Mount Agassiz & Mount Price

Desolation Wilderness
Originally posted by Kyle at Dece Scouts.

Oct 15 - To Sylvia:

We left the city in a rented Zipcar around 10am and drove to the Lyons Creek Trailhead, which is located just before Wrights Lake in the South Lake Tahoe area. My dad flew down from Canada to join this Dece Scouts trip, so I picked a route that would include some off-trail exploring and possibly a summit.

We hit the trail around 2:30pm and hiked in for 5 miles to Lake Sylvia. It was a very gradual incline, which gained 1,400 feet over the course of the 5 miles. When we arrive at the lake we found a smoldering campfire with plastic bottles discarded in the ashes. The campfire was also located in a restoration area, so as you can imagine, we were pretty disappointed in whoever left it there. We pulled out our pots and doused the fire in water from the lake. With all the wildfires in the area, we couldn't understand how someone could just leave a smoking fire unattended.

We found a campsite just up from the lake and set up our tents as the sun was setting. The temperature dropped as fast as the sun set. Bundled in all our clothes, we ate dinner, sipped hot coco, and headed to bed.

Oct 14 - Mt Agassiz and Mt Price:

The morning consisted of heating up water for tea, coffee, and oatmeal, then packing our day packs for our scramble up to the summits. We headed up the west side of the bowl, over scree and moss which progressively got steeper until leveling out just before the rocky boulder summit of Mt. Agassiz. The summit required one or two 5.5 climbing moves with little exposure. On the summit we enjoyed some crackers, cheese, and snacks while Ash made an entry in the logbook.

We climbed off the summit (which was a little trickier than going up), and headed along the ridge that connected Agassiz to Price. Mt. Price was a less significant peak, but provided us with an amazing view of Agassiz's wave like profile. We took another break on Price, wrote another logbook entry, and chatted about epic survival stories. The wind started to pick up so we decided to head down and complete the loop back to our campsite at Lake Sylvia.

Our route took us down a neighboring bowl to an incredibly beautiful Lyons Lake. We stopped at the lake for a rest, where Mike and Stani took a very brief ice-cold dip.

At this point we were back on a trail which returned us to our camp. We had an early dinner and were in our tents by 7:30.

Oct 15 - Early Out:

Up at 6:30am. We tore down camp and cooked our oatmeal as quickly as we could, but it still took us around 2 hours before we were on the trail heading back to the car. We enjoyed the steady decline in elevation and fall colors as we soaked in as much "outdoors" as we could before returning to the city.

All Trails

Needle, Take 2

Grade I, Class 3
2,095m
Coquihalla Summit

Another visit to Needle, following our July trip. This one was envisioned as an overnighter but the logistics of getting ourselves up there after school on Friday, combined with so-so weather that precluded the stargazing we were hoping for, held most of us back until Saturday morning. Most, but not all. In a last minute show of bold determination, Aaron got himself organized and had himself, Simon and Linnaea at the trailhead at dusk, and up onto the ridge to camp. The rest of us came up in the morning. September in the mountains: it doesn't get any better.

This was the inaugural Scramblegs Peak for Linnaea (7yrs), Rosie (8), Leo (6) and Sparrow (5). Hat tip to Luca (2), who came up in a backpack.

Participants: Luca, Sparrow, Oliver, Leo, Rosie, Linnaea, Eloïse, Simon, Lisa, Sara, Jos, Pip, Aaron and Andrew.

Strava | Video

Diedre

5.8, 6 pitches

Squamish (the Apron)

The first time Aaron and I climbed Diedre (circa 2002) was also the first time Aaron had climbed anything. For some reason he didn't think it was an adequately gentle introduction to the sport and he decided that he would never be able to trust me again. Fifteen years later I had not only Aaron's life back in my hands, but that of his first-born, Simon, as well. Together with Eloïse (my own first-born) we had – I think even Aaron would agree – a delightful day out. Surprisingly, given that Diedre might be the most popular climb in Squamish, we also had the whole thing to ourselves for the morning. With excellent pro and rap anchors all the way up, it would be hard to find a better intro to multi-pitch climbing anywhere. Five hours car-to-car for our party (lead climber + second + third and fourth climbing together).

Participants: Eloïse, Simon, Aaron, Pip.

Strava   GPX   KML   Video

Mt. Tszil

Grade I, Class 2
2,377m
Joffre Lakes Provincial Park

Mt. Tszil is an easy scramble above upper Joffre Lake, where we were camped for a couple of nights. This was Oliver's (age 5) inaugural Scramblegs summit, and he was highly motivated to get to the top so he could earn his patch (we now have patches!!). This was an 8-hour round trip from the lake at 5-year-old pace.

Participants: Oliver, Linnaea, Eloïse, Simon, Lisa, Lisa, Pip and Aaron

Strava | Video | GPX  | KML

Needle Peak

Grade I, Class 3
Coquihalla Summit

An impromptu day in the mountains with the kids.  Needle is one of the most accessible peaks we have near us (two hours from Kelowna): a good trail straight off the Coquihalla highway. There are two sections of scrambling. Neither is particularly difficult, but the first is tricky enough that today it dissuaded a heap of hikers from going any further (and would've dissuaded us if we hadn't brought rope for the kids). Happily, this left the top of the mountain – including the nicest bit of hiking before the final scramble to the top – for us to enjoy alone. 5 1/2hrs return, at 7-year-old speed.

Participants: Eloïse, Simon, Pip and Aaron

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