Katie and I are hooked on Hwy 3 and the Sunshine Valley area so why not go do the mountain that the Hope Slide happened on. I managed to get the day off work, and she is hardcore enough to do this trip and then go work a 12hr shift. 1km of flat fsr walking to the base of the ridge and then 1380m gain in 5km was just bonkers. Mainly because the previous night the highways were predicting 20cm of snow except higher up it was more like 50cm or more at times, we were knee deep, thigh deep, making trenches on steep slopes. Luckily she is breaking trail 50% of the time now and I think on this trip she did more than half. She gettin stronger, watch out.




We parked directly across from the Sunshine Valley road, and found an older logging road that would take us to the base of the ridge, saw an opening in the trees and headed into the jungle. Lower down it was still abit of crust underneath the new snow so snowshoes were on from the start.






After angling NE and following a creek taking whatever line was easiest we found ourselves onto the pretty defined South ridge. From this point on it was deep snow, it was blowdown and all in all good times.







After just keeping a slow and steady pace we finally arrived at the 1800m plateau where we got a look at the final ridge. After bashing around in the forest this sight was good for some extra energy boost. Katie was in full on beast mode today so off she went heading straight up with minimal switchbacks.








We finally crested the upper ridge and saw the summit still off in the distance. Slow and steady theme of the day, taking turns step after step. It took us 5hrs to get to the top, if conditions were prime it should have been 3hrs.








The wind was a pain in the ass and it was whipping snow crystals all over the place. We managed about 30min on top then had to get the hell back into the warm plateau area. The storm layer was starting to get heavy. If you watch the 4min video at the start, near the end you will see the biggest pin wheel I have ever seen get made.









The descent was steep and crusty, heading up was actually more enjoyable. We had to take the snowshoes off and boot pack down to avoid slipping and sliding. Back at the car Team Cariboos celebrated in style.





Once again digging through old CT reports gave me this idea, Tearse trip was from Simon's and this one was from MJ24. I put up a facebook post and the next day Steven Song went and used our track and got to the top in under 3hrs. Peakbaggers helping peakbaggers is a great thing.

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Absolute a beauty of a report, thanks for sharing this and all those mountain adventures you put up. Awesome and thanks to you Spectrum..


K

Thanks Karl, and it looks like you've been busy at the start of this year doing lots on the North Shore.