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

Nice photos, such beautiful scenery once you get out of the trees!

Nice job. Looks like you've been getting out lots to a variety of places.

Thanks Martin. It was nice to get out, but a challenge well rewarded once we got to the higher slops and top if the ridge.

K

Thank you Clayton, it has been a reasonably full season. not as busy in some of the past years... slowing down as I get further into my senior years.


K

Hi Karl,


Wondering how you knew where to begin the ascent off the main trail. Was the main trail marked at all or were the markers buried underneath all the snow we're having this year? Looks like a pretty place to investigate this time of year.

Hi, yes I would love to get up there. I was with two others who had been in the area, before and had done research on accessing it. With GPS they determined when to start ascending up the slop up from the valley .


K

Ahhh was wondering if a gps was involved. I can't find a gps track so far but it looks like immediately after the 9th creek crossing or maybe just a gully at this point you would have a good line up a ridgeline taking you directly to the summit according to your first topo map. Looks like you began right at the 7th creek gully ascending to another bump with a view towards what I'm assuming was Memaloose in one of your pictures. Hoping to give this a go maybe this weekend if the weather co-operates. Could be asking to much from the looks of it though at the moment.

Would be very interested to know of your progress and result. Deep snow trail breaking was challenging for three of us; a fourth would have made it possible for us to reach the main summit. I am sure our trail is fully covered by a foot or two of new snow by now.

K

On the map it says "Memaloose Trail Decommissioned" ... Is the trail actually decommissioned?

That is what I see on the sign, perhaps it is. With winter snow you would not know, under more than 2 meters of the white stuff.


K

Hey Karl,


Could you see any trail markers through the forest? Also wondering if anyone has a gps track available? Not much info out there for the peak.


Thanks

I do not recall seeing trail markers, I will check with my companions if there any saved GPS tracks they can share.

K

Thanks Karl,


Apparently the main trail has markers intermittently but we decided to do a quickie up to Watersprite Lake yesterday instead. Was thinking hwy 3 was looking sketchy so went the opposite direction. In retrospect should have gone with the original plan from the looks of the sunny weather in Manning from what I can tell. Will go for Memaloose next time and let yeah know how it works out.

That would be great, sidetrip.

Looking forward to your feedback after when you do it.

K