Eighty Nine North: Duffey Lake & Keith Hut

Scott, Kyle and I met in Vancouver and headed north to the Keith Hut for parts of four days and three nights in the backcountry and then drove back down to Whistler for three days of lift-serve skiing. Great trip, apart from the fact B.C. has endured a historically bad year for snow fall and I tripped on a cat track at Whistler and developed a hematoma in my right butt. Planning, packing, and executing the back country portion of the trip was really fun, and it was nice to completely unplug in the hut for a while. And big thanks to Jason, who despite being really sick managed to show us the way to Keith Hut before heading back home. Now if that hematoma would just heal a bit faster so I could get back out there!

Below are some pictures from the trip and here is a link to an epic 12 minute video documenting our time in the hut. Enjoy!

Kyle is a bit of a grumpy cat in the mornings.

What happens at Keith Hut stays at Keith Hut.

Nice little fire. Snow in pots on top for melting our drinking water!

Scott & Tony by the fire.

Scott outside of the Keith Hut.

Mapping out our route for the day. Pretty limited options given the lack of snow.

Photo taken by the Germans who we shared the hut with on the first night. Had the place to ourselves the last two nights!

Trying to get to the Pee Tree in the middle of the night without my contacts in was challenging, to say the least.

Kyle, skinning up the ridge leading towards Mt. Joffre.

Scott skinning.

Vantage ridge. Home of some allegedly epic tree skiing and some nice slides as well - but not this week. We skinned by the base on our initial approach to the hut and coverage was spotty, to say the least.

Victory!

Mt. Joffre looming out the front door of the Hut in the a.m.

Looking down at the Keith Hut from a nearby ridge.

Scott demonstrating the proper technique for using a snow saw.

In case you didn't know, Scott is a bird whisperer.

Sometimes the amount of gear needed in the back country gets overwhelming!

Full moon really lit up Mt. Joffre at night. Picture doesn't do it justice, spent some time each evening outside just staring at the mountain. If click this picture you can just make out Orion to the left of the peak, which is pretty cool.

Keith Hut at night.

Keith Hut Memorial.

Heading out on the last morning - that is a lot of gear to carry!

Found a snow table/dining room on a ridge leading to Mt. Matier.

Looking back over at Joffre from the Mt. Matier ridge.

Escaping from the Keith Hut was pretty challenging. We were not expecting to have to boot pack, I'm impressed our packs were able to hold our skis on top of everything else!

Jason showing us the way to the Keith Hut. He had to turn around at some point after feeling pretty ill. We'll have to come back and do it again sometime soon so he can join!