Ref: David P Jones' Climber's Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada, Vol. II, Rockies Central.
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Tokumm Creek Trail.
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Scramble:
RT 9.25; 4.5 up. When Raff invited me to do this unnamed
peak, I wasn't really interested; I wanted to go ascend an official
summit in the Front Range instead. He then told me I'd be missing out
on meeting Andrew Nugara... Well, why didn't you say so in the first
place; that changes everything! I've been wanting to meet this lad for
a long time, Andrew has inspired countless trips with the stunning
pictures and humorous trip reports from his website. Fab and I met
Andrew, Raff, Connor and Marta at the Marble Canyon trailhead; we soon
got on the way while conversing. The good trail quickly leads to the
prominent access avalanche path, little snow remained lower down. This
objective reminded me of Ochre Peak, just west of us. We started
climbing the swath. An easy ascent brought us to steeper terrain just
prior to the bowl where we finally got onto snow. We regrouped and
snacked while sharing stories; then, we began
ascending firm snow slopes towards a steep headwall. A sliver of snow
breached the headwall, it offered a direct climb to the upper slopes.
The terrain is straightforward and pleasant, we reached the summit
ridge in good time; the view that greeted us is phenomenal. We walked
to the summit cairn where we enjoyed a warm windless stay under a sunny
sky. I built a snowman on the cairn for a friend in Pennsylvania;
mister Chimper became the star at the top and cameras came out as we
posed next to him. It was all fun and game 'till Raff
round kicked his head off!!! Hell, that was funny!!! After well over an
hour, we reluctantly
peeled ourselves off the summit. As soon as we dropped from the summit
ridge, we started glissading all the way down the bowl. The snow had
softened so it was advantageous to go last and use other people's butt
trenches. After much excitement, we resumed our descent back to the
trail. The boys paced ahead while Marta and I hung back. This
sure was a fine day out in the mountains with some great people. So
very pleased to finally have met the author of "More scrambles in the
Canadian Rockies"!
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Hiking along Tokumm Creek.
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Obvious access avalanche path.
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Ascending the path.
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Some snow remains where we crest in the bowl.
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In the bowl, the route veers climber's left.
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The remainder of the route to the summit ridge.
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Travel on firm snow is delightful.
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Looking back.
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Breaching the small headwall.
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A bit higher up on the steep snow sliver.
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Connor gives a "thumbs up".
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The view south is fantabulous.
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Raff leading the way on the upper slopes.
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Andrew enjoying the scenic Rockwall.
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On the summit ridge with Storm (left) and Ball Mountains in the background.
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Castle Mountain beyond Boom Mountain.
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Summit bound.
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View north towards Quadra Mountain on the left.
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At the summit cairn.
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The guys: Fabrice, Raff, Andrew and Connor (L to R).
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Mister Chimper! ...he likes to smoke...
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Marta and I with Mister Chimper; he's a chick magnet!
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Raff and Andrew are two well-accomplished mountain Ninjas.
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Stellar northern scenery towards the Ten Peaks.
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Leaving the top, I'm already glissading.
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On the summit ridge briefly.
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Backtraking to the upper snow slopes.
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Fabrice sprays me intentionally while glissading.
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Nice long glissade.
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Bottom of the bowl.
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Descending the prominent avalanche path.
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On the trail once again.
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Happy crew.
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| Back to home page
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