Live Trails - Report to Zoa Peak in Mainland-Southwest, BC, Canada

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405Km

Report to Trail: Zoa Peak
Distance: 11Km Elevation: 635m High Point: 1875m Location: Mainland-Southwest, BC, Canada
Trail tags: peak snowshoeing

By (Reads: 862)

Attempt result and date: Successful attempt

03/06/2010

We went to Zoa on a sunny and very warm day - a forecasted high of 17 degrees! Routefinding was easy using a combination of following roads, following a pipeline right of way, and then following a ridge. There is a scantly-flagged summer trail in the area which we happened across a few times, but following the geography and bearing of the ridge was enough to get us up to the top.

Snow conditions were highly variable - we encountered slushy, water-saturated snow in the morning on the south-facing ridge slopes, then powder, then thick hoarfrost coating every surface, and finally an icy crust towards the end of the day as we descended over formerly slushy slopes. The slushy stuff in the morning made ascending rather difficult in some places - I was glad I had brought my snowshoe tails for extra flotation.

At the Zoa summit we heard the snowpack whumph twice - kind of alarming given the low avalanche forecast. The snowpack seems to be melting rapidly as well - there were a few areas on the pipeline right-of-way which had melted to the ground. Most other places it seems to be about 1 to 2 meters deep.

The payoff is very nice in winter. The upper parts of the ridge are generally very open, with excellent views of the surrounding mountains. Even better, once you get to this area the terrain flattens out making for easy strolling.

Yak Peak, from the northeast.

The location of this trail

Geotagged photo

Nearby trails. The color indicates the status of their last attempt.

Comments

490Km

at 10am 03/08/2010

The only section to be wary of is col before the final ascent to (and descent from) Zoa Peak. The terrain slopes in such a way that a slide would end up in a gulley. Zoom in on the map and go back and forth between the Terrain and Satellite settings and you'll see it. It's off to the left of me and Maria in pic #9.

405Km

at 10am 03/08/2010

We didn't do any tests other than digging down a bit into the snowpack to see what was up. The terrain is considered "challenging" (the middle rating) by the CAA, though that is a rating for backcountry skiing. We were avoiding most of the slopes that were attractive to skiers (i.e. the steeper ones.) If I were to give it a snowshoe rating, I would call it simple terrain as long as you stay on the ridgetop - you could always see, well in advance, the slopes you would have to cross or ascend.

709Km

at 9am 03/08/2010

Did you do any avalanche probing? Is this area considered risky "terrain-wise" normally?

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