Red Heather: A snowcave success

​On family day weekend we figured it would be appropriate with a family overnight trip. We settled on snowcaving at Red Heather. In the passed we have not had much luck with our snowcaving adventurous, but since our last disappointing attempt, F had been very excited about the possibly of sleeping in a snowcave. As always we tried to convince some other families to come along with little luck, but at least we managed to convince Tim, Michelle and their son, L, to join us for the Saturday.

Like so many other days this winter there were snow on the ground all the way from Vancouver, so we met up at the bottom of the gravel road to chain up. L was interested and followed the process. He checked in with Christian to see if he needed help, and also wanted to know what our chains were made out of. Christian said they were made out of chain, where to L promptly answered: "Ours are made out of decoration". We all laughed, nodding our heads, as Tim finished putting on their cable chains.

The parking lot was busy but we managed to squeeze in beside another family. The kids 'helped' dig out another parking spot as we got all the gear ready. This time we had settle on a sled, so Christian could easily tow most of the gear, while still carrying F. The ski in was slow, but uneventful, and we arrived at the shelter for lunch time. Christian started digging right away, while the rest of us warmed our grilled cheeses on the stove - so good! After getting the cave started Christian and Tim went for a short ski, while Michelle and I played with the kids. They climbed through the hut cave, ate icicles, dug wholes and of cause helped out with the snowcave.

Climbing through the Red Heather shelter cave.

Busy digging out the snow cave

Michelle was obviously not too keen on leaving the snowcave building behind, but eventually it was time for them to go. Christian, F and I finished the snowcave before dinner. It was nice and big with a very comfy entrance (didn't even need to crawl to get in). We had dinner in the shelter, together with the +20 other people camping in the area - yep it was a busy weekend. 

This time F absolutely loved the snowcave. She was so stoked being in the sleeping bags in there, so it took awhile for her to settle down. The night was uneventful, but rather cold. I am kind of claustrophobic and don't really like snowcaves, so I had requested lots of air holes. Christian made the air holes pretty big, so the cave didn't really keep the warmth in. Instead it let in the gentle light of the full moon all night. I of cause worried about F being warm enough, especially when she insisted of having her head hang of the sleeping mat onto the snow, but despite this she seemed fine. In the morning we noticed that the thin part of the roof had developed a sever sag.

Nice and comfy in the snow cave

Snow cave sag from the outside

Sunday we had a relaxing morning in the hut. I went for a short walk to Paul ridge, while F and Christian explored a nearby igloo. We packed up around noon and headed out as we had a VIMFF show to go to that evening. 

Monday Christian returned to ski the Neve from Rubble Creek to Diamond Head. He had switched keys with a group we ran into Saturday. I was a bit disappointed by his time of 7h ?min, but the conditions were not quite right for a speed traverse just yet.