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ATTENTION TETRAHEDRON PARK VISITORS
**OPEN FOR DAY USE ONLY**
the cabins remain CLOSED and tent camping is not allowed
The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is now available online and you can help direct funds to the club by using our unique affiliate link - MORE INFO
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This page has important travel and safety information and current bulletins about the road and trails, especially for travel fall-winter-spring. Please also scroll down to read TRAVEL SAFETY, CONDITIONS, WEATHER.
Want to know what conditions are like in Tetrahedron Park or on the access road (Sechelt-Gray FSR), or if folks are planning overnight stays in the cabins? There is a Facebook Group and the club is encouraging Tetrahedron Park users to visit and/or join the Facebook Group (you don't have to be a TOC member and it's a public group so you can see the postings without joining) and this is where the most current info can be found. By joining the FB group you can easily share or ask for info, post photos, communicate with the group or specific members, post outdoor gear for sale, propose trips or events. BUT, before you head on over to Facebook please read all of the information in the next two sections of this page.
Current Bulletins about the Park, Road, Trails, or Cabins
The road is currently only suitable for 4WD or AWD with high clearance and chains are necessary in the winter, as is a shovel in the event you have to dig yourself out. It is an 11km FSR that is not maintained by its owners - the Province of BC - and is NOT PLOWED. The club does what it can to keep it from deteriorating further by hiring contractors to establish and maintain water-bars, which may prove difficult or impossible for vehicles without sufficient clearance. Use this road at your own risk. No dogs in the park. No tent camping in the park. Steele Creek (past Edwards on the way to Steele or McNair cabins) is without a bridge, making for a tricky crossing. It may be impossible to keep your feet dry and in some years the creek never gets snow-filled and solid. Rain-on-snow weather events early and late in the season can mean Steele Creek is running high and fast. There is a log that can be used VERY CAREFULLY and preferably straddled rather than walked. Expect to have to spend time figuring out how to cross, have to take your skis off, kick steps into the banks to get in and out of the creek. The Chapman Creek bridge (McNair cabin trail) has been repaired but is again at a bit of an angle. It's unlikely but possible the middle support may get undermined during a high water flow event this season. Cross carefully and use the rope rail, or turn around and go back to Edwards cabin if it doesn't look safe. The trail to McNair cabin crosses wetlands with many small waterways before and after Chapman Creek. Expect those waterways to be open if you are traveling during milder conditions in winter, or if the season has generally been mild. In all seasons the trail to McNair is the most difficult because of the boggy terrain, remote location, and regular blowdown of trees across the trail. Expect to take extra time to find safe and dry crossings and to get over logs. The road has seen some recent work, and will see some more in the near future. Water bars have been re-established and may prove difficult for low-clearance vehicles. The road in general requires 4WD or AWD, and you'll need good clearance to get across the narrow water bars. Please do not email the club to ask about the condition of the road. Check the Facebook Group for the most recent info on road conditions as reported by recent visitors. VANDALISM AND THEFT AT WINTER PARKING LOT On at least 2 occasions early in 2017 vehicles parked overnight had been vandalized, or broken into and items stolen. DON'T LEAVE ANY VALUABLES IN YOUR VEHICLE! 
TRAVEL SAFETY, CONDITIONS, WEATHER
IF YOU ARE TRAVELING IN TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK YOU SHOULD CARRY A GOOD MAP OF THE AREA, or download it to your phone. Go to the maps page of this website for the BCParks contour map. Phone-based map apps that rely on satellite connections are of limited use, and may be useless in the forested sections.
THERE IS VERY LIMITED CELL COVERAGE IN TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK. There is usually service at and above Mt. Steele cabin, and service near the bottom of Sechelt-Gray FSR. There is spotty service at Edwards cabin. Sechelt-Gray FSR is a gravel Forest Service Road, 11 km long and climbing to ~2500 ft (800m) from sea-level. In the winter IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOUR VEHICLE HAS 4WD, OR IS A HIGHER-CLEARANCE AWD, AND YOU HAVE CHAINS AND KNOW HOW TO USE THEM. A SHOVEL COULD ALSO BE CRITICAL. The road is often icy and rutted, and is narrow and steep in places. What looks like a shoulder may just be a ditch filled with snow. THE ROAD WILL ONLY BE PLOWED ONCE OR TWICE IN THE 2019-2020 SEASON AND THAT WILL DEPEND ON CONDITIONS, THE AVAILABILITY OF A MACHINE AND OPERATOR, CLUB FUNDS. YES! AVALANCHE HAZARDS EXIST IN TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK! IF YOU INTEND TO TRAVEL TO EDWARDS, MT. STEELE, or McNAIR CABIN you should know what the current avalanche conditions are and make appropriate decisions. For winter travel avalanche training is recommended, and that everyone travelling in avalanche terrain is carrying avalanche rescue equipment; at minimum a probe, shovel, and avalanche transceiver. There’s lots of information on the Avalanche Canada website under the Learn tab or if you are new to the mountains in winter check the Start Here tab. The online AvySavvy (https://avysavvy.avalanche.ca/) course is a great place to get an introduction to avalanche safety or refresh your knowledge. For current avalanche info go to the Avalanche Canada website and use the South Coast forecast as your primary resource. It may be beneficial to also review the Sea-to-Sky forecast. Avalanche hazard areas:
Helicopter rescue to this area is highly dependent on weather and visibility. Any emergency rescue would mostly likely be a GROUND RESCUE by volunteers of Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue and MANY hours away. FREEZING LEVELS, SNOW, RAIN, WIND AND GENERAL CONDITIONS FORECASTS: Cypress Mountain 6-day Forecast NEW weather station in the Tetrahedron with hourly data on temps, snow, rain, wind, etc. Mt. Strachan weather station (Cypress, 1420m)
GENERAL INFO ABOUT THE PARK AND LINKS TO GPS DATA BC Parks website Maps page |
Fundraising
The Tetrahedron Outdoor Club presents an annual screening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in November as the main club fundraiser. A huge THANK YOU to 2019's local sponsors!! Alpha Adventures- The Outdoor Adventure Store Clayton's Heritage Market Coast Reporter Elphi Cycles FUNtastic Hikes and Tours Lone Wolf Provisions Mountain FM PaceSetter Athletic Footwear Real Mushrooms SCRD Parks and Recreation Strait Up Climbing Sunday Cider Tapworks Brewing Company Trail Bay Source for Sports Tetrahedron Outdoor Club Thanks the SCRD, Town of Gibson, and the SIGD for Road Maintenance Funding
The TOC acknowledges and appreciates the funding grants received in 2015 from the Sunshine Coast Regional District, Town of Gibsons, and Sechelt Indian Government District, which allowed us to carry out road maintenance on the Sechelt-Gray Forest Service Road. Funding is used for road grading, brushing, and other maintenance work to continue to provide safe access to Mount Richardson and Tetrahedron Provincial Park. (These grants are not used for snow plowing, or for work within the Park.) Who We Are...The club came into existence in the early 1970's, originally as The Tetrahedron Ski Club. The founding members were mostly employees of Howe Sound Pulp and Paper and began skiing the freshly logged slopes near the mill, later on Mt. Elphinstone, and then finally in the Tetrahedron Plateau. Four log cabins and a network of trails in what eventually would become Tetrahedron Provincial Park were built by mostly volunteer labour in 1987 - close to 300 people - through a partnership that included the club, local forest industry, and the Ministry of Forests. Today, the club continues to maintain the cabins and trails under a stewardship agreement with BC Parks. The generous work of countless volunteers allows the public to enjoy the playground of the Tetrahedron.
Club ExecutivePresident: Michel Frenette
Directors: Marilyn Downey Danny Fleischhacker Phil Gaulin Gerry Marcotte Bryce Rudland Administrator: Natasha Gellatly Cabin Stewards
Batchelor Cabin - Gerry and Ellen Marcotte
Edwards Cabin - Sue Duxbury, Ian Martin, and the SC SAR team Mt. Steele Cabin - Bryce Rudland and Sam Preston McNair Cabin - Danny Fleischhacker, Melissa Rayfield, Steve Brewis All executive members, cabin stewards, and the administrator can be reached via email tetoutdoor (at) gmail.com |