Hittin' the Trails
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Richmond, BC, Canada.
Interest: Hiking, Flying
Posts: 12
Mt Welch
So after some discussion, our group of 7 decided to scramble up Mt Welch on Saturday, camp at Williamson Lake (why is it named that?) and then attempt Foley on Sunday.
Well, we had some troubles navigating the ever changing roads up to the parking area. My advice is to generally stay right (after leaving the Foley Creek FSR) stick to the most traveled route. The mileage markers mentioned in the scrambles book don't take you to the correct parking area. The road is very steep in sections, high clearance 4x4 with good tires is required.
From the parking area it is a nice 1.5~2hr hike to the lake following an obvious well flagged trail. The lake is nice, but there isn't really a supply of wood (save for the debris brought in by avalanche from above).
The scramble for Welch is a challenging one. The route (ridge route) follows a well worn path from the lake to gain the ridge at about its lowest point. From this ridge the fun beings. The route generally follows the ridge all the way up to the false summit. Only departing from the ridge (to the right) for short periods to avoid very difficult sections.
We made it to the sub summit before running out of time. On the way down (after about 30 minutes of down climbing), we rapped off an anchor someone built around a tree to a bench. From the bench we hiked down the loose sand/scree/dirt to the grassy area above the cliff bands. From this grassy area we traversed back to the ridge at one of its lower col's. This alternate route seemed to avoid allot of the tricky down climbing found on the ridge.
Sunday morning we awoke to rain and fog. No Foley for us this trip. A slippery, went return down to the vehicles ensued.