| From Golden, drive west on highway 1 and exit at
Donald. Head north
on the Bush River FSR (gravel). Continue in a north-westerly
direction staying on the main road, keeping track of the yellow
kilometer markers
along the side. The junction for the access road is on the east side,
just past the 18
kilometer marker, 747160. From there, the road
progressively gets overgrown; we chose to quad the 8.4 kilometer
approach. Stay on the better road: 240 meters in, go right; 530
meters in, go left; at 3.1 kilometers keep left and at 5.3 kilometers
(740200) go right. The road switchbacks then climbs gently before
veering east (6.5 km) along the foot of Mount Rowley. We parked 8.4
kilometers
from the truck, 757199. From there, we bushwhacked following a rib,
768207;
there's
some nasty alders all the way to treeline. The rib easily gains
the ridge crest, which leads to the telemetry. The true summit is about
1 kilometer north. |
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A good view of our
ascent rib, just left of center. |
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The only picture
worth taking on the way to treeline. |
| Scramble: RT 9.25; 4.0 up (from the ATV). The
weather for our days off was
unstable. On Saturday night, three forecasts agreed Monday would be the
better day but during the day on Sunday, the forecast changed. Ready to
tackle an outing in the rain, we
decided to go somewhere near and
hopefully avoid thundershowers... We planned to revisit Mount Rowley,
it had been our "go to" mountain for a few years and this would be our
fifth
attempt on this local peak. Twice, we snowshoed the south ridge partly.
Once, we drove out in deepening snow (30 cm) and aborted at the
trailhead. Last fall, we checked out a different access but with the
truck and no saw on the overgrown road, we turned around. This time, we
set off on the ATV and we didn't forget the saw! We aimed for the
ascent rib from the quad. We
weren't surprised to see alders at first. We stayed clear of the
drainage to avoid it but the forest offered little respite. As we
climbed higher, I was astonished; the alder infested timber did not let
up... Are we in Revelstoke? We continued, struggling
against the nasty bush and swatting at the annoying black flies. Once
at treeline, we finally left the alders behind. The hike along the rib
was a relief but it started to drizzle and looming dark clouds made us
press on. We easily gained the ridge and the telemetry on the false
summit. A solar panel is mounted on an old freezer, Fab dubbed it
"the fridge on the ridge". We didn't linger, in pursuit of the true
summit a short distance away. The ridge was mostly snowbound. We
followed numerous grizzly bear tracks that seem to avoid the
cornice; how do they know where it's safe to trudge? There was so much
traffic that we expected to see one at any point. It was snowing when
we reached the top. We sat for lunch, enjoying the feat and the partial
view.
After a nice long break, we returned the same way. We were tempted to
glissade one of the several gullies but the snow was unstable. Instead,
we spent time throwing rocks and snowballs, releasing
loose wet slides that ran fast and furious; good times! |
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Bye bye bush... for
now anyway. |
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Looking along the
long south ridge with Robinson Peaks in the background. |
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The ascent ridge to
the false summit. |
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Distinguishable
grizzly tracks. |
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The fridge on the
ridge! |
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The true summit is a
short distance away. |
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Along the connecting
ridge. |
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Almost there.
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Same weather as on Travois Peak. |
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Two steps away from
the top! |
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Fab's checking out
the names of local peaks around. |
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A picture
of me taking a picture with an outlier of Felucca Mountain. |
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To the north,
Felucca Mountain; 2,772 meters. |
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Blackwater Mountain
and Kinbasket Lake behind. |
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Leaving the top. |
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Straightforward
ridge walk. |
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Back up a short,
steep slope. |
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Posing on the fridge. |
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The remainder of the
ridge. |
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Grizzly playground,
so many tracks here! |
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Nearing our approach
rib. |
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Showers, as we reach
treeline. |
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Thankfully alder
bush is easier to travel through going down... but only by a bit! |
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Out of the bush,
we're all smiles. |
| Back
to home page |
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