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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
13441 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2012 : 9:23 PM
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Three of us were ready for our second attempt, encouraged by Kelly's report from the prior week, and my personal experience with good snow conditions on slopes from Borden To Spencer last Saturday.
Four of us met at the Vedder Crossing Bridge Meeting Spot shortly before 7:30 a.m: Sticki-Nicki , RollingR, Matin, and Myself (Karvitk). We headed up in Matin's vehicle and drove up the access road, stopped by snow at the 1065 meter level. We were ready to go by 8:30 a.m.
We put up a good pace, reaching the parking lot at the 1280 meter level about 9:45 a.m.
    
We were amazed at the large amount of avalanche damage to the trees; many knocked to a strong lean, and plenty of broken debris on the surface... 
We hit the gully and headed up; snow was mushy to several inches so required more work to head up the steep snow slope.    ...
And then it really got steep.by 10:30 a.m. we were slowly down making up our way 50 to 75' slope snow... ice axe and crampons defintie requirement today with the softish outer layer of several inches though with a somewhat still supportive firm under layer.   ..
The last short leg took us 11:30 a.m. to reach the top of the ridge.
  
We enjoyed the relative easy to moderate slope of the ridgeline. The sun came out for about twenty minutes... got some partial views, got to enjoy ourselves a bit.. then decided to follow the ridge up, not sure where to head off to follow Kelly's track. We went higher..
   
The best and clearest view of the day..towards Mt. Borden -Spencer Ridge: 
Got some good views of McGuire..
  
We stopped at a point where the ridgeline was taken up by unstable -looking cornice ridges; we turned around, had lunch, and headed back to find a way down the east slopes...
We found a slippery 2 inch layer of slimy snow overlying a very hard underlayer of icey snow. I then decided we would head back, seeing the sun disappeared behind cloud, and the ridge became shrouded in fog.
We made our way back to the descending point from the ridge; in the meantime we got snowed on, being too cool to rain.
It was a slow and careful descent...once we reached the gully, we were more comfortable.
 
It was about 4 pm when we made back it back to the car... distance round trip was about 10 km with elevation gain of 780 meters to the height of the ridge at 1840 meters..
We will be back !!!!
K |
Edited by - KARVITK on 06/03/2012 9:35 PM
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Vancouver, bc
Canada
152 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 11:38 AM
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Thank you Karl for a great day and your excellent TRs.
Yes we will finally summit McGuire! Too bad it snowed since last week making the ascent more dangerous. Thanks for all your help and planning.
Lets do this later on this summer. |
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Mission, bc
Canada
148 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 3:26 PM
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Great trip report! Thanks again for organizing and leading us on this adventure. I had a great time. here are some pics.             
We will have to try again when the snow is gone,
Nikki |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
1001 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 5:30 PM
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Well done to all for giving it a try. Good to see a human female along, compared to our Borden trip. : )
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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
13441 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 6:22 PM
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You are most welcome Matin & Niki, and I totally enjoyed your company. Really like your photo set Niki, really nice shots and catches of the moment on our way up.
John, thank you. We tried, but called it because of the iffy cornice line, and the sideslope facing to the south. We will all go for it again, . likely will be in August before the bugs get too bad.
K |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5887 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 6:54 PM
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Karl, if you went into the forest to the left before all that steep ridge that leads to the cornices you could have traversed lower and then gained McGuire from the East. That's the way Stu and I did it, albeit the long way to McGuire :)
Good attempt though everyone, lovely pictures! |
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5368 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 6:57 PM
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Nice trip guys. I should be able to be "one of those females" again by this weekend
I clearly have some catching up to do  |
Edited by - exscape on 06/04/2012 6:59 PM |
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Campbell River, BC
Canada
754 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 7:27 PM
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| You captured some nice misty mountain shots, Karvitk. |
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Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 9:13 PM
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I like it!! the 2nd picture walking up the winding, wet road into the mountain with the deep, green forest on both sides is my favorite. I never knew there was so much to know about how to traverse safely in snow until I began reading posts in CT. That learning backed up by experience is invaluable. I guess each geographic area has its challenges.
Good attempt. Great company, fun outing. Someday, I've got to do stadium steps for a month with a pack on so I can hike up there. Elevation gain is NOT my friend. hehe |
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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
13441 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 07:30 AM
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Thanks Lynn..
After coming down from the ridge, we checked out that option. But the slopes were rather hard and icy with that thin layer of soft greasy snow.
Thank you for the kind comments and compliments, Jenn & Solo., and Jerry.
K |
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
158 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 10:43 AM
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| Looks like you guys had a good time even in the poor conditions. This is high on my list to do when the snow is mostly gone. |
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McGuire (Ridge) June 3 /12
