MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall Winter 2018

FALL/WINTER 2018 MLCM 83 I was skeptical. Watching the forecast, the devil on my shoulder told me we were looking at a 15-kilometre tour in the rain. The freezing level hovered at 1,000 meters—just 600 metres below the highest point on the entire Sunshine Coast. One member of the crew bailed, claiming, “It’s not worth it for my knee.” But, I was viciously optimistic— What’s not worth it? Who knows what we will find? I was also low-key doubtful— Why haven’t any of our other friends been? Finally, I was spitefully fact-based— if it’s snowing at Cypress, why wouldn’t it be snowing there? Uncertainty gripped my decision-making. It was late February and all my logic told me this was going to be one of our last chances to get into Tetrahedron Provincial Park, north east of Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast and home to the longest hut-to-hut touring system in Canada. We picked up a new crew member and hit the road, with no beta other than a borderline weather forecast, a few snowshoeing pics from the internet, and a small but active Facebook group. Turns out under-the-radar is how the huts’ pioneers like it. George Smith was one of those founders. After returning from living abroad and moving to the Sunshine Coast in 1984, George, an avid ski tourer, joined a crew of telemarkers and took to the hills. They quickly realized the beauty and unique qualities of the area. What is now the 6,000-hectare Tetrahedron park has 10 lakes, beautiful views of the Salmon Inlet and the backside of the infamous Tantalus Range, and is home to some of the oldest trees in Canada. It is no surprise that a group of skiers were integral to founding the huts and subsequent parks—the old growth mountain hemlock and yellow cedar offers perfectly spaced tree-skiing that most heli- operations would dream of having in their tenure. “When I came back to Canada, I wanted to do something positive and get people into our forests and mountains,” George says. “My skills may have led me to do something involving making money and all that stuff, but I was uninterested.” George’s ‘skills’ included a strong family lineage in the forestry industry and previous experience as a funding officer for the Secretary of State office in Ottawa. Banking on this, and wanting to help establish a hut system, George set out to find the missing piece to the puzzle: money. The local and federal government combined to contribute over $170,000, while local artists donated their work to raise money. Ads in the local newspaper served as antiquated Kickstarter campaigns, gathering funds and volunteers to put in the leg work. The Mayor of Sechelt even gave George an office to use while he was working to raise money. Initial construction of the huts took place at the local airport and was spearheaded by a local carpenter named Paul Anslow, who led a crew of workers funded by the Federal Job Development Program. Then the components and tools were driven up with trucks borrowed from Gibsons Building Supplies and Gary’s Crane Service. By the time the snow fell in 1987, the region had four new backcountry huts ready for all to enjoy. George puts it in simple and plain terms: “These huts are a representation of what can happen when a community comes together and people put their mind to something.” A few years after the huts were built applications were filed to log the area. At the time there were no wilderness parks on the Sunshine Coast, so once again the local communities banded together and created Tetrahedron Provincial Park with three main objectives: to protect biodiversity, to protect the region’s fresh water, and to provide opportunities for limited backcountry recreation. To us, touring in the park decades later, it all made perfect sense. The beauty of our surroundings quickly dispelled thoughts of the too-warm weather forecast. As daylight waned, we were lucky enough to follow a faint track up the 12-kilometre approach into Mt. Steele Hut (the highest in the network at approximately 1,433 metres (4,700 feet), but that was the last sign of any human traffic we would see during our four days in the park. As always, the old adage, “you don’t know until you go” proved true—the Sunshine Coast snow was lighter than expected and our lack of research and knowledge of the area left us bewildered and surprised by the perfectly steep tree skiing laps and mellow ascents. What Tetrahedron lacked in variety it supplemented with laps aplenty of good ol’ fashioned hooting and hollering, over and over again. For four days, we chased that fleeting feeling of weightlessness with no worries, but little did we know, the very area we were enjoying has potential trouble ahead. The three goals established during the creation of the park included one that was vitally important to the communities of the Sunshine Coast: the protection of fresh water. Chapman Lake, the largest in the park, serves as a water source for the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD). Long before the Tetrahedron Park was formed, a weir in Chapman Lake supplied water for the communities below. It was eventually grandfathered in to the park area. Fast forward to present day with a growing population, more development, and an increase in the tourism TRICKY TIMES IN TETRAHEDRON BACK YARD words :: Ben Osborne As always, the old adage, “you don’t know until you go” proved true.