Who we are....

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The Tetrahedron Outdoor Club is a group of Sunshine Coast residents who love the outdoors. Throughout the year our club provides the community with group recreational opportunities, some of which include:
  • Jackrabbit Cross-Country Ski Program for little skiers
  • winter ski trips: local and around the province
  • summer hiking/paddling trips
  • club meetings - a great way to socialize with fellow outdoor enthusiasts
  • social events - club potluck dinners
  • cabin and trail maintenance
  • lectures and special presentations

FOR UPCOMING TRIPS AND EVENTS PLEASE VISIT OUR TRIPS PAGE
 
The club came into existence in the early 1970s, 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 and later on Mt. Elphinstone. Four log cabins and a network of trails in what eventually would become Tetrahedron Provincial Park were built by mostly volunteer labour in 1987 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 vast playground of the Tetrahedron.

Club members travel frequently into two areas:

Tetrahedron Provincial Park - "The Tet"
Accessed via the Grey Creek Forest Service Road from Tuwanek. This area offers the larger terrain, four cabins ($10  per person per overnight visit) and some skiable/ridable slopes.

Dakota Ridge
Accessed from the end of Field Road in Wilson Creek via the Chapman Creek Forest Service Road. This area is the more accessible (just 20 minutes out of Wilson Creek) offering:
  •  some beautiful touring terrain
  •  12 Kms of trackset cross-country ski trails
  •  some developed snow shoeing trails 

NOTE - For winter access to Dakota Ridge: drive safely, on good winter tires, and carry chains.

The Tetrahedron Outdoor Club presents an annual screening of the Best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival in November as the main club fundraiser.

WINTER SAFETY, CONDITIONS, WEATHER


THERE IS NO CELL PHONE SERVICE IN TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK. There is unreliable service above Mt. Steele cabin, and service at the bottom of Grey Creek FSR. 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. 

YES! AVALANCHE HAZARDS EXISTS IN TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK! IF YOU INTEND TO TRAVEL TO MT. STEELE you should know what the current avalanche conditions are and make appropriate decisions. High winds create unstable slabs all around Mt. Steele and its interconnecting ridges. A very significant avalanche hazard exists in the west-facing bowl between Mt. Steele and its lesser peak to the southwest. 
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AVALANCHE TRAINING AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT STICK TO MARKED ROUTES AND AVOID TRAVEL ABOVE EDWARDS CABIN WHEN AVALANCHE HAZARD RATINGS ARE SIGNIFICANT. 
For current avalanche info go to the Canadian Avalanche Association's website www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/latest and consult the SEA-TO-SKY and NORTH SHORE bulletins. 

IF YOU ARE TRAVELING IN TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK YOU SHOULD HAVE A GOOD CONTOUR MAP OF THE AREA. IF VISIBILITY IS BAD AND YOU DO NOT KNOW WHERE STEELE CABIN IS DO NOT GO PAST EDWARDS CABIN. TRAIL MARKERS IN THE OPEN ROCKY AREA ABOVE THE FOREST MAY BE OBSCURED BY WIND-DRIVEN SNOW AND THE CABIN MAY BE MOSTLY BURIED. IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TO MCNAIR CABIN IN THE WINTER DO NOT ATTEMPT IT UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXCELLENT ROUTE FINDER WITH AN APPROPRIATE MAP, COMPASS, AND A SHOVEL. TRAIL MARKERS IN THE MEADOW AND POND AREA BELOW CHAPMAN CREEK  IN MANY YEARS THE CABIN GETS ENTIRELY BURIED. 

ACCESS TO TETRAHEDRON PROVINCIAL PARK
Grey Creek FSR is a gravel Forest Service Road, 11 km long and climbing to ~2500 ft (800m). It is plowed by a generous volunteer but only when he is able to.  Weather, equipment, or his own life can get in the way. He posts when he has plowed on Suncoast Central  and often posts on conditions generally, and there may be other info on general conditions and road reports for both the Tetrahedron and Dakota Ridge areas, or of parties intending to use the Tet cabins. Regardless of whether or not the Grey Creek FSR is plowed 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 plow usually does not go right down to gravel and so 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. 


FOR LIKELY WEATHER AND SNOW CONDITIONS AT SIMILAR ELEVATIONS YOU CAN CONSULT INFO FOR THE NORTH SHORE:
Cypress or Mt. Seymour
The lower (winter) parking lot in Tetrahedron Park is ~800m, Bachelor, Edwards, and McNair cabins are ~1000m-1100m, and Mt. Steele cabin is ~1500m. 

GENERAL INFO ABOUT THE PARK AND LINKS TO GPS DATA
BC Parks website
Bivouac.com - Tetrahedron page (even if you aren't a paid member you can access GPS coordinates and other data but consider becoming a member for $25 to this GREAT Canadian resource that still has no significant ads on its site)
Contour map with cabin locations and their GPS coordinates