Monday, September 17, 2012

Mount Larrabee

The weather this September has been amazing and I've definitely been taking advantage of it! There was a late start to the hiking season with a huge mountain snowpack remaining well into July, but it was worth the wait...the views seem to be much more vibrant in late summer/early fall with the absense of smoggy pollution! I haven't really explored much hiking across the border but have had my sights set on Tomyhoi ever since I first summited Mount McGuire. I did Tomyhoi in late August and have since discovered a whole new vast rugged wilderness to explore! You could easily spent an entire lifetime just exploring the Cascade mountain range. From the summit of Tomyhoi I compiled a new bucket list of summits to conquer starting with Mount Larrabee. Larrabee is classified as a class 2 scramble in Matt Gunn's book, but I found this to be more difficult than any other scramble I've done, mostly because the route was unclear. I'm pretty sure the avalance gulley I was ascending on the east side of the mountain would be considered a class 5 scramble and it wasn't until I saw hikers on the west side of the mountain face that I realized I was off track! As I was trying to traverse over to the other side of the mountain, my backpack plummeted off a 500 foot cliff with passports, my SLR camera, and new phone! It took about an hour to locate the backpack resting not so convienently on a very steep glacier. My camera survived, but the phone did not fare so well! It was smashed to bits :( Even though I had to buy a new phone, the hike was worth every bit! For those who don't like scrambling, a well maintained and not so strenuous trail to the 'high pass' is an awesome destination for a day hike! You drive about 12 kilometres on Twin Lakes Road where gorgeous views await at the parking lot! This would be the perfect spot for drive in camping! I'm definitely coming back here again before winter. Wide open views emerge after only 10 minutes of hiking! Beautiful wildflowers in the middle of September! Mount Larrabee. Mount Tomyhoi in the distance. Wild blueberries in fall spendor. Tomyhoi again with McGuire to the right in the Canadian background. Route finding... A new wilderness to explore! I love the different levels of mountains in this shot. A very unstable glacier hugging the north side of Larrabee. The Cheam Range in Canada! Starting from the left side you have Cheam, Lady, Knight, Baby Munday, Stewart, Welch, and Foley peaks...all incredible hikes! It's amazing how mountains look totally different from a new perspective. This is the south face of Slesse to the left of the picture. The American Border Peak to the right shadowing the Canadian Border Peak behind it and McGuire to the far left. Summit Shots! Trip reports of Hanging Lakes and Tomyhoi to follow!