Mount Clarke

                                                        Mount Clarke- July 23-24,2011

This was my last hiking trip before I moved from BC to NB.

It was 4 of us on this trip, me, Dean, Adrien and Bonn-Tien.
The road wasn't too bad for Dean's Jeep and just before the trailhead there was few pretty deep waterbars but we were able to cross them with Dean's car.

The trail to lower Statlu Lake wasn't too bad, and pretty well marked.








From the lower lake we continued our way to the Upper Statlu Lake where the trail gets steeper but soon we got to the Upper Statlu Lake which was our camping spot.













After we found a nice spot near the lake we got our tents ready and started to get our dinners ready when I got a surprise from my friends who carried up a pretty delicious cake and a really nice watermelon.



The next morning we woke up and Adrien and Bonn-Tien decided to just stay in the area and explore the lake while me and Dean started our way to Mount Clarke.

There was a pretty loose gully that we could see from our campsite but we decided to just stay in the forest for a while before we started traversing and going up to  Alpine Basin.







From there it was pretty easy travel to get up to the col from where dropped a bit and traversed under a part of the ridge of Mount Clarke.







Then we joined the summit ridge that leads up to Mount Clarke which has some exposed class 4 moves .



I had a rope with me and found a pretty solid boulder that I used to loop the rope around and throw it to Dean which wasn't too comfortable on that move and at that point a group of 2 climbers Ben and Jeremy got close to us.






From that section the route gets easier to the summit.

We took our time on the summit, took lots of photos, exchanged some info and soon we started our way back down.





Dean used the rope as a handline and after we took the rope and started to make out way back to the col.

On our way down from Alpine Basin we decided to take the loose gully which was a bit faster than our route up.

Once we got to our camp we saw only one tent, so Adrien adn Bonn-Tien already left and they left us the watermelon, so we took our time enjoying the views from the lake

and eating that delicious watermelon.



We met Adrien and Bon-Tien at the lower Statlu lake from where wasn't too far to the parking lot.

It was for sure a great trip with great friends in a new area, too bad was my last hike in BC and I had to move to NB for a while.

Three Brothers Mountain

                                          Three Brothers Mountain-July 01-03,2011

Adrien and Bonn-Tien invited me to a 3 day trip into Manning Park with few other friends from VOC and Leigh and Spring and Adrien's brother.

We all met up in Hope from where we drove to Manning Park to the parking lot for Mount Frosty from where we explored the lakes and went to a subsummit.

After our short hike we went and got our camping spots and permits and got our tents ready.

I borrowed from Dean his tent and his sleeping bag but he forgot to give me the sleeping bag so I found that out only when we got to Manning Park,at least I had a camping mattress.

Even without the sleeping bag it wasn't too cold to sleep out there but I had all my clothes on.

In the morning we woke up, had our breakfast and soon started our way towards Three Brothers trail.

The trail is pretty mellow and we followed for a while a pretty good logging road and at some point we entered the forest and continued on the well marked trail.



It was for sure a long hike and few people decided to stop at a view point just before Three Brothers while the rest of us continued our way to the summit of Three Brothers.



After spending some time on the summit and enjoying the views soon we started our way back and regrouped with the others and started our way back to our cars.

On our third day we were planning to go for Mount Frosty but the weather wasn't looking that great and most of the people were pretty tired and we all decided to take it easy and go home.

Mount Hood

                                                   Mount Hood- June 25-26,2011

When we were on Mount Lincoln not long ago Adrien suggested that we all go for Mount Hood, which of course I was excited to do since I've never been to US before and never been that high before.

So early in the morning 4 of us,Me,Dean,Adrien and Bonn-Tien left Vancouver and started our way down to Portland.

We stopped in Portland to buy all the groceries we need and have some food then we start driving towards the ski resort on Mount Hood.



Once we got at the ski resort we signed our permits and since it was pretty busy we decided to drive back down a bit and find a spot where we could car camp.

Once we found a nice spot for car camping,we got our tents ready and soon we started to cook our dinner and went to bed pretty early since we had to wake up at midnight.

The alarm was on so it was time to start moving.

We packed everything and after some breakfast we drove to the parking at ski resort of Mount Hood.

There was already a lot of people that were making their way up the mountain and they all formed a snake of headlights.



The views were getting better and better was we were getting higher.







The best views we had were during the sunrise, we could finally get some of that warm sun and we could see far in the valley the mighty looking shadow of Mount Hood.






Once we got at the crater we saw that there was a pretty big line-up on the standard route in the chute, so Adrien adn Bonn-Tien decided to take that route while me and Dean went for a more steeper route which was busy at all but we had to cross a big bergshunrd.











Once we crossed the bergshrund we had a small section of steep snow after what we could start to see the summit in front of us which wasn't too far away now .





Once we got on the summit  we waited for a bit for Adrien and Bonn-Tien that got stuck in that line-up on the standard route.



On our way back we all took the standard route which wasn't as busy at that time.

Once we got over that section from there it was easy and fast travel back down to the parking lot and after that we had a long drive back home to Vancouver.



A spectacular trip, couldn't ask for a better destination for my first trip in US.