Vic Cole Lodge

Notes

Built in 2018 on Sentinel Ridge and the only reason anyone outside qathet drives up here to ski. Walls and floors were prefabbed down in Powell River and slung up by helicopter, and the ridge hands you the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island on one side, wave after wave of Coast Range on the other. Runs off the ridge and out of the surrounding bowls go 300 to 400 vertical metres across every aspect, with a short patch of well spaced glades right above the cabin for lapping. Big Knuckle (1738 m) and Little Knuckle (1624 m) are within 2 km for a longer day. Getting there is the actual crux: Stillwater Main is an active Western Forest Products haul road, radio controlled and closed to the public 5am to 6pm Monday to Friday unless you carry a VHF, and the E branch above it is never plowed. The figures here assume you park at the E branch junction on the mainline near 425 m and skin the road; a high clearance 4x4 with chains often gets several kilometres higher in a thin year, and in summer you can drive to the E100 junction at 677 m, which cuts it to 3.4 miles and 2,450 feet. Wood stove for heat, propane cook stove in the kitchen, no lock, no reservations, first come first served with a suggested $20 CAD per person per night donation. Sleds and tracked ATVs share the up track and the club grooms it, so do not expect solitude on the road. Two BC Ferries sailings from Vancouver, so the road mileage badly understates the trip.