| Drive to the North
Interlakes day use area. Follow the Three Isle Lake Trail to Forks
campground and continue on that trail to an avalanche path, 241101;
another broader path exists a little further. We ascended towards
some bluffs that we circumvented climber's left, staying in treed
terrain to treeline, 235103. From there, we climbed talus slopes while
veering climber's right, aiming for a south ridge/rib that leads to the
final upper slope. A short summit ridge precedes the top. |
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Mount Putnik (right
center) from the North Interlakes day use area. |
| Scramble:
RT 10.25; 5.25 up. When we stayed at
Three Isle Lake a couple of years ago, our plan of attempting this
summit was discarded because of poor weather.
Following some back and forth on Facebook, we planned to meet Raff at
the trailhead and give this summit a visit; he invited Andrea,
there aren't many scramblers that Raff
doesn't know! They took their bikes for the approach while Fab and I
decided to hike; we got a headstart and plodded at a good pace. They
took a while to reach and pass us, we even joked that Raff might have
broken his
bike chain again... Once reunited near the bike rack, we continued on
the
trail to Forks campground and a bit beyond to locate Putnik's avalanche
path. Some bushwhacking led to some bluffs, Fab and I had planned
circumventing the bluffs on treed terrain climber's left. While Raff
and Andrea decided to follow sparse trees through the bluffs, we stuck
to
our plan. Above treeline, we saw them ahead by a fair distance; we
built a couple of cairns for the descent and carried on. We did a
climbing traverse towards the rib that runs along the main southern
drainage. The rock strata on the steep rib offered good footing on
otherwise loose terrain. We gained a shoulder just as Andrea reached
the summit ridge with Raff in hot pursuit. We plodded to the summit
ridge and joined our friends. The weather was nice,
we were able to stay awhile and enjoy both the view and the company. We
returned together, going around the bluffs below. Instead of traversing
back to the slide path, we went straight down; that was good at first
but some unpleasant bushwhacking ensued before reaching the Three Isle
Lake trail. We hiked back to the bikes at a steady pace; they saddled
up and we said our goodbyes. We
reached the truck just before the rain... Ouff! |
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Leaving the trail to
ascend an obvious avalanche path. |
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Andrea and Raff went
up the bluffs following sparse trees. |
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As planned, we
circumvented the bluffs. |
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Around the bluffs. |
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Easy terrain to
treeline. |
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Fab built a big
cairn to relocate our descent. |
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Ascending and
traversing climber's right. |
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Aiming for the
"elusive south ridge". |
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We settle for some
rock strata on a rib. |
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The rib leads to a
shoulder preceding the final jaunt. |
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Nearing the summit
ridge. |
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Three Isle Lake and
Mount Worthington. |
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The summit ridge is
short and sweet.
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Seft-timed picture
courtesy of Raff. |
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Heated summit
discussion, pointing fingers and all! |
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Heading down. |
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Backtracking to the
rib. |
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Descending loose
terrain. |
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Aiming for Fab's
cairns. |
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Around the
bluffs again. |
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Back on the main
trail. |
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Foul weather is
coming in... |
| Back to home page |
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