October 14-16, 2022
DAY 1
It’s good to be back in the backcountry. The place where cell signals dim and the stars get brighter.
With no established trail we had our work cut out for us in bushwhacking and route-finding. We used gps tracks from our trip to the hut 2 years earlier.
As fast we could we found the meadows. They provided relief to my shins which were bloody by now from the thick bush we pushed through.
In order to scope out a route for the following day we hiked up a mountain across from our objective. The lookout provided us brilliant views of the meadows and we could see the hut we’d be staying in for the following nights.
Although everything is still, the hairs on the back of my neck jump. There are signs of bears, wolves, moose, deer all around the hut. Every 30 yards there’s another pile of scat and any ponds that have dried up leave mud imprints of the animals that have walked through them.
DAY 2
With only the essentials, we leave the hut at the break of day to give ourselves enough time to get back before dark. We climb up a creek gully below the ridge. After the trees thin out we cross over to the next creek gully. We hike straight up towards the ridge. As the creek bed disappears the boulder field begins. Everything is going as we planned the day before.
It’s right before the rocky terrain where we don helmets and start looking at the boulders perched above us. Which ones must be avoided? And which ones cant be.
Small squeaks catch our attention here in the boulder fields, there are pika and marmot that hide all through the rocks.
Once we’re on the ridge everything seems straight forward. If we follow the spine we have a straight shot to the summit.
Little did we know that the ridge would spit us out on the glacier. If we had any shot at reaching the top it would involve crossing the ice as high as we could.
After some exposed scrambling, with a cliff on one side and the glacier on the other, we reached the top. The highlight was the view of Mt. Matier and Mt. Joffre. Two future objectives.
Back at the hut we collected some fresh water from the lake and rehydrated ourselves. We ate dinner on some logs outside the hut and noticed Mt. Howard also teasing us. It’s good to be back in the backcountry.