Directions to Watersprite Lake:

Driving to trailhead:
Drive north from Horshoe Bay on Hwy 99 -- approx. 50 min.
Turn right on Mamquam FSR (first right after the Chief Tourist pullout -- you've gone 300m

too far if you get to the traffic light at the casino just before Squamish). Follow Mamquam

FSR for 13km. at km 3.7 bear right, stay on main road at 3.8 km ignoring a steep branch on

the right (Indian River Road), drive past Raffuse creek bridge at around the 8km mark, cross

bridge over Mamquam river at approx 12.5km, bear right and cross bridge over Skookum Creek

at 13km and turn left a few hundred meters later onto the Skookum main FSR. -- Approx 30 min

-- You must register here at the office (make prior arrangements for an escort -- see below). Follow your

escort on a rough 4WD HC road to the Upper R line gate where the Skookum IPP project has

their weather station. Park here. Time: around 2 hrs from Vancouver.

Skookum Creek Power Project site access protocols:
we have put in place the procedure below for advance notification:

During the week (Tuesday to Friday) at least 24 hours’ notice must be given so that someone

will be showing up at the project gate for access to the backcountry;
For access on the Weekend and Monday, notice should be sent before noon of the previous

Friday, for access over the weekend, including Monday.
For notification, please use the Skookum Creek Power Website

(http://skookumcreekpowerproject.com/ ):
Go to the About Us navigation tab and then click “Contact Us”
Provide sufficient details in the email to assist the staff on site.  Information should

include, number of people in party, what day will the party show up, arrival time at the

gate, and any other important information.  More discussion will take place at the site

office respecting procedures and WSBC requirements. 
 

Note that this is work in progress and the above may change depending on the discussions

between WSBC and the agencies.

From the trailhead:
Follow the logging road heading East

At the second branch on your left (after approx. 35-40 min) turn left

(orange flagging tape hanging down) -- approx 3,500 ft elev. Note: this is a new branch that

wasn't shown on the government topo map. Follow that road for approx 1 hr, with an initial short

climb then fairly flat. Look for a point around 4,000 feet elev

where you can see through the tress a fairly flat area on your left just a short way down;

you've gone maybe 50m too far if you can see the end of the logging road.

Head down a short

way to the flat area on your left -- Note: if it is very steep you've either not gone far

enough or too far. On the flat area, bear slightly left, heading North, to cross the creek

on a log.

 

After crossing the creek crossing on the log, head East up the valley through the

x-mas tress to a grove of mature trees. Continue up the valley until 2 avalanche paths are

visible, one ahead on your right and  a fainter one straight ahead.

Cross past the first

avalanche path to some mature trees, and head up the second avalanche path (we went up the far

skier's left at the edge of the trees and through some clumps of trees where it is less exposed to avalanches and had less

avalanche debris).

Go up until you can bear left below some cliffs, staying above large mature trees. Continue

a short way to a small bowl, go up a steep slope on your right heading up to a small col (straight ahead in the following picture) --

this is the steepest slope on the approach.

Straight ahead, passed the col, is Watersprite Lake at approx 4,600 feet.

Time: 3 hrs up, 1.5 hrs down.

How far is it from the gate where the escort is to the trail head?

I am looking to understand how far the route is from a plowed road. From the description it looks like it is 13 + escort. Is this correct?

What is the ski terrain like in the area? Are there any maps (I would also like a kml to be able to look at air photos) showing routes?

Hi Ben,

Some comments and answers:

1. The IPP construction is finished, so you probably don't need an escort anymore, but then the road may not be plowed.

2. If I remember well, the escort was from around 006073 on the 92G10 map, the parking and gate (hopefully start skiing from here if snow level is low enough) is around 023083. From highway 99, it's 13 km to 006073 (1,500ft elev), and from there, maybe 2 kms or so to 023083 (elev 2,700ft) from where we started skiing.

3. Ski terrain to the lake is largely along logging roads and then up some steep terrain that is avalanche prone in order to get to the lake. The low elevation on the approach makes most of the terrain unsuitable for skiing, unless you have a cold snap with good snow low down. The skiing potential down the avy terrain from the lake is ok, but quite limited (4 people could track it out in a day).

4. I haven't skied past Watersprite lake. 

I've attached a photo of part of 92G10 map to download. The dots are an unmarked logging road and the arrow is where you ski off the road and find your own way (see description in original post). Sorry, I don't remember how to insert a photo to be a part of the post.

I drove to 800 meters ASL on New Year's day. It snowed since then. There was alder across the road but it might be buried now. I parked at a large flat area where the new construction cleared a pad. Beyond that the Water Sprite road is deactivated with cross-ditches. Some recent trimming was done in the first 500 meters. Beyond that the alder is bent over the ski path in the middle. As I said, that may have changed now.

Road near 1100 meters.

As Francis stated, the IPP construction is finished. There was no one around when I was there. The Mamquam road gets lots of traffic so maybe it's possible to still drive up there.

Parking area near 800 meters.

Paul,

What did you ski? Or I guess did you ski anything? What was coverage like in the forest?

Ben, the forest was unskiable due to lack of snow.

Check out my Shannon Creek trip last weekend during the dump.

http://www.backcountrytalk.earnyourturns.com/vb/showthread.php?1398-2014-15-Coast-Mountain-Conditions/page4

Page 4, userid stoked.

I am worried about building a hut in this location. As when the snow level is low enough to drive the road there is not enough snow to ski and when there is enough snow to ski the road is un drivable making the access a lot longer (read slog like north creek). I think that the bcmc should be building a hut for winter use. This hut should be drivable with 2wd with an approach between 4-3 hours for reasonably fit parties so as to allow the average user a hope of reaching the hut in the daylight. I would argue that all the popular huts (garibaldi park, duffy, voc huts) fit this bill. 

I found the snowline on open roads near 300 meters ASL in the Squamish area today (Saturday the 10th of January). I engaged the 4WD low range+locking diff for moderate hills on a smooth gravel road above around 340 meters. There was not a lot of problem at that elevation. Last Sunday's big dump was compressed down into about 10 cm deep of very wet snow at that elevation. Even so, I would not want to drive much higher on unplowed backcountry roads. I think 500 meters ASL would be the limit. That means you might get to the Skookum bridge on Mamquam FSR okay but deeper snow would prevail on the ascent to the Watersprite spur.

Ben,

I agree with your concerns. Water sprite Lake will be a marginal location for winter use, but since the club already has a tenure, if we decide to build a cabin, I would think it wise to make it a small, low-cost cabin to accommodate maybe a half-dozen people overnight. Will be nice to hear an update soon from the Cabin Committee working on Watersprite.

I've never been to this area, but it seems very intriguing , perhaps we could have someone who has been to this area lead a trip or two for club members to who are new to the area, I know I'd go in a second!

Pre-IPP Chris Michalak and I skied Martin Peak as a day trip.  It was late march or early april and we parked about 1-2km before the Skookum Creek bridge.  I recall the road had been plowed to the intake for the Mamquam IPP, which is a few km downstream from Skookum Creek.  Skiing from the Skookum bridge to Watersprite lake was pretty straightforward - a bit shorter than going to Brew Lake from the PMC base area on Chance Creek FSR.  Does anyone know if the IPP company plans to plow the road to the powerhouse?

Oh and the ski terrain up in the alpine was quite good, but there's not a lot of it.

Scott, currently both the Squamish and Ashlu mains are plowed to the power plants. Innergex uses snowmobiles to access the Ashlu head pond at Mile 26 during winter when the road is snow covered. Both those plants are a short distance from pavement. I don't see that as the case for Skookum. Perhaps they use snowmobile access. Anyway, someone should check it out.

Given the info from Paul (4wd low at 340m) I have plotted out the route. Worst case would be a requirement to park at the subdivision which adds another 3 km. 

There is about 10km of logging road (drivable in the summer) before getting to the parking spot and start of overgrown logging road.

It is about 4.7km on the overgrown logging road and then 2.3 km on the trail to where I believe the hut site is. Reportedly this takes 3 hours in summer. 

So if we assume that it is possible to walk/skin/combo 3 km/hour on the road and give another hour for the extra km and faffin then it should take 7 and in the case where you need to park at the subdivision 8 hours to reach the hut. Do people think 3km per hour is a reasonable speed for the logging road?

I have attached my KML file for others to view.

Ben, 3 km/hr is a bit slow for tracked logging road travel but reasonable if trailbreaking is more significant. I skinned up Ashlu Main on sled tracks last w/e at about 5 km/hr (rough estimate). Almost certainly in winter there will be a snowmobile track to the Alpen spur past Raffuse Creek or even to the power plant. Not this winter. You can probably drive there now.