Live Trails - Report to Wedgemount Lake in Mainland-Southwest, BC, Canada

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1185Km

Report to Trail: Wedgemount Lake
Distance: 14Km Elevation: 1160m High Point: 1920m Location: Mainland-Southwest, BC, Canada
Trail tags: 2WD campsite glacier-viewing hiking lake logging-road popular sleeping-shelter snowshoeing steep-trail winter-routefinding

By (Reads: 891)

Attempt result and date: Successful attempt

03/06/2010
Mood after attempting this trail:

excited

Stunning snow-clad mountains against the bright blue sky; the views at the lake were amazing!
Having parked shortly after the turn-off from the highway, we made an additional 1.5km to the trailhead in boots or crampons/microspikes. It was hard icy snow up until 1300m when we finally put on our snowshoes. The trail markers are present but not abundant, prompting us all to search for them along the way.

Four hours later, we were in front of the ridge before the lake, assessing the approach. Not too keen on scrambling the summer route up the steep gully with visible slides, we took the less steep approach to the left (see our track on one of the pictures). Magnificent views from the ridge opened up: looking back, the mountains to the West; looking forward, the Wedgemount Lake and the mountains towering above it.

We found the door to the hut frozen solid and soon enough abandoned our attempts to pry it open by hammering the ice out from underneath the door and the hinges. Five of us went along the lake to explore the base of the Wedgemount Glacier. Walking along the shining snow desert along the lake, its smoothness undisturbed except for our tracks, was breath-taking.

We took way longer than planned relaxing at this beautiful place, and instead of a 4pm return time, left the lake at 5pm. Being caught by dark on the icy slopes in the forest drastically slowed us down; the markers, obvious at the beginning of the descent, became elusive and while the GPS was very helpful, we progressed slowly. The consolation was a perfect black sky bursting with billions of stars we got to enjoy while walking along the logging road to the car. Thanks Dan for organizing a Wanderung hike to this gem of a destination.

Reports of other participants of this trip

966Km

Result: Successful attempt

Wedgemount Lake on a windless, sunny day has to be one of the most spectacular winter day trips. more...

Photo votes:17 Votes:3 Reads:847

Parking spot shortly after the turn off the highway. Only a high-clearance vehicle equipped with chains would make it through.

The location of this trail

Geotagged photo

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

Comments

1185Km

at 6pm 03/08/2010

Truly spectacular :). I wouldn't say there were any issues... Spring-like snow before 1300m: hard crust on the outside, mushy inside (if you happen to posthole off the trail, you sink deep). Shugary higher up. And we avoided the steep gully by taking a slightly longer route.

490Km

at 2pm 03/08/2010

Wow! What a spectacular place this is in winter! Any issues with the snow conditions?

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