Drive
on Golden Donald Upper Road, turn right on Barber Road then left on
Oster Road. Park
at the trailhead for Hospital Creek FSR, 033883; a restriction on
motorized vehicles is in effect from may to end of august. Hike or bike
the logging
road to the second set of switchbacks, 045897. An abandoned road leaves
the
switchback and drops down to the creek, there's no bridge. Soon after
climbing on the other side, I found my way up the lightly timbered west
slopes. I recommend to slightly veer climber's right until you find
yourself on a rib, 057895. This south-west facing rib becomes narrower
and
bluffy as you near the ridge. The left hand side is not an option:
steep
slabs. It is possible to carefully work your way around bluffs to the
right, not droping too far down from
the rib to gain the top of a gully which leads to a
prominence, 060899. The ridge is mostly treed with a few minor dips. A
false summit, 079913, can be circumvented high on the south side to
reach
the summit ridge.
There is also another way (via northern slopes) described by Golden
Hikes. |
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The start of the
west slopes to the ridge. |
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Leaving my bike down
at the creek. |
Snowshoe trip: RT 8.5.
Biked from the house and left pretty early, 6:30. The forecast called
for a high of 18°C. and the low was 4°C. I wondered how much
post-holing would be involved, I was betting on having stiffer snow on
the ridge due to wind-affect. Some sections of snow before the bluffs
proved to be isothermic even with snowshoes, but the rocky rib was
mostly free of snow. Once on the ridge I put the snowshoes on again but
this time the travelling was better. I had to stay close to shaded
areas
and away from open terrain to avoid punching through; that's when I
started reconsidering my return this way! But I plodded on to the
summit aware of other possible descents. Traversing the south slopes of
the false summit was yet another exciting moment. I was hurrying and
side-slipping with the snowshoes, trying to stay as close to the bluffs
above, atop the sun baked snow. I ended up climbing around the back
before gaining the connecting ridge to avoid more traversing. The
summit was
quickly reached from there. To shorten my descent off the ridge and
eliminate the possibility of post-holing the whole way back, I
bee-lined down steep, treed north-east slopes (I knew some cutblocks
and the
main road were below). That
was probably the best call; the descent was quick, gravity helped
compensate for the soft snow and eventually I ended up on a skid road
at the
top of Moberly Lookout (where a local snowmobile touring company takes
clients
for
cookies and hot chocolate). The lengthy walk back to my bike was
enjoyable
considering it was firm, the weather was nice and it was nearly over!
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Where the west
slopes meet the ridge. |
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Fuzzy west ridge
seen from the summit. |
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A tripod can be
useful for good pics. |
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I traversed high to
avoid the open slope. |
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The repeater at the
summit, looking north towards Hedberg Peak. |
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Speedy descent off
the ridge onto an old logging road. |
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Very pruny foot; as
if you need to see that! |
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