Woollen Knickers: Mountain Time

It has been a slow winter and spring for time in the mountains. New job, new city, and life has been pretty busy with the move and work. So I have been itching to get into the hills, and with a bit of spare time have managed a few missions over the past few weeks.

Episode 1: Curran-Squarehead-Joan Loop

I have been wanting to do a trip into the Beaufort Range for a while. It is one of the closer groups of mountains to Nanaimo, though many on the access routes in are challenged by private forest roads on heading from the east side of the Island. I attempted a ski trip in their earlier in the year, but got turned back by too much snow on the road. Spring seemed like a great time to venture into the area (when snow still covers things) and that was definitey the way to go. The Curran-Squarehead-Joan is a great loop which takes in 3 peaks, covers a nice variety of terrain without having to retrace steps, and is a pretty casual moderate day out.

View out to Denman Island

View over to Squarehead (left) in the clouds

Nice easy rambling on the terrain over to Squarehead

Looking into the Beaver Valley (Port Alberni)

Looking back from Mount Joan over the traverse to Squarehead (left) and Mount Curran (right)

Episode 2: Mount Holmes

Mount Holmes is a bit of a bump on the ridgeline between Mount Finlayson and Jocelyn Peak in Gowland-Todd Park just outside of Victoria. Not much to write home about but a great escape after work with fantastic views over Finlayson Arm.

Episode 3: Un-judges (Arrowsmith)

As usual, no spring/early summer would be complete without a foray to Mount Arrowsmith. I still haven't run out of route which I haven't climbed. This time went with a crew up the Un-judges route. Great terrain and scrambling, and overall a pleasant day out.

"The Grande Traverse"

Approaching the upper scrambling

Along the final ridge

Final ridge to summit

Episode 4: Sutton Reconnaissance

Sutton has been on my hit list or a while. I had seen some interesting reports from the area, and it sounded like there are some neat lake in below the peak. A little look at Google Earth showed a fairly direct line to the lakes from some recent-ish logging roads so I though I would scout it out. I was working on call, but managed a recci into the lake and it was indeed a nice of an approach as I had figured. About 50 minutes hike along a logging road, then 10 minutes of nice snow boot-packing. Unfotunately I didn't have time to climb the peak.

Logging road approach (to the valley on the left)

Sutton Peak

Haihte Range

I decided to camp for the night at Schoen Lake. It was a little busy with the "Lucky Lager" crowd, complete with shooting guns, blaring music, and wolf calls to about 5 in the morning. Other than that the lake is nice.

Episode 5: Sutton Peak-Bagging

After scouting out the route into Sutton, I developed a bit of an itch around finishing off what I had started. So a week after my "recci" I returned to climb the peak from the route I had scoped out. My time into the lake was a little slower the second trip, as I stumbled across a black bear on my way along the road. After about 10 minutes of negotiations it was decided that he would stick to the road, and I would take the "low road" and dropped down into a clear-cut to do an end-run around the bear. The plan seemed to suit both of us well, but it was a little intimidating scooting pas and knowing that his position did offer him the upper hand should things go sideways.

From the lake I picked up a great low-angle gully that headed up to a col below the peak. A cornice was still lingering at the top of the gully, and required a bit of negotiating to get around. Once at the col, the weather really crapped out, and the climb up to the summit became a climb-by-brail affair. A little bit of ice near the top forced me to put the crampons on, and I managed to feel my way up to a cairned summit (the true summit?). Unfortunately there was a couple of pieces of terrain to get around, so despite nearly 3000 feet of elevation drop, it wasn't one big boot-ski. After getting around the tricky bits, it was fast though, and while it took about 3.5 or 4 hours up from the lake, it only took 25 minutes down. Great route. Would be a good place to go back to when the weather is nice!