Another beautiful summer day in the mountains starting with a rough 4wd road. Coming too late in the season to take advantage of the snow cover, we experienced all the beauty of the Tricouni trail: the consistent ankle-deep mud puddles up to the meadows and the whacking of the bushes whenever straying away from the trail to avoid the aforementioned mud. It was all worth it once we were out in the alpine and the mosquitoes ceased bugging us (though they weren’t terribly bad if you kept moving either).
Went along the boulder field contouring around the right side of the lake and were reminded that in spring conditions, one shouldn't walk too close to the rocks peeking through the snow, when Evgeny’s leg pierced through the thin snow layer close to one of the boulders and went under, resulting in a badly hurt knee. Half an hour later, he decided that he's still OK for the trip, and we continued.
With hardly any avalanche issues, it still took us a while to decide which gully to take. We went up the one to the right, and it turned out to be less steep than it looked; nevertheless, having ice axes made us feel more comfortable. Lots of old avalanche traces in the area, and seeing steep slopes converging into the bowl, I'm still unsure as to how people do it in the winter. Switching a couple of times between snowfields and class 3 scrambles, we made it to the peak just before a meetup group of 9 showed up.
Beautiful all-around views from the summit, including Mnt. Cayley and the Garibaldi Lake with its surrounding mountains. Visited the 2nd peak, which is a short fun scramble away, and headed down after having spent enough time enjoying the views. Took a differecontinue reading »nt gully on the descent and ended up on the other side of the lake. Reaching the trail from here required fording a creek, but getting the boots wet an hour before being back to the car was no big deal. All in all, great views and a wonderful day. « less
Jul 17, 2010
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