Mountain Lake Hut

The Mountain Lake hut area is a spectacular spot, just south of Squamish. Access is tricky though. The problem is a gate off Highway 99, visible from the road at the top of the Furry Creek hill that can be locked sometimes. It was open most of this summer, but the latest report (Oct 3, 2014) says that it is now closed, which is unfortunate. But assuming the gate is open, one can drive 9.5km to Cynthia Creek with a good vehicle. There two or three hills with loose sections on the way up that will stop most small cars, and a few water bars near the end of the road. It is also possible to get onto this road from roads down by the Furry Creek golf course, but there are also gates down there.

From Cynthia Creek, continue another 2.5 km along the road until a large cairn marks the route up the now-overgrown but brushed out Cynthia Creek spur. After gaining most of the elevation on the road, the route traverse west towards Wind Lake, across trees and and a boulder field. 

My first trip to this area was in November on skis back in 2005. There wasn’t quite enough snow to cover up the water bars on Britannia Creek, which made for slow and tedious travel. By the time we skinned to the end of the Cynthia Creek road, the weather had deteriorated into a full-on fall storm. We didn’t make it much further, after a group mutiny where we came to our senses and decided that pushing on, with a large group of beginners didn’t make sense. I stopped to take off my ski on every water bar going down the Cynthia Creek spur. There was just enough snow to skin the road, but not enough to bridge the gaps. A couple friends stayed behind that night, setting up their tent at end of road with a plan to scout out the route ahead in the morning. Instead, they woke up to 30cm’s of wet snow blanketing the tent, and they retreated back down the road.  I’m glad we turned around that day. Sandra, who was co-leading the trip, stopped to put on a down jacket while waiting for me, and Dan to get down. Dan has refused to make another trip to Mountain Lake ever since. Hopefully this post will convince him to try again. 

Ledge Mountain and Mount Sheer

The next morning, we hiked north, contouring around Mount Sheer, then following a ridge north to a scree filled basin below Ledge Mountain. The clean granite around the Mountain lake area does not extend into the Sky Pilot group, which is mostly choss. The objective was the 3rd class ledge route on Ledge Mountain. The other obscure peaks nearby, like Ledgling, the Ledgelette, and the Nai are 4th to low 5th, on loose rock.

For Mount Sheer, the best route from the Mountain Lake Hut is to follow heather slopes up towards a heathery knoll. It’s not visible in the photo above. From the top, follow a krummolz covered ridge down to the col and then follow the red line above. There is enjoyable scrambling up the subsummit, down to the col, and then up the summit. The hardest move is a short 4th class step on good rock with little exposure, just below the top. The alternative route ascends heather slopes (green line) to reach the col.

For Sky Pilot and Ledge Mountain, head part way up the talus and heather slopes at bottom centre, and then climb up and left to gain the bench at mid-left. Continue north to reach the scree basin below Ledge, hiking up and over two bumps along the way.

Alex and Maddy are slowing training Harrison to become a mountain dog. He needs a few lessons from a mountain goat.

 Alex and I hiked up the talus cone  at the base of Ledge Mountain, which changed into loose scree ontop of firm soil halfway up. Upward progress was tedious, a step down for every two steps upwards. Don’t forget to bring a helmet.

Near the top of the scree slope, traverse right towards trees. The crux is a 5m rock step to gain the ledge. It’s easy climbing, but I didn’t trust the rock. The ledge is an interesting geological feature on an otherwise sheer face of crumbly rock. The worst part is half way up, where the ledge slopes outwards by a few degrees, with scree and gravel covering the path. The ledge ends before the summit, where a short bushwhack between stunted trees is required.