On this long weekend we decided to go for 3 days into Place Glacier area and explore that area.
We had tents with us but once we got at the parking lot there was only another car so we knew we will have room in the huts by the glacier so we left our tents in the car.
We followed the description from Matt Gunn's book on how to get to the trailhead.
Once we crossed the railroad tracks we followed the private road for a bit before getting on the trail which was well marked.
Didn't took us too long until we reached the famous waterfall by the trail from where the trail keeps climbing up and it's pretty steep.
Crossing the creek wasn't fun, both creek crossing had some pretty slippery logs and pretty easy to fall down into the creek.
Once we crossed the creek the terrain gets a more flat a bit and leads you towards a large headwall.
To pass the headwall there was a set of slabs that were pretty well marked with cairns that made the ascent pretty easy.
Once we passed the headwall we were pretty close to the toe of the glacier where the 2 huts are located.
We went to the small emergency hut which was empty and we got all our overnight stuff in there and soon started our way towards Mount Gardiner.
The creek crossing wasn't that easy, it felt like that entire construction it will just fall with you but we managed to get across safely.
Once we crossed the creek we started our way towards the NW ridge of Gardiner.
The route up to the summit wasn't too bad along the ridge, no more than class 3.
Once we got on the summit we could see out next objectives and we could enjoy the view of the rest of the peaks in the area.
Soon we started our descent towards Oleg Peak.
Going down Gardiner wasn't too bad, we followed the SE ridge which had one spot of class 3 the rest was pretty easy.
Once we got at the bottom of the ridge we followed this broad ridge which had pretty interesting rock formation along the way.
Soon we got near the East ridge that was leading towards Oleg peak, which was pretty good for most of the part but it has a tower half way which we avoided by going around the tower.
Soon we got on the glacier from where it was easy glacier walking to the summit of Oleg Peak.
We didn't spend too much time on the summit since it was getting late and soon we started our way down from Oleg Peak towards Olds Peak.
From Oleg we followed the NW ridge towards Olds peak which was pretty easy but it gets pretty broken before the summit where we had to go on the left side of the ridge to avoid some steps and found a way up some slabs which was pretty close to class 4.
Once we passed that step we were pretty close to the summit and the ridge got better after that.
On our way down we took the same route and once we got pass the step we got down on the glacier pretty fast.
We decided to take the glacier on our way down instead of following our previous route, but we stayed closer to the rocks trying to avoid those big crevasses.
It was getting pretty late but we got off the glacier just in time and had to use headlamps from there.
To cross the creek back it was pretty bad and few groups were watching us from the other side.
Once we crossed the creek we got back to the hut were we had our dinners and went to bed.
The next day we woke up pretty early and started our way towards Cirque Peak.
The glacier was pretty dry and was pretty easy travel for most of the way.
To gain the ridge we decided not to follow the description from Matt Gunn's book and kept going on the glacier for a bit longer before making our way up.
About half way up to the ridge we went into a narrow but pretty solid gully and soon we got on the ridge.
The ridge wasn't too bad until you reach the loose and narrow step.
The step it's only few meters long, but the problem is that it's pretty narrow and pretty loose and there is nothing you could rest your body on.
Once we passed the step we continued our way along the ridge to the summit which wasn't too far from there.
We had beautiful views from the summit of the area and could see Joffre Group right in front of us.
Soon we started our way back, we decided to do Gates Peak in the same day and instead of dropping back down to the camp and then going back up to Gates peak we decided to just stay high and keep traversing the ridge to a point where we were able to get back on the ridge.
The traversing part wasn't too bad and saved us some time and some elevation.
Once we got on Gates Peak we got a pretty good view of the peaks that we already did.
Soon we started our way back down to the campsite and decided to go straight down to the huts.
The terrain was pretty loose and there was a lot of rocks going down with us.
Near the bottom while we were going down we released a pretty huge boulder that made a lot of noise and a huge cloud of dust and people from the campsite were watching us going down.
Safely we got back down to our campsite and went to the hut where we had our dinners.
The next morning we woke up and started our way back down to the car.
The logs were pretty slippery on our way back down and I took a fall into the creek which wasn't that pleasant,but at least wasn't on the way in.
From there wasn't too long until we got back down to the car on that super steep trail.
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