at Whistler McDonald's - 9:00pm
Back in Vancouver - 11:30pm
It was a great day, we met our objective and Neel summitted his first mountain. It's definitely gonna take awhile to recover from the pain of this hike though...definitely had my fill of scree, rock, and tree roots. The legs, ankles, knees, toes, and heels are not real happy with me at the moment but it was all worth it. Thanks for heading up Neel.
A couple other high points from the trip:
- Pre Hike music included all the old goodies - NWA, Snoop, Warren G
- Coined new term - “bastardo rocks”, a new term in mountaineering describing the miserable, un-trustable rocks that tried to break our ankles all day long
- Hallucinating a mouse, 2 bears, and a skunk in the dark forest on the way back down
- Our “mini-feast” at McDonalds - Quarter pounders, nuggets, lrge fries, pies, sundaes, multiple large drinks. We were even offered a free chocolate shake afterwards because we spent so much money.