We hunkered down and ploughed up the road section, which got our lungs working pretty quickly. I was sad to see some of the recent logging activity, but impressed at the condition of the road because of it. We made it to the section of trail that starts through the woods and slowly continued up the many steep switchbacks. The forest was beautiful and there were many mushrooms out decorating the ground. I was very impressed with my friends as they only needed to stop for a few short seconds to catch their breath and do some calf stretches. In fact we really didn't stop much at all on the way up.
Eventually we made our way up into the subalpine area where one could normally start to take in the beautiful views of the valley below. However, that was not in the cards for us. The fog and dense cloud made it difficult to see much of anything. At this point a whisky jack found us and began following us up the trail. It wasn't all out raining, but more like a steady mist on us once we no longer had the cover of the trees. The rocks were quite slippery and we had to use caution while climbing up some of the more exposed sections. By 1150 we reached the summit. The wind was blowing and it was an all out whiteout of cloud with no views. I felt bad for my friends who had no idea how amazing the views were from this spot. However, I am sure they are all inspired to go again when the weather is better. It was cold and we all froze in a matter of minutes of sitting still. We quickly had a snack and signed the registered before heading back down the mountain. The hike down was pretty uneventful. We were all moving slowly and safely to prevent slippery tumbles down the mountain. I had a couple small slips, but nothing major. We saw a couple guys heading up the |
We arrived back at the truck at 1400 and so did the couple hikers we saw heading up. They decided to forgo the summit and try again another day. I couldn't really blame them. We changed into dry clothes and headed back to Victoria. We all made it home in time for supper!