With an amazing New Year's forecast, I headed up to the north Island to meet Sandy Briggs for a jaunt up Mt. Eden. Despite being fairly close to Mt Cain, the area is not very frequently visited: we knew of one ascent in the late 1990's by Linsday Elms. So with the prospect of a 2nd ascent of the peak, and winter climb to boot, we figured it would be a good destination.
I met Sandy late on New Year's day, and we skied up several km's up logging roads to a camp near the end of the road system. The cold weather and valley cooling had produced massive hoar frost crystals 2+ inches big. It was interesting to ski on.
After a late evening soup, we packed it in for the evening. We were up early and going just before first light. We had a fairly vague route description (head up). From the end of the logging road we dove into the forest and hiked through steep old-growth and onto the north ridge of Eden.
Looking over to the backside of Mt Cain
From the top of a sub-bump, we dropped skis, and starting boot-packing down to a notch, and then up the ridge proper. From the base, it looked like the upper last section could prove challenging. Post-holing was hard work, and we swapped leading for a few hundred feet of kicking steps. At the top of the slope, we realized that there was a large notch which separated us from the main upper wall on the mountain. Unfortunately the notch was a little more technical than we were game for, so less than 200' from the top, we bailed.
The upper north ridge on Eden. We made it to the top of the bump just before the summit and the "notch" is not well visible
A quick boot-pack brought us back to the skis, then a brilliant ski down steep forest and back to camp nearing darkness. We decided to call it a trip, and had another quick soup while packing up camp, then skiing back to the cars in darkness. Great spot. Need to go back and find a better way to the top next time
Upper headwall to the summit of Mt Eden from the top of the notch
Views out across the Salish Sea
Lighthouse outside of Departure Bay and Newcastle Island. If you look hard you can see Mt Baker
The "crux" section of the traverse. It was cold enough that this north-facing stuff had some icy bits on it.
Beautiful arete climb. I was about half-way up it when I noticed that is was actually a bolted climb. There is a pretty classic ridge traverse from here to the top of the main cliffs. Felt like being in the mountains!
Shack Island
