From the gondola base at Sunshine Village, locate and follow the trail to Healy Pass and ascend Healy Peak's south ridge.
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The Monarch from the meadows before heading towards Healy.
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Snowshoe
trip: 4.5 up. I visited this summit in the early 90's but
back then, it didn't have a name. In the past years, many scramblers have been up there; it's now known as Healy
Pass Peak or Healy Peak. I figured this trip would be a perfect
objective for a solo overnight trip. Most would question why overnight
when it's entirely possible to do as a day trip. Simple, I'm training
for multi-day solo trips carrying a 40 lb backpack. I used
snowshoes instead of skis, which is clearly a disadvantage and not
recommended for this peak but since I'll be using snowshoes on my planned
trips, that's what I picked! I left Golden in the morning and started
hiking on the Healy Pass trail, the trail
was well-packed. When I reached the open meadows before heading up
towards Healy, I strapped on the snowshoes. It was fairly windy and
weather was moving in. I followed an uptrack which helped tremendously;
when I stepped off the trail, I punched down hip-deep. Beyond
treeline, near the pass, the wind had concealed the track so I aimed
for wind drifts. Once on Healy's ridge, travel was much easier.
I climbed to the top with hopes of setting up my tent up there. The
wind increased, it was actually pretty bad as I froze
my fingers taking just a few pictures. I tried to erect my new MSR
tent. I tied 3 out of 4 corners to some frozen rocks on the ground and
installed the poles. When I tried to hook the tent to the poles, the
wind just flattened it and pulled it out of my grasp; this went on for a
good 15 minutes until I realized this was a futile effort. I worried
about damaging my tent or getting myself in a dire situation during the
night... I changed my plan and stuffed the tent in my pack in a haste.
As I headed down, visibility greatly reduced. I figured I better
descend all the way to the main trail while I could still kinda make
out the uptrack, this would save me a lot of postholing. I reached
the main trail and the shelter of mature trees with enough time to set
up and make supper. The following morning, 15 cm of snow had fallen. I
made my way down the trail without seeing a soul.
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Proceeding on snowshoes.
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Nearing Healy Peak on the right.
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On the ascent ridge.
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Scarab and Pharaoh Peaks.
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Summit ahead.
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North-eastern view with Pilot Mountain and Mount Brett.
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Mount Bourgeau and Eagle Mountain to the east.
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Southern view with Mount Assiniboine in the distance on the left.
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Losing visibility on my way down.
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Retracing my steps to the meadows below.
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Sheltered in the trees on the main trail.
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