2003-09-27-Russet_Lake

We were almost at Whistler when we got a call from Dusit's car; they were supposed to pick Zaven up at Granville and 41st, but he never showed up and they gave up after waiting about an hour (ask him about the three reasons that led to this development). Cyn, Michael, Mark, Michelle, Deb, and I were in the lazier group that was going to take the gondola up then hike the musical bumps, so we left car keys with Greg and Scott since they had a bunch of time to kill, although I think they gave up in the end and went up the Singing Pass trail before the last car arrived.

2003-09-27

Cyn, Mark, Michelle, Deb, and Michael in Whistler parking lot	It takes 20 minutes in the gondola to get up the hill.	View from top of gondola	Somewhat artificial looking pool of water
Tourists	Touristy building	Ice cream!	Helicopter
The intrepid hikers are on their way!	Electric wildlife fence	You will experience an electric shock!	Stretching, twenty minutes into the hike
Ski hills are ugly.	Mighty Deb	These runs aren't so good for skis	Deb taking a picture of Cyn
Deb at cliff	Cliff	Between Piccolo and Flute	Jonny called.
Vibrant red	Neat slopes	Trail through the alpine	Black Tusk and cairn
So many layers of mountains...	Deb and Cyn on cliffside with cairn and Black Tusk	Mountains	Grasshopper
Resting on Flute	Provincial Park Boundary	Deb on alpine landscape	Holy glow above Black Tusk
Deb, the deity of the small upright rocks	Lots of ice cream!	Lakes of snow glistening in the sun	Almost at the snow
Deb and interesting tree patterns	Descending Oboe	Musical Bumps Alpine Route	Deb the mighty
Juxtaposition of colours	Sunset glinting off the snow	Deb pretending to be a mountain goat	Photo break
Lots of mountain peaks	Sherpas	Approaching the final pass to the lake	Cyn and Deb at a summit
Sunset	Zaven at Russet Lake	Cyn the mighty	Reflection across the lake

The slow contingent arrived pretty late, and I used whatever light was left to put up our tent so I never got a look around the area. Thankfully, the speedier people had already started dinner, and there was little left for us to do.

After dinner, we embarked on Kat's night hike. Despite the moon being full, it was remarkable how well we could see without using any lights. The path was rocky and thus light coloured against the plant matter on the sides, and there was undoubtedly some light cast from the glow that was Vancouver. We hiked up to the ridge where we sat around a bit while Dusit tried to communicate with extraterrestrial life with his Mars signaller flashlight.

2003-09-28

There was a significant fraction of our ultimate team on this hike, and it was decided that we would leave early Sunday morning to make it back to town in time for our game which Katie managed to postpone until 2:30pm. So Katie, Dusit, Darko, Michael, Scott (who wasn't on the team but just wanted to set out early), and I headed off toward the gondola, leaving Greg, Deb, and Cyn to hike down Singing Pass. I don't remember what happened to Mark and Michelle; they probably disappeared ahead of us down the trail at their "slow and steady" pace. Unfortunately, traffic was not all that smooth on the highway, and we

Brave people sleeping outside	Greg and Dusit	Katie and Darko	André
Greg and Michael ascending from the lake	Pretty valley	More ice cream	Trekking through alpine growth
Michael prancing downhill	Scott and Katie enjoying the view on Oboe	Black Tusk from Oboe	Meandering trail
Dusit and Kat on Flute	Michael snacking on top of the world	Darko on his way up	André likes snow.
Katie surrounded by prettiness	Winter marker?	A cornucopia of colours amidst a slide of rocks	Cliff revisited
Darko and Katie ascending Piccolo	The end is in sight!	Carvings near the top of the chairlift	Michael
Darko is really dark!	André