Vlad M. , Jeff H. and Steven S. were all planning to head out, I decided to book the day off last minute to join in. I asked Vlad and Steven yesterday if any of them were going to do a TR for ClubTread and they weren't so I will put up a quick one. Steven will have one up on his website and I"m sure the others might add some pictures afterwards.


We met at the North Surrey Park and Ride at 6:30am and piled on into Jeff's SUV, there are a few reports on this route on CT mainly by John and Katie, The FSR roads were all compact snow and were not problem to drive on. We parked the car just below the gravel pit at the start of the Chilliwack-Chipmunk Creek FSR. It was a good thing we parked below the gravel pit, because on the way back there were 4 guys lined up like a firing squad shooting at stuff. They might have used Jeff's car as target practice.

The snowshoes went on right from the car, we followed a mix of ATV trails and then old roads to where we finally cut off the road into the forest around 900m? The snow was deep and soft everywhere.


We all agreed to finally take a break when we busted out of the forest. It was slow going for whoever had to break trail.


Finally all that hard work started to pay off as we made our way up the ridge, What a world of difference 3rd spot and 4th spot was compared to 1st and even 2nd place in the trail breaking squad.



Once on the upper ridge, it was sort of a trade off, the snow was alittle more compact but the wind was very strong and bone chilling with the arctic outflow in effect.




Finally the top comes into view, Me and Steven decided to just keep moving to stay warm and breaking trail while Vlad and Jeff needed to stop for another lunch break for some more energy.


Everyone's batteries were dying, Gatorade bottles were turning to ice inside the pack, Steve had to warm his camera up for 20 minutes just to get this shot.


It took us 5hrs to get up, and to show how tough the trail breaking was, this is a short video clip, we flew back down to the car in 2.5hrs.


For the New Year I've decided to try and bring some better beers to drink afterwards. Four Winds is a really good brewery and Jeff was impressed by the IPA. We drank our beers, and tried to take a picture in tough lighting for an end of day shot around the car. Mount Mercer we all thought was going to be a little mountain, but it actually packed a punch at 15km and 1500m gain in those conditions.

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Awesome, looks like the hard work paid off with those views! Thanks for the report.

For a winter trip in current conditions, those are big stats. I was out on skis the same day. It was ridiculously cold whenever exposed to the wind. First time this year I wore a facemask.

Nice photos.

Beauty! You wouldn't happen to have a .gpx to share?

Apparently with this NEW CT you can put in GPS tracks? Let me see if I can figure it out. Nevermind it's not meant for .GPX files.


What's your email address I have the one that Vlad sent me from the day.

Gorgeous pictures Spectrum; and a great and enjoyable read of your report. Takes a lot of effort to do a trip under such harsh conditions; wow.

Once did a winter trip to the top from the usual south/west approach.................during a cold snap; and it was brutally cold. coldest snowshoe/hike I have ever done.

K

Nice crisp photos. Am inspired to get back out there!

Another great TR Al, the photos taken in these conditions are always amazing. I've never been up Mercer. I think I'll wait for summer.

Ya, when you can practically drive to the summit. Well earned, fellas.

You can almost drive to the summit? That's great, we won't have to hide our beer cooler in the woods and no sweaty clothing to deal with. Mt Elbert style.
"Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the highest .... The first motorized ascent of Elbert occurred in 1949, when a Jeep was driven to the summit, apparently to judge suitability for skiing development."

Interesting to see you guys tackle Mercer from the East. I thought it was a decent ridge hike the one time we started at Chipmunk Creek, one worth repeating. It took me two attempts to get up the nearby Ford Mountain last week, so good thing you had such a strong group. I was thinking there would be a lot of pressure to set a good pace on the guy who's turn it was to take the lead.

My trip report is finally out.
http://stevensong.com/mount-mercer

Hey thanks! My email is [email protected]