This trip turned out to be the toughest outing of the year.. 13 - 16 km return, not sure of elevation gain. But snow was deep; minimum of 30 cm and up to 50 cm+ to break trail through the valley and up the east facing slope of Memaloose and its ridge system. Quite chilly, temperature of -10'C in the valley.... and a breeze up on the ridge made it very cold.
Lots of sunshine, beautiful blue skies. with latter cloud and light snow. After sunset walk, put lights on and in hour snowed so we got 1 cm snow or more on our backs and packs.
An epic adventure, did not make the summit yet so close .. will go another time.
See the attached map, estimate elevation gain from 500 to 600 meters, trip took 9-1/2 hours including lunch, long due to heavy trail breaking in deep snow. I will let the photos describe the trip we had...
Our route is marked in blue, follows the valley in and southward, then we turn up the slope going west on an east facing slope of Memaloose "ridge" to Sub Peak.
Going up hill through 30 - 50 cm depth in the open was the hardest. Within the trees the snow was slightly firmer and not as deep., very loose and sliding on times in open areas.
K