Drive
on highway 6 to Cherryville. At Frank's General Store, turn left on
Sugar Lake Road. Follow this road for about 65 kilometers to the
Monashee Powder Snowcats Lodge turn-off, 046202; continue on this road to
the lodge, 026190. A hiking trail to Mirror Lake exists, but due to snow
cover, we made our way described as follows. From the lodge,
hike west on the service road for approx. 70 meters, then veer left on
the ATV road, 024190. That leads to the lodge's water intake, 020191.
From there, we bushwhacked in a south-west direction for a short
distance before ascending towards a saddle indicating Mirror Lake's
drainage. Once at the lake, we climbed the slopes to the north and
continued to Marble Pass, 005189. We followed Mirror
Peak's gentle north ridge to the top.
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Tsuius hiking trail map.
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Lingering snow from the beginning.
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Hike:
RT 6.75; 3.0 up. Mirror Peak is a named minor highpoint on the
Monashee cat-ski map. Our intent on this trip
was to ascend Tsuius Mountain; however, a long
drive to the Monashee Powder Snowcats Lodge resulted in a late start.
Additionally,
our route to Mirror Lake was quite circuitous and slow. A
trail exists, but we decided to make our own way up to
the lake because of lingering snow cover. From the lake, we opted to
ascend in a northerly direction instead of
using the steep snow slopes at the back of the lake; with the kids in
tow and no crampons, it seemed to be the best option. Our route
added distance as it went around Mirror Peak to its
saddle, labeled Marble Pass. It also yielded a bit of excitement as
there
was some easy
scrambling and a couple of snow slopes to surmount the
headwall's steep terrain. It's my opinion that the kids enjoyed that
section
thoroughly. Then we climbed the gentle north ridge, which boasts great
views of
Tsuius Mountain. It became apparent
that our summit bid wouldn't materialize. It was getting late, and the
ascent lines required negotiating
steep snow slopes. Following a brief stay on Mirror's highpoint, we
backtracked to the
headwall surrounding Mirror Lake. We tackled the challenging terrain
next to the small waterfall and enjoyed boot-skiing the snow slopes to
the lake. We
took a nice break on big rocks before resuming our descent. We went
straight down and followed the drainage instead of backtracking along
our
traverse in the boulder fields; this proved to be a better route and
way
faster. Snow cover helped facilitate travel; the trail would be a more
sensible option
later in the season. We came
across the lodge's water intake and followed the ATV road
back to the parking lot. This outing was a good experience for the
kids
and a nice reconnaissance trip for a future summit bid on Tsuius
Mountain.
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Negotiating a creek crossing.
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Aiming for the saddle (center) indicating Mirror Lake's drainage.
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Cautiously traversing snow-covered boulder fields.
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Looking back at the Monashee Powder Snowcats Lodge (center).
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Tsuius Mountain.
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Snowbound Mirror Lake is tightly craddled.
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Mirror Peak sits north-west of Mirror Lake.
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Ascending the steep terrain of the headwall.
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Steep snow slopes add excitement.
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Watermelon algea is prominent on our way to Marble Pass.
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Looking back.
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Remnant snow-cat road going over the pass.
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The snow-cat road continues on the west side of Cross Over Mountain.
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Tsuius Mountain's double summit.
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Mirror Lake.
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East Tsuius Peak (center) and Cottonwood Peak in the far background right of center.
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At the top of Mirror Peak.
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Tsuius Mountain from the south-west slopes of Mirror Peak.
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Descending steep snow to Mirror Lake.
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Boot-skiing is always a blast!
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A bit of scrambling on the way down Mirror Lake's draw.
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We're back down, over and out.
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| Back to home page |
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