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362 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 01:30 AM
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Growing up in the Fraser Valley, I’ve had my eye on Tomyhoi since before I knew its name. Reading a recent TR (http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40364) that gave the current trail conditions, I knew its time was finally here...
This last weekend was a little weird from a scheduling perspective as Sunday looked to be the best day weather wise, but I needed to be back in town by about 3pm to get ready for my brother’s wedding rehearsal. It took a bit on convincing, but in the end I sold Jeremy on a 2am departure with the promise of clear skies in the morning and a nice and cool (and bug free!) ascent. By 2:45 we were across the border and on our way!
Hitting the trail at 4, I don’t have to tell you that headlamps were a necessity. Encountered continuous snow not 15 minutes from the trailhead but we were kind of expecting it. Despite the darkness, the trail was easy enough to follow except for a little confusion just after the junction with the Gold Rush Pass trail. 10 minutes lost consulting map and compass and vainly looking for boot prints in the snow, we decided to go with what seemed to be the correct direction and shortly thereafter were back onto a trail in the snow. The sun’s first rays were just touching Baker and Shuksan by the time we reached the high point just before descending down to the tarns. I know the pictures don’t do it justice, but the North Cascades sure do look good in that lighting!
 
Baker and Shuksan in morning light
Looking at the route ahead...
We saw another gentleman camping down at the tarns but he was busy doing his own thing so we just motored on.
 
Border Peaks and Larrabee in morning light
  
Assorted Baker shots on the way up – I don’t recall ever seeing it so clearly, it has a tendency to draw the eye
  
The way up
  
The views to the south were absolutely incredible. I think we had good timing on this one 
After a few scrambley bits we were fast approaching the notch that leads up to the false summit. A bit of snow needs to be traversed here but it’s nothing that we found to be particularly steep or exposed.
 
Approaching the false summit
Looking back on the notch we used to cross onto the west side of the ridge
Soon we were face-to-face with the true summit and I have to say it looks a little intimidating from a distance! Despite my reservations, I knew that this was a classic case of looks worse than it is and that turned out to be totally true. The line up the summit block is intuitive and Matt Gunn’s description was right on target (there really isn’t much alternative).
 
Summit block
 
Jeremy coming up behind me
By 8am we were standing on the summit and I have to say I was completely sold on this leaving super early business. The sun was warming up by that point but I had managed to get to the top without even breaking a sweat! That’s gotta be a first for me
Sitting down to have some “lunch”, we drank in the views and just savoured the moment. It was good to finally be up here, looking back at all of the other peaks where I’ve sat and gazed at Tomyhoi on countless occasions.
Summit Shots:
 
Baker
Church Mountain
 
McGuire with Judge Howay in the distance behind
The Cheam range was beautifully laid out on profile in front of us. I've seen this picture before but had to make my own
 
Cheam Range
Border Peaks
American and Larrabee
 
Shuksan
   
Assorted Tomyhoi glacier shots
 
North Cascades
Jeremy summit shot
Myself – I’m not sure why I look so pissed off in this picture! Take my word for that I’m smiling on the inside
Bergshrund
After hanging around for more than an hour, we decided we had better get going. Down climbing the false summit proved to be straight forward and we were careful to maintain a good spacing.
I grabbed a picture of Jeremy on the far side as I was about to climb down.
About 30 minutes from the summit we were on our merry way when I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks. Before me was the first mountain goat I have ever laid eyes upon and believe me when I say I’ve been waiting for this. We immediately started snapping pictures and were able to get pretty close to the guy. He didn’t seem fazed by our presence in the least...
  
 
Goat!
Shortly after I noticed that the clouds were really starting to roll in from the south and obscure that great view. Looks like our timing couldn’t have been better!
Coming back into the area where the tarns are, I stopped to take a couple photos in their partially melted state.
   
Melting tarns
The Border peaks make for an impressive backdrop here and I couldn’t help but get a few more pictures.
  
Border Peaks
After climbing back up out of the bowl I was feeling a bit drained but soon enough we were left with nothing but downhill. One last look at Tomyhoi:
Passed about 6 other people on the way down and they were looking very warm I must say. The snow was so much softer by this point and the going seemed to be way tougher. I guess the early bird got the worm!
Back at vehicle by noon and we were on our way back to Canada. Since I was still so early we were even able to swing a Bellingham detour to pick up some Jack In-The-Box. Sweet!
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 Terminator shade wearing, summit questing, double Grinding, Gordo voting self annointed 'dumb ass' and Aconcagua Bagga who dreams of Robson, Teton, The Judge, and.....and....
Port Moody, B.C
Canada
2210 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 02:23 AM
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Mid August and still no tarns. I love that area!
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in the valley, BC
Canada
1459 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 06:49 AM
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| amazing how much snow is still up there - and here I was looking forward to heading up in early September to enjoy the fall foliage - guess it will be spring there come September, skip summer and fall then go straight into winter |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1117 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 1:50 PM
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| Really nice report from a fine peak. Thanks. |
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505 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 1:54 PM
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| Awesome Awesome Awesome! great job guys and a very well written t.r. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1114 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 2:19 PM
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You may have convinced me to add this one to my short list. Smoothly planned and timed trip.
Cody |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
2661 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 7:33 PM
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Ah, so that's what it looks like without cloud
Well done |
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Vancouver, bc
Canada
1009 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 7:35 PM
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Congrats on the peak and somewhat jealous. Looking at your photos, I can see that the schrund traverse was a bad decision. After lunch we got turned around in the white-out. The only instance where I used both my gps and separate compass to get us back on track. This is all we got from the hike you referenced:
 
1. Where we pulled the plug?? 2. Q traversing a schrund in microspikes (thats Scamper in front) |
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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
13469 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 11:00 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Gearhed
Congrats on the peak and somewhat jealous. Looking at your photos, I can see that the schrund traverse was a bad decision. After lunch we got turned around in the white-out. The only instance where I used both my gps and separate compass to get us back on track. This is all we got from the hike you referenced:
1. Where we pulled the plug?? 2. Q traversing a schrund in microspikes (thats Scamper in front)
Wow that is massive !
Been having my eye on this mountain for a long time, ever since high school.
K |
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5372 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 11:26 PM
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| Beautiful! |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5887 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2011 : 3:05 PM
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| This is one I've always wanted to try but never get around to. Thanks for the reminder. Lovely area! |
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Tomyhoi - Aug 7, 2011
