Well, we had time for one last trip back to the ‘Joff before the winter snow begins slowly disappearing from the Mountains.

This time we had guests from Pemberton joining us: Jason Gadd and his son Ben.  They had such a good time that we’ll have to find a way of creating a Pemberton branch of the 5th West Van Mountaineer Scouts!

We also had 19-year-old Sam Lotzkar and his friend David join us.  They also had an excellent time winter camping for the first time in their lives.  Maybe we’ve got our first Rovers for our group?

Saturday morning we saddled up and snowshoed into the mountains.  We ate lunch in the sun at Middle Joffre Lake and then continued on to Upper Joffre Lake.

After five camping trips to the park since November, it was the perfect end of a perfect season to finally put our snowshoe prints into the snow on Upper Joffre Lake below the towering Joffre and Matier Peaks and the stunning Matier Glacier!

We took the opportunity to do a leader investiture ceremony on the lake under the glacier for our new leader, Scouter Alan!  What a spot for that ceremony!  It was like being in a cathedral with the rocks and ice towering all around us.

The weather began socking in and it starting snowing so…with heavy hearts after only a short visit to the “Joffre Cathedral”…we had to turn around and head back to basecamp.

But you can be sure we’ll be back and next time…let’s camp at the Upper Lake!

With all the Scouts in bed on Saturday night, the adults sat in our carved out snow living room and chatted about the day’s adventures.

At 11pm our conversation was interrupted by a sound from high up in the mountains that crackled like rolling thunder for over 5 seconds…something very large, heavy and hard broke loose up there and crashed down the mountain…this was no mere avalanche…it sounded as if half the glacier had broken off.

A good reminder for us to be ever vigilant out there and to take the mountains seriously every time we go out.

UPDATE – 04/16/12:   I just got this wonderful message from Jason Gadd regarding this weekend’s trip up in the mountains:

“HI Jody – Thanks for having us.  Ben said that Saturday was one of the best days of his life!  It was pretty great.”

Saturday morning…getting ready to head up the mountain.

Lunch in the sun at Middle Joffre Lake.

The view from our lunch spot at Middle Joffre Lake.

Tired, happy hikers arrive at last our their destination!

Upper Joffre Lake and the Matier Glacier!

Scout Tree.

Getting ready to do Scouter Alan’s investiture under the glacier.

Welcome new Scouter, Alan!

The sweet taste of success!

Having some fun fooling around while watching backcountry skiers ski from the top of the glacier down to the lake below.

Mountaineer Scouts….THIS IS HOW WE ROLL! Who else would figure out that avalanche probes make excellent flag poles?

The wind’s starting to kick up and the snow is falling….time to wrap this trip up and head for basecamp. But you know that we’ll be back!