Hittin' the Trails
Join Date: Jun 2017
Interest: hiking, scrambling, bouldering, skiing, running
Posts: 15
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Mt Tetrahedron Sep 24, 2017
My friend and I have been eyeing Mt Tetrahedron for a while now and after waiting all summer for the snow to melt we finally got up last Sunday (Sept 24 2017).
We used this trip report/guide as our starting point which was very helpful so I wont go into too much detail on the route except for where we had some difficulty.
We wanted an early start so were at the Port Mellon mill at 6:30am. Note that they don't let the public through the gate until daylight hours.
The drive along Rainy River Rd. to the trail head definitely requires a truck as there are now many water bars across the road which you need good clearance to cross. Also I would recommend 4-wheel drive since we had to keep our speed up on the steep sections with a 2-wheel drive truck (with not much weight in the back) to avoid spinning the tires.
On the drive up we saw an enormous bull elk trotting along the road. It was still too dark at that point to get a good photo though. Such magnificent animals!
The trailhead (which is a fairly obvious old road) is just past the blue "13-4" spray painted tree marker on your left hand side, however there is now another tree that blocks the 13-4 while driving up the road so make sure to drive slowly once you pass the yellow 13km marker. There is a very good pull out about 100m up the road from the trail head where you can park.
Once on the trail the everything is well flagged. The only issue we had was a trail that was flagged leading away from the main Tet trail down to the bottom of the valley. We followed this since it was so well flagged but ended up adding about 1.5 hours of detour to the trip since we had to then hike up the creek from the bottom of the valley to rejoin the trail. We added some more flagging in the correct direction to hopefully help people avoid the same mistake. Not sure if it was a hunters trail? Or maybe someone got lost and flagged their way back up from the valley bottom? I've marked on the map (in purple) roughly where this is so just keep that in mind as you go.
The trail gets progressively steeper the closer to the summit you get and as others have said I would not recommend doing this trail when its raining or even a day or two after a hard rain since even when it is very dry (which is was for us) it can be quite slippery due to the grade.
The summit push from the col was pretty straightforward. Use your own judgement here since the "best" route is really based on your comfort level scrambling. I found taking the centre line up was the easiest but there aren't any trees/shrubs to hang on to.
The views from the summit were amazing - although you could still smell the mill from time to time which was a bummer. I'd love to go back and explore the neighbouring peaks by walking the Ridgeline (if possible).
Total time was 12 hours including our 1.5 hour detour.
This was a great hike but it is quite remote and requires a good eye to stay on trail at times since the trail is not well trodden so you can kind of "choose your own adventure" at times between the flagging. Make sure you treat this one with respect if you are less experienced.
Loggin road section
First turn off of old logging road to really old logging road
Creek bed on our detour
Hazy skies
90 degree tree from an avalanche
Summit
Steep cliff at the summit
More summite views
Map showing our detour in purple - Stay on the really old logging road at this point and do not turn off down hill on the very well flagged trail. This is not the trail to Tet. We added more flagging here in the correct direction to make it more obvious.
We used this trip report/guide as our starting point which was very helpful so I wont go into too much detail on the route except for where we had some difficulty.
We wanted an early start so were at the Port Mellon mill at 6:30am. Note that they don't let the public through the gate until daylight hours.
The drive along Rainy River Rd. to the trail head definitely requires a truck as there are now many water bars across the road which you need good clearance to cross. Also I would recommend 4-wheel drive since we had to keep our speed up on the steep sections with a 2-wheel drive truck (with not much weight in the back) to avoid spinning the tires.
On the drive up we saw an enormous bull elk trotting along the road. It was still too dark at that point to get a good photo though. Such magnificent animals!
The trailhead (which is a fairly obvious old road) is just past the blue "13-4" spray painted tree marker on your left hand side, however there is now another tree that blocks the 13-4 while driving up the road so make sure to drive slowly once you pass the yellow 13km marker. There is a very good pull out about 100m up the road from the trail head where you can park.
Once on the trail the everything is well flagged. The only issue we had was a trail that was flagged leading away from the main Tet trail down to the bottom of the valley. We followed this since it was so well flagged but ended up adding about 1.5 hours of detour to the trip since we had to then hike up the creek from the bottom of the valley to rejoin the trail. We added some more flagging in the correct direction to hopefully help people avoid the same mistake. Not sure if it was a hunters trail? Or maybe someone got lost and flagged their way back up from the valley bottom? I've marked on the map (in purple) roughly where this is so just keep that in mind as you go.
The trail gets progressively steeper the closer to the summit you get and as others have said I would not recommend doing this trail when its raining or even a day or two after a hard rain since even when it is very dry (which is was for us) it can be quite slippery due to the grade.
The summit push from the col was pretty straightforward. Use your own judgement here since the "best" route is really based on your comfort level scrambling. I found taking the centre line up was the easiest but there aren't any trees/shrubs to hang on to.
The views from the summit were amazing - although you could still smell the mill from time to time which was a bummer. I'd love to go back and explore the neighbouring peaks by walking the Ridgeline (if possible).
Total time was 12 hours including our 1.5 hour detour.
This was a great hike but it is quite remote and requires a good eye to stay on trail at times since the trail is not well trodden so you can kind of "choose your own adventure" at times between the flagging. Make sure you treat this one with respect if you are less experienced.
Loggin road section
First turn off of old logging road to really old logging road
Creek bed on our detour
Hazy skies
90 degree tree from an avalanche
Summit
Steep cliff at the summit
More summite views
Map showing our detour in purple - Stay on the really old logging road at this point and do not turn off down hill on the very well flagged trail. This is not the trail to Tet. We added more flagging here in the correct direction to make it more obvious.
Last edited by drie; 09-26-2017 at 06:31 PM.
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Banned
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: BC, Canada.
Posts: 1,584
Awesome. Thanks for posting this.
High on the Mountain Top
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Sunshine Coast, BC, Canada.
Posts: 2,319
Really helpful TR. Thanks for the detailed description.
A year and a half ago my good pal and i did a jaunt up Rainy Peak but got utterly halted 2/3 the way up by nasty, icy snow. We turned around but within a few hundred meters stopped upon smelling something akin to being in a horse barn. Not 10 m away from us were seven immense Roosevelt elk, just staring at us. These elk are transplants from Vancouver island some years back and their herd is thriving. Along with the elk there have been notable increases in the sightings of timber wolves in the Rainy River, some of whom have made their way down to the road at the pulp mill. Earlier this year we ran into abundant scat and a small pack of wolves making their way along the road in the upper reaches of the valley. I imagine we'll soon see regular Grizzly sightings there as well.
A year and a half ago my good pal and i did a jaunt up Rainy Peak but got utterly halted 2/3 the way up by nasty, icy snow. We turned around but within a few hundred meters stopped upon smelling something akin to being in a horse barn. Not 10 m away from us were seven immense Roosevelt elk, just staring at us. These elk are transplants from Vancouver island some years back and their herd is thriving. Along with the elk there have been notable increases in the sightings of timber wolves in the Rainy River, some of whom have made their way down to the road at the pulp mill. Earlier this year we ran into abundant scat and a small pack of wolves making their way along the road in the upper reaches of the valley. I imagine we'll soon see regular Grizzly sightings there as well.
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Scaling New Heights
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Gibsons, BC
Posts: 92
Thanks for the great trip report Drie. Is there any snow/water sources in the upper bowl before the col? We are thinking about an overnight up Tetrahedron sometime in the next little bit, but ohhhh boy has it been dry over here on the coast.
Hittin' the Trails
Join Date: Jun 2017
Interest: hiking, scrambling, bouldering, skiing, running
Posts: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodland.telegraph
View Post
Thanks for the great trip report Drie. Is there any snow/water sources in the upper bowl before the col? We are thinking about an overnight up Tetrahedron sometime in the next little bit, but ohhhh boy has it been dry over here on the coast.
The next closest water source is at about 1000m elevation on one of the creeks you cross.
Enjoy your trip!
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