X Fiftieth-Anniversary Edition X Varsity Outdoor Club Journal 2007–08 Varsity Outdoor Club Journal 2007–08 VARSITY OUTDOOR CLUB JOURNAL 2007–08 X Fiftieth-Anniversary Edition X Copyright © by the Varsity Outdoor Club Texts © by individual contributors Photographs © by photographers credited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher. ,e Varsity Outdoor Club Journal (est. 1958) is published annually by ,e Varsity Outdoor Club Box , Student Union Building Student Union Mall University of British Columbia Vancouver, www.ubc-voc.com - Copy editing by Iva Cheung Cover and text design by Iva Cheung Advertising sales and production management by Jeff Mottershead Proofreaders: Roland Burton, Matthew Carroll, Madeleine Martin- Preney, Duncan McPhedran, Jeff Mottershead, and Kaja Sadowski Front cover photo, “Friendly, Moose, Spyglass and Steve,” by Sandra Nicol Back cover photo by Dick Culbert, courtesy of Hamish Mutch Printed and bound in Canada by Hemlock Printed on paper that comes from sustainable forests managed by the Forest Stewardship Council ,e editors have made their best efforts to verify names of alumni in retrospective articles and archival photographs and to trace the provenance of the latter. However, where we could not identify everyone in a photo, we often chose, out of fairness, to name nobody at all. ,e VOC archivist welcomes any correspondence to correct errors or omissions. CONTENTS 1 President’s Message • Kaja Sadowski 4 Editor’s Message • Jeff Mottershead 6 VOC Executive 2007–08 11 Fiftieth-Anniversary Retrospective 19 Fifty Years of VOC Journalism • Karl Ricker 25 ,e VOC during World War II and the Postwar Years: From All-Work-and-No-Play to Lotsa-Play-and-Some- Work • Tami Knight, in interviews with Gordon Knight and Iola Musfeldt Knight 38 In Memoriam: Vernon Cuthbert (Bert) Brink (1912– 2007) • Iola Knight 43 A First Ascent: ,e Dirty Nine on Garibaldi • Nick Betty 46 Near Death on Weart? • Sev Heiberg 49 ,e Saga of the Festering Four • Pat Duffy 52 “Someone’s Fallen Off!” • Pat Duffy 54 In Memoriam: Hans Gmoser • Duncan McPhedran 56 VOC Alumni Still Going Strong • Barb Smith 58 Crap Crags: ,e Beginning • Hamish Mutch 63 Coast Mountain Trilogy • Dick Culbert 75 Veeocee Mountain • Roland Burton 78 How MEC Was Born • Roland Burton 81 Sphinx Camp and the Smell of Screen • Helen Lemon-Moore 87 In Memoriam: Dave Waldichuk • Helen Lemon-Moore 88 In Memoriam: Julian Harrison • Helen Lemon-Moore with files from David Lemon 90 ,e Golden T-Shirt • Anita Miettunen 96 Hey Dude, Time to Earn Some Turns in Cali • Denise Hart 104 In Memoriam: Brian Waddington • Denise Hart 107 Memories of Brian, Janet, and John and the Talchako Horseshoe Ski Traverse • Betsy Waddington 112 Valley Boy • Drew Brayshaw 117 In Memoriam: Rob Driscoll • Bruce Fairley 122 Walk On • Blair Hammond 127 Wide Angle: A Karakoram Confession • Jeremy Frimer 140 ,e Great Unknown • Mike Hengeveld 152 Climbing with a Sweaty Bag • Mike Hengeveld 158 What the Government Really Wants to Say When It Gets a Letter from a VOC Member • Matthias Jakob 161 My Favourite VOC Traditions • Matt Gunn 168 ,e Delicate Art of Bailing • Cam Shute 171 Ice Climbing with a Retarded Mojo • Kelly Franz 175 Authors in Our Midst • Iva Cheung 180 Ninety Years of the Varsity Outdoor Club: A Glimpse into the Archives • Duncan McPhedran 191 Grad News 2007–08 • Christian Champagne and VOC alumni 221 Skiing 227 ,e World’s Longest Spearhead Traverse, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate My Downmat • Scott Webster 234 Escape from Garibaldi • Christian Veenstra 240 Decision to Descend • Samantha Brett (VOCO) 248 ,e Bonnington Traverse • Madeleine Martin-Preney 254 Intro to Backcountry (And a Few Extras) • Bob Lai and Michael Kaye 262 New Year’s at Phelix: Shredding Gnar and Naked Foolery • Emma Vardy-Bragg 265 Going for Glory on Norske • Gili Rosenberg 271 ,e Telemark Journey • Stuart Masterman 274 How to Fix Telemark Bindings • Stephen Mullen 279 Cragging 283 Europa: Route Cleaning the Painful Way • Jeff Mottershead 294 How to Install a Gasoline-Powered Air Compressor 200 m Up a Rock Face • Matthew Carroll 301 Siwash under a Full Moon • Natalie Stafl 303 Aid Climbing in Squamish with Jeff • Dorota Palaczek 306 When in Doubt: Twin Mini-Epics on the Squamish Chief • Nick Waber 320 Climbing in Smith Rock • Christian Sampaleanu 326 Climbing Trip to Skaha, May 2007 • Dorota Palaczek 330 Saving the Skaha Bluffs • Christian Sampaleanu 335 Alpine Climbing 339 Escape from Sampson • Matthew Breakey 346 Adventures in Salal Creek • Richard So 354 Paddling @ Altitude: Mountaineering Camp 2007 • Piotr Forysinski 359 East Face of Mount Garibaldi in the Summer • Evan Morris 364 Cost of a Trip to the Tantalus Range • Urszula Palaczek and Dorota Palaczek 366 Bugaboo Firsts • Kaja Sadowski 373 Four Unemployed Climbing Bums Spend Time in the Mountains, July 24–27, 2007 • Richard So 380 ,e First Free Ascent of Mount Queen Bess’s Southeast Ridge, August 5, 2007 • Peter Hudson 385 Adventures Abroad 387 Mining in Zambia • Michael Fuller 392 Solo in Eastern Africa • Michael Fuller 397 A Good Time and a Bad Pun • Natalie Stafl 401 ,oughts on the Adventurous Spirit • Emily Beach 404 Engulfed by a Hippo • Natalie Stafl 407 Land and Water 411 Canadian Surf Culture • Anton Bezglasnyy 416 Beginner-Friendly Edible Wilds • Meghan Anderson 419 Cycling the Kettle Valley Railway • Maya Goldstein 425 ,e Spearhead Traverse in a Day • Stuart Masterman 428 Craving British Columbia’s Mountains • Julie Valk 432 Haida Gwaii Story • Vincent Johnson 445 Kayaking in the Gulf Islands • Bob Lai 451 Club Life 452 VOC Photo Contest 2007–08 459 ,e VOC: Just for Fun • Dan Eagen 462 VOCO Rundown 2007–08 • Kaitlyn Bausler 469 VOC Banquet 2007 • Christian Champagne 473 Longhike 2007 • Ben Singleton-Polster 475 Shannon Falls: A Poem about Longhike • Brian Magahay 478 Etymology and Indiana Jones: Winter Longhike 2008 • Sophia Toft Moulton 483 Becoming Consciously Incompetent: Avalanche Course 2008 • Eric Escobar 488 Tele School 2008 • Matthew Baker 491 Recipe for Brewberry Pie • Meghan Anderson 494 Recreational Disorder Profiles: Hyperbarognosia Nervosa • Frances Sharpe 498 ,e Delicate Art of Female Urination: Ten Tips on Go- ing Pee in the Backcountry • Krystil Koethler 501 ,e Roland Burton Beginner-Friendliness Award • Sandra Nicol 507 Quartermaster’s Report • Andrew Silversides 511 Phelix Creek and the State of Backcountry Recreation • Sandra Nicol 515 Harrison Hut, the Mineral Tenure Act, and You • Peter Hudson 519 Journal Awards • Jeff Mottershead 521 Index '".064 '00%4 8FTUPDLPSHBOJDQSPEVDFBOE NFBUT BTXFMMBTBHSFBUTFMFD UJPO PG DPOWFOUJPOBM HSPDFSZ JUFNTBOECVMLGPPET .POEBZ 'SJEBZ".UP1. 4BUVSEBZ 4VOEBZ".UP1. ,JOHTXBZ!,JOH&EXBSE 7BODPVWFS #$ PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Kaja Sadowski '".064 that really strikes me as I look back on the four Oyears I have spent in the VOC is how much the core of the '00%4 club has shifted since I arrived here in 2004. Back then, I felt as if I were being inducted into a secret society with its own ob- scure rules and traditions that it was a great privilege even to see, let alone participate in. ,ough our membership was quite large, there only seemed to be about fifty people who were actively involved in the club’s regular activities, and maybe another fifty who had gone on any trip other than Longhike. In my subse- quent years on the exec, we’d occasionally joke about how the club functioned by sucking in hundreds of first years at Clubs Days and then using their membership fees to fund the activi- ties of the “active members”—all hundred or so of us—long after they’d forgotten what the VOC was in the first place. It was a sad truth that our membership numbers did not reflect our members’ engagement level. Considering our budget restraints and the logistical difficulty of planning thirty-plus–person trips every weekend, it was even useful. ,en, suddenly, something changed. It may have been because of the increasing accessibility of the club through our message board, VOCene, and wiki (which has absolutely exploded this year in the hands of our mad historian, Christian Champagne); it may have been because of Sandra Nicol’s campaign for X 1 X 2 X VARSITY OUTDOOR CLUB JOURNAL 2007–08 beginner-friendly trips last year; it may even have been just a lucky influx of new members that were so eager to get involved that they pushed past any barriers within the club and took over. Whatever the reason, the level of involvement in the club this past year has been a wonderful surprise. ,e exec has been scrambling like mad to keep up with the demand for trips and courses and then tearing out our hair trying to figure out just where we can take a group of fifty people and effectively intro- duce them to backcountry skiing. Every trip advertised on the wiki has needed a waiting list, every VOC hut has been packed to the gills multiple times, and I’ve seen new faces every out- ing into the backcountry. What’s more, an enormous chunk of our new members have been organizing their own trips, which range from a “let’s practise what we learned at Glacier School” excursion to climbing nights at the ever-shifting Cliffhanger to weekend romps up to Squamish or across the Neve. As far as I can tell, the “inactive” portion of the club is next to non-exis- tent as new members just keep popping out of the woodwork and offering to teach avi courses or follow Jeff Mottershead up Europa in the middle of the night.