I had hoped I would cross another new peak – Gusty Peak – or two off my list on a recent Saturday.
But Mother Nature had other plans as my friends and I were faced with snow up to our waist, snow drifts, elusive cairns and toppling winds.
My plan was to summit Gusty Peak then head over to Fortress Mountain if time permitted.
What’s in name
Gusty Peak is the unofficial name given by a first-ascent party of an Alpine Group in June 1972 because of the windy descent. (Source: Alan Kane Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies.) Starting from the Chester Lake trailhead, the hike is 14 kilometres return with 1,100 metres elevation gain.
Allie and Laurent came along for the adventure. Our adventure began at the Chester Lake trailhead on the Smith-Dorrien Highway, where we found the only snow in the province that day.
We reached the lake (roughly 4 kilometres) after following a wide forested trail with gradual switchback climbs. About a kilometre before the lake, the trail opened up to a lovely meadow where you feel so close to the mountains that you can reach out and touch them.
We followed the semi-frozen lake on the left shoreline before we started climbing up through the trees. Nothing out of the ordinary here with the usual route finding.
Coming across a trio of white ptarmigan, we stopped to watch them for awhile before we continuing up through a very snowy section to a valley that separated Gusty Peak and The Fortress. The wind had picked up and we moved as quickly as we could in ankle to knee deep snow. At one point Laurent got his foot stuck in between rocks, and he couldn’t move.
This was probably the sign that we should turn around. But we were hopeful because it was still early in the day, and we could endure soggy feet for a few hours.
We spotted random cairns along the way so we knew we were headed in the right direction. Then suddenly we weren’t. It was after about 10 minutes trudging up deep snow that I decided to look at the map. We were about 500 metres off the trail.
This was frustrating to say the least. We regrouped and decided to head down to see where we went off track. This was not fun because we all kept slipping or sliding. Once we reached the valley we realized we had began our ascent too soon, and missed a cairn.
By now the sky had turned overcast and high winds had blown in reducing visibility. I wasn’t very motivated to hike up through the snow again so we decided to turn around.
Gusty Peak can wait until next spring.
Normally not reaching the peak would annoy me but I was happy to get out with friends and explore this area. I knew because of the recent snowfall there would be a strong possibility we wouldn’t summit (maybe I should invest in snowshoes again.)
I’ve never been in this area before and I am excited about all the possibilities – the Fortress and Chester Mountain to name a few.