The Kootenay Mountaineer A Kootenay newsletter for people with year-round outdoor pursuits. September 2016 Equinox President’s Message – Fall 2016 Newsletter Contents Summer 2016 has ended as wetter, cooler and less President’s Message.......................................... 1 smoky than summer 2015 – thank goodness. The Trip Reports mountaineering courses were filled and the club’s hiking, scrambling and climbing trips saw more Mt. Loki........................................................ 2 members than ever participate. Hiking camp was full Mt. Dundee.................................................. 2 and fun was had by all. Executive is satisfied with the July 1st Cycle.............................................. 3 results and pleased to see new and old members step up to volunteer as trip leaders. Please continue to do so Mt. Plewman................................................ 3 when Winter Trip Director, Phil Best, comes calling Sugarplum Lakes and Squab Peak............. 3 next month to fill out the winter trip schedule. Mt. Lasca..................................................... 4 The club was able to contribute to the purchase of the Mt. Siwash................................................... 5 Kinnaird Bluffs to help ensure its future as a recreation area for climbing. We also funded the building of the Kinnaird Bluffs Donation..................................... 6 Lepsoe Basin Cabin in the Rossland range. It is heavily Rock Transition Course...................................... 7 utilized by KMC members and we feel it will allow 2016 Hiking Camps families to have an enjoyable outdoors experience, encourage young people to join the KMC and entice Week 1....................................................... 10 more to venture further into the back country. Week 2....................................................... 13 A different type of Fall Social is to be held in 2016. Week 3....................................................... 16 Kudos to Entertainment Director Laurie Helyer for trying something new for club entertainment. So, bring Message from Membership Director................ 19 your curiosity for culture, along with tasty snacks 6:30 News Item from Conservation Director............ 19 PM, Friday October 14th to the Kootenay Art Gallery. Last Minute Trip Report Submissions There are always some challenges facing the club and Blue Grouse Basin..................................... 20 2017 is no different. The four Bonnington Huts have had a long and happy life but are showing signs of age. Whitewater Glacier.................................... 20 Exec has asked VP, Sandra Fuller, to take on the task of Mazinaw Mountain and Feather Spire.......21 examining options for the future of the huts and of the Almost Wolfe’s Peak.................................. 22 KMC’s involvement in their management. She will be seeking members’ input over the year. Article submission guidelines: Doug Clark President, The newsletters is published 4 times a year, Kootenay Mountaineering Club roughly in line with the solar seasons. Plain text is great. No need for PDF or Microsoft Word files. Simply cut and paste your text into an email to [email protected]. Attach your full resolution photos to the email. Lots of photos, please. The Kootenay Mountaineer !1 Trip Reports We arrived at the lightly treed summit just before lunch time and Rick Thomas took this photo of us with the mountains of the Darkwoods conservancy behind us. Mt. Loki The Mount Loki hike was quite different from last year's outing. The weather was very changeable with upwelling air from the lake that produced snow at the peak and gusting rain on the way down. Otherwise the weather was pleasant though cooler at the top. We started out from Nelson aiming for the 6:30 ferry as usual and after an hour and ten minute drive started our hike at 8:20. Time to Portman Notch 1.5 hours , 1 hour to bottom of ridge and 1.5 hour to summit. After a few short rests we started up the ridge, a couple of our group, perhaps wisely, stopped earlier but an intrepid six of us persisted to the top arriving at 12:20 exactly four hours from the start. After a quick lunch at the top Rick is in the photo at extreme left operating the in blustery snow we came down. We were hampered camera on a tripod with a remote connection from his with slippery rock conditions both up and down but we mobile phone. Amazing. carefully negotiated all obstacles, at times using a five Here is a graph of the hike downloaded from my GPS: point downward crawl. I'll have to leave it to the imagination what the fifth point of contact would be. We met our waiting members and ended at the cars at 3:45 and easily made the 5:20 ferry. Distance: Return - 9.73 miles or 15.65 km Moving time 5:34 Total time 7:25 Elevation gain: 4416 ft or 1346 metres 5254 ft to 9042 ft. or 1601 metres to 2756 metres We were, Leo Jansma , Tim Clinton , Nancy Selwood , ! Elizabeth Krebbers, Kelly Toole , Rose Shine , Megan Thank you for the great group spirit! It was a pleasure Lazaruk, Dave Brackett and Dave St Denis organizing and leading this hike. Mt Dundee Participants: Ross Bates, Chris Cowan, Ray June 22 McDicken, Eliane Miros, Steven Miros, Richard 17 of us met at the very civilized hour of 10ish in front Thomas, Andrea Vowell, Judy Brown, Lesley Clint, Jan Osborne, Carol Potasnyk, Sess Sakamoto, Miriam of the hotel in bustling Ymir city. Only in the Williams, Jill Watson, Val Utgaren, Julie Hampton, Kootenays can you get that many hikers together Peter Oostlander (organizer and reporter) coming from Grand Forks to Creston in the middle of the week! We drove up in a small platoon of cars up cemetery road, which changes its name to Oscar creek road and drove to km 6.3 at 1520m where we parked. We marshaled the troops together and started walking in a northerly direction on a decommissioned road with a gigantic waterbar at the start. This first part of the hike on a wide road is great for getting to know your fellow hikers. After 2 1/2km, it was time to attend to the serious business of the final 200m ascent to the summit through an old cutblock. The Kootenay Mountaineer !2 July 1 Cycle The Dying Days of the Duncan FSR, Part 1 - On July 1, six members cycled from Passmore, up the Sugarplum Lakes and Squab Peak back road to Perry Siding, and returned down the Dan R Slocan River railtrail. A decadent adventure with a With the upper Duncan FSR scheduled for snack picnic at Winlaw Nature Park with a swim in the deactivation, Douglas Noblet and I settled on two trips river, and a coffee break at Sleep Is For Sissies. to utilize the access while it lasted. The first was into the Sugarplum Lakes basin. We parked at Hume Ck and hiked up the ridge from there. The views up and down the Duncan and across to the Battle Range were phenomenal. A recent burn eased the travel and we were at the lakes in 6.5hrs including breaks, with only a few minutes of bushwhacking, though having gained 1300m to our camp. To round out the day, we went for a few dips and hiked up to Pirouette Col just north of Sugarplum Spire and peered across the Hatteras glaciers and before returning to camp. 12hr day, all in. Kirsten Apel, Pnina Shames, Mary Prothro, Peter Martyn, Marilyn Miller (leader) and Dave Cunningham Mt Plewman July 13 Fourteen members and 3 non members met at Strawberry Pass, carpooled to near Sunspot Cabin and hiked to the summit of Mt Plewman. There was some The Pirouette Pinnacles snow on the trail on Mt Elgood and on Mt Plewman. A storm threatened as we were finishing lunch so everyone quickly packed up and headed down the trail again. There was some thunder and a few drops of rain but not the heavy downpour that Castlegar and Trail received. Scrambling above the Hume Creek. Photo Douglas We were Betty Brouse, Sandra England, Sherolyn On Day 2, we crossed into the basin to the southeast Haakstad, Don Harasym, Ken Kirkland, Anja Logodi, and scrambled up a spur ridge that took us onto the Kathleen Nichol, Craig Sandvig, Barb Saunders, Clint ridge that heads southeast from Squab and Hatteras. A Saunders, Pnina Shames, Caroline Shimek, Al Class 3 scramble took us up to the main ridge between Sheppard, Pat Sheppard, Valerie Utgaren, and the two peaks. From there, the long Class 4 scramble coordinators Hazel and Ed Beynon. up Hatteras looked quite loose and surpassed our The Kootenay Mountaineer !3 appetites, so we settled on Squab, an easy 10 minutes After dropping packs at camp, we circled down and the other direction. around the big lake below us (second lowest of the We hung out on top for a few hours and placed a Sugarplum Lakes). On the 3rd day, we had a summit register before continuing the traverse straightforward hike out and were back at the car in 4 northeast to the Sugarplum-Squab col. From what beta hours. we had, we expected a notch to be the crux but a very Not bad for what we believe to be the first even awkward exposed diagonal ledge proved to be by far approach to the Hatteras Group on foot from the the trickiest part of the trip instead. A rappel station had Duncan watershed! I was able to dig up mention of at been set up nearby, but with Douglas' coaching I was least a dozen trips to the area over the years, starting in able to get down, despite my big pack. the 50s and including a KMC Climbing Camp in '94. Not labelled on the topo maps are the Pirouette Pinnacles and Arabesque Pinnacles, of which there are seven each. I would think a trip that included scrambling the pinnacles would've been just as worthy an option as our trip up Squab.