Dec 15, 2019
New to this area so thought I would scope it out a little... ended up driving up the 4x4 only FSR off Mamquam for ~5km, stopped by fairly deep snow and Alders bent over the roadway. You mileage will vary of course over the next couple weeks as that road gets snowed in to lower elevations...
Mulligan offers some nice views and I was lucky to get a few shots before some gray clouds moved in. I was trudging through close to 25-40 cm of fresh snow and it was especially taxing as you move up through the slash area on the north side of Mulligan...
I went clockwise and that poses some challenges on the far end of Mulligan as it was way steeper than I had anticipated and icy from the snow that had fallen from the trees and hardened... just at the cusp of too steep for snowshoes (bring micro-spikes/crampons) ... but I meandered my way down eventually... once I hit the saddle with Anif I called it.. I would have continued but the weather had turned and I had lost a lot of time breaking trail and descending Mulligan so I made a b-line for the meadows and retraced some back country skier tracks that were laid down by a group of six I met at the start of the day. Be prepared to bushwack on various places along this route... cannot be helped unless you bring an army equipped with trail saws.
A decent place to play during shoulder season, but be extremely careful of the southern slope if avy conditions are high .. there is a hard crust under any new snow and that slope is between 30-45 degrees depending on your route... not good when snow loaded.
In another couple weeks there will be a nice base and you won't be postholing a full leg length through the cutblock fallen tree traps. ;)
Be safe and have fun out there... maybe we will cross paths one of these days.
Regards,
Rex
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