Aug 20-22 2007
We followed vague flagging tape from the end of the road, and contoured down towards the open creek. Active logging is taking place in Salal Creek, and the logging company will probably continue pushing the blocks further up into creek. Salal Creek has wide gravel bars on both sides, so you’re walking on smooth pebbles most of the time. The exception is when the creek changes direction, and sections of high water, and in those two cases, there’s flagging tape that lures you into the slide alder. The slide alder is never bad, and is far better than getting wet feet. We didn’t quite make it all the way to Athelney Pass on the first day, approx 2km before it. The valley up here is nice and wide, with lots of camping spots.
The weather wasn’t very good the next morning. I woke up, looked outside, and it was socked in. Eventually we woke up, and had breakfast sometime around 11am. A good alpine start. To quote John Clark, you’re already in the alpine, and you’re starting, and that’s good enough. From our camp, we walked up the valley, which continued to widen as you get toward the pass. The glacier off Ethelward is quite amazing. It has a classic tongue shape, and there are successive moraines below it, with a moraine dammed lake too! This would be a great place to ski in the early season if you could time it right. You could drive up the road, hopefully ski up the creek, and the Ethelward glacier looks mellow enough to ski on without falling in a crevasse.
From the pass, we hiked up a steep slope covered in wildflowers to gain the flatter terrain below Ochre Mountain. Along the way to the west ridge of Ochre, we saw approx 20 oil drums sitting in the meadows. I’m not sure if these were left behind by the prospecters, or if they’re from heli operations. Regardless, it seems like a bad place to leave oil drums behind.