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102 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2010 : 8:42 PM
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Mt. Mariner self-propelled from Tofino
Three of my friends and I decided to make an attempt on Mt. Mariner at the end of August. We kayaked in from Tofino, climbed Mariner, and kayaked back.
Day 1: Kayak Tofino to Bedwell River – 16nm, 4.5 hrs
On Day 1 we launched from the 1st street dock in Tofino for our paddle to the head of Bedwell Sound. We hit the water at 9:45 and paddled with the flooding current around Lone Cone and to the mouth of Bedwell Sound, where we had lunch. After lunch we made our way up Bedwell Sound. By this time the wind was building a bit and we had a nice tailwind with some waves to ride along the way. When we arrived at the head of Bedwell Sound we landed beside the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort. We were immediately met by John, one of the owners. We had previously emailed them and asked permission to cross their land, which they happily gave. After asking John about kayaking upriver, he offered us to camp near their dock and zip line (which wasn’t going to be used that evening). We camped there for the night and organized our gear into backpacks.
   
Day 2: Mt. Mariner Approach – 13.5km, 1150m, 11 hrs
Day 2 started with a 10km hike up the Bedwell River trail to the Noble Creek turnoff. The Bedwell River trail was mostly in good shape, the start being well groomed gravel road from the Clayoqout Wilderness Resort, while towards the end it was quite overgrown, but still easily followed (it follows an old roadbed). The two major bridges along the way are still usable, although officially closed. The second bridge consists of some old giant overgrown bridge stringers, which makes from an interesting stretch of forest over the river. There are also two other creek bed crossings with remnants of old bridges that could be tricky when there’s actually water flowing. Shortly after the overgrown bridge stringers we came across a large, seasonal creek bed which we initially thought might be Noble Creek. About 10 min after traversing this we found the blue flagging tape which indicated the start of Walter Guppy’s Noble Creek trail. We also found some pink “Clayoquot Wilderness Resort” flagging marking the start of Walter Guppy’s trail. We had lunch shortly after the turnoff, and then pushed on up through the forest. The old trail is pretty easily followed although it does braid and become less distinct at parts. There was no water in the creek bed starting about 1/3 of the way up the forested section, so fill up at the bottom if necessary. After ~350m in elevation through the forest, it abruptly ended and we came out into a dry creek bed, looking up the Noble Creek drainage. After a short break, we followed the creek bed up through the slide alder and brush on either side of us. After another ~150m in elevation the brush ended and we found ourselves looking up a large gully leading partway up the side of the mountain. There was water in the creek bed once again, so we refilled water here and discussed pushing on to the col for camp that night. We decided to head on, and made our way up the loose talus and glacial moraine towards the col. At about 950m elevation the gully splits, with the left fork heading for the col which was our destination, and the right fork steepening and getting gnarlier out on its way straight up to the south glacier. We took the left fork, and after a bit of vegetation, found ourselves standing above a ~8m cliff of bad quality rock. We pulled out the rope, and after I scrambled down on belay, we decided a hand line was best for the rest. After having spent ~45min dealing with this obstacle, we continued up the gully which required some easier scrambling. We finally reached the col around 7pm to find that the only flat surfaces for a tent were to be found on the remaining snow patches. We set up camp as it started to rain, had dinner and then retired to the tents for the night.
        
Day 3: Summit Day – 6km, 700m, ~9hrs
After rain most of the night, we woke up to a very grey morning, not the best for summiting, but it had to be attempted anyway. We headed up and over the col, dropping ~50m down the other side before starting to ascend the side of a gully towards a small glacial lake and the south glacier. We soon left the gully and scrambled up some wet slabs on the left before making our way over to the outflow of the lake. The lake was partially melted out along the sides, with lots of water sitting on top of snow and ice. We promptly named it Blue Lake due to its colour. There we put on our crampons and pulled out the ice axes before continuing up the snow slopes. We almost immediately headed in too much of a south-easterly direction and soon found ourselves looking back down towards Noble Creek (couldn’t see anything due to the clouds totally surrounding us). After a while of mixed rock and snow we found the South Glacier and headed off into the whiteout to hopefully find the col between the east and west peaks. We stumbled right into it and found it to be super obvious. It’s a large slit in the ridge, with a van-sized boulder right in the middle of it. Here we crossed to the North Glacier and began to traverse around the north side of the summit. After making our way along the glacier beside the Bergschrund we eventually traversed too far and had to backtrack to get off the snow onto rock at the right point. Most of the snow had a very significant Bergschrund which limited our options significantly. We found a route up the rock and to more snow. Strapping the crampons back on, ascended this snow and then tried to find the final scramble to the peak. After poking around on the wrong side of the summit for about 20 min, we checked another spot and were finally sitting on the summit ~10min later, at 2pm. We had a short snack, filled in the summit register (which is in decent shape but quite wet), and eventually started to head back down. After making our way back down to the North Glacier, around the summit and back through the col, we enjoyed an awesome glissade down some of the snowfields and eventually found ourselves ~75m above a partially melted out Blue Lake. Not wanting to fall and slide down into the icy cold waters we traversed around to the snow slopes we had ascended and made our way down to the outflow of the lake. From here we followed our route down the creek beds and wet slabs (now even wetter after a day of rain) to the col where our camp was waiting.
         
Day 4: Back to the kayaks – 13.5 km, 1150m down, 8.5 hrs + 2.5 nm, 45 min
Day 4 dawned as a nice sunny day again (darn weather moved in just for summit day). We headed down through the first gully, eventually reaching the 8m wall that had been such a problem two days ago. We debated about try to go around in the bush above it, and that’s what two or our group tried. When they eventually got around, they dropped us a hand line and we came up the face. They reported finding some flagging in the bush above them, so presumably the intended route avoids this sketchy wall. After getting up the wall, we dropped through a short section of vegetation and made it back onto the scree and glacial moraine. Travelling down this took some time and concentration but we eventually made it to the dry creek bed. Once in the creek bed we veered too far right and got into some slide alder and brush. We continued to cut towards the southern side of the valley and eventually got to a large snow cave, and another dry creek bed. We followed this down to the forest and had a break before beginning the steep trail. We made it to the overgrown bridge stringers and had lunch sitting up on the stringers high above the river. After lunch we travelled down the bushy but easily travelled Bedwell Trail and made it out to the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort and our kayaks by 5pm. Along the way one of us saw a Roosevelt Elk in the middle of the trail (just saw it running down the trail the other way). We decided to have dinner at the kayaks, repack into the kayaks, and paddle part-way down Bedwell Sound. We found ourselves a nice gravel beach out of view (and sheltered from the sound) of the many fish farms in Bedwell Sound and had ourselves a nice big campfire to end off the trip. It was great to be down at sea level where it’s warm and life is easy (when the weather’s good) and look back on the trip.
       
Day 5 – 13 nm, 3.5 hrs
Our last day was again a beautiful day and just perfect for kayak, no wind until the Tofino harbour, and then only light wind. We paddled relatively hard and were back at the 1st street dock by 12 noon. After unloading and putting the kayaks on the van, we headed to the Wildside Grill for an excellent feeding session with delicious burgers. After unloading some of the kayaks in Ucluelet the adventure was over and my friends headed back across the island to their various homes. A great time was had by all and everyone returned home safely with no injuries.
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1111 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2010 : 8:59 PM
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| Now that's a trek. Nice one. |
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Langley, B.C
Canada
285 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2010 : 9:19 PM
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| Well done man, too bad about the clouds on the summit. When are you comming back to the mainland? |
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 Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13453 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2010 : 9:53 PM
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A great trek, and thanks for sharing with us... Too bad about the timing of the weather clouding your summit day.
K |
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Coquitlam, BC
Canada
342 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2010 : 08:52 AM
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Nice bag! Seen it from Tom Taylor in Strathcona and from Tofino, it's nice to get a glimpse of it up close.
Cheers,
C |
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Qualicum Beach, BC
Canada
1306 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2010 : 9:55 PM
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Nice trip... shows lots of verve. Did you see the "Holy Cross"? Also those summit registers need to be placed with the red opening cap upright to stay dry. Still, the waterproof notebook keeps it from becoming a mass of paper mache.
Peter |
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102 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2010 : 6:07 PM
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Thanks everyone. We unfortunetly didn't see the "Holy Cross" as we never did see the summit until we were on it. Thanks for sending us your trip report and such Peter.
-Phil |
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Mt. Mariner Aug 29 - Sept 2 2010
