Made a quick rip up to the Saddle Mountain Lookout following my hike of Mount Fosthall the previous day. Planned on driving home that same day, so considering the long commute ahead, just a half-day outing would do. From where I had "freedom camped" the night before near McDonald Creek Provincial Park (east), some 12 kilometres south of Nakusp, Saddle and the slightly lower south summit, where the historic lookout is located, are hard to miss. After preparing a quick cup of joe, I packed up my car camp and made a beeline for the Arrow Park Ferry.

Once on the other side of the lake, I continued up the aptly named Saddle Mountain Road for about 10 kilometres before taking a left fork onto the equally aptly named Lookout Road. I followed this to its end, yet again happy I had a capable 4x4 at my disposal, allowing me to reach the uppermost trailhead. Boots on, then up the trail for a very civilized 3.7 kilometres to the summit lookout. The trail switchbacks endlessly before rising above treeline shortly below the craggy summit block, from where an outstanding view of Arrow Lake reveals itself.

The trail then continues just below Saddle's imposing East Face to reach a saddle just south of the summit block. Turning right here, a short scamper up the south ridge leads to the broad summit area where the lookout is located. I was the only one up there at first, although I was soon joined by a twosome shortly before heading back down. Pretty incredible views for such an otherwise unassuming peak. Not terribly familiar with what I was looking at, although I was at least reasonably sure I could identify the Pinnacle-Mount Severide group to the west and a crest of high peaks stretching from Mount Fosthall to Mount Odin looking north. I see you Odin!

The highlight, as one might expect, was the outstanding panorama of Arrow Lake, stretching from around Nakusp to the north towards the Needles Cable Ferry area down south, where I was headed next. In truth, I considered remaining on the west side of the lake rather than taking the Arrow Park Ferry across yet again, only to then take the Needles Ferry back to the other side one last time. But I'm pretty sure doing this was significantly faster than navigating the forest service roads over to Highway 6, which I'd be taking on my way home.

All in all, a great little jaunt if you happen to be in the area and need a shorty to round out the weekend!

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Back to the Monashees, this time for Mount Fosthall, following the shorter east-side approach via Sol Mountain Lodge. Treeline start, very civilized stats, all trail and well marked, most of it can be dispatched by MTB—it doesn't get any more Type 1 than this! To paraphrase, it's nice to change things up and play the "tourist" every once in a while.

Drive/FSR - Starting from near the end of Hwy 23, just before the Shelter Bay ferry ramp, it's a rather long haul to the Sol Mountain Lodge day-use parking area (about 49 km). That said, most of it is smooth gravel, with just a bit of looser/rockier driving towards the end—nothing that requires clearance per se.

Approach - Hopped on the bike for the remaining 1.6 km to the lodge itself, then onto the single-track heading for the Monashee PP boundary. Bit of a maze of trails here, but I was following another party with the same objective as me. Haven't been as much into MTBing in recent years as I normally am and struggled to keep up with the dad and his two daughters leading the way. Just as I began seriously contemplating ditching the bike and continuing on foot, over the bars I go, sealing the deal once and for all. Pleasant hike with some minor ups n' downs from there to the junction south of South Cariboo Pass, where the "ascent" really begins.

Finale - Up below the SE Face, following a worn path and cairns to reach the South Ridge. Then an interminable slog up the crest to reach the summit. No scrambling to speak of, but very nice views, particularly looking north towards the Odin and Blanket groups. Little over 3 hrs up.

Back to the bike stash and then the trailhead sans endo this time, continuing towards the Arrow Park Ferry landing for a critical "resupply" in Nakusp before freedom camping somewhere nearby for the night. Quick rip up to the Saddle Mountain Lookout the next morning before the long drive back home!

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Typically bagged in the Spring, Joanne, Ling and I decided to go for this at the peak of summer coz, well, it's there and none of us have climbed it before. For me, the trip checked several boxes—finally completing the loop via the In-SHUCK-ch FSR from Pemberton southwards to Harrison Lake and beyond, overlooking said lake from a dramatic vantage point directly north of its head, and taking in the views of peaks, glaciers and valleys I've largely not laid eyes upon yet. Perusing a topo of the area, it doesn't take much imagination to appreciate how good the views from the summit are. The peak is practically an island in the sky, with wide and deep river valleys encircling it to the north, east and west.

Drive/FSR - In-SHUCK-ch to the Fire Lake FSR and beyond to the log sort area at the north end of Harrison Lake in great shape, and FL1210 suitable for all SUVs to the cutblock at its end. Continuing south via Harrison West FSR didn't seem as bad as expected, with just one shortish section where the road was a bit rough - should be navigable with an SUV and careful driving. Do note that it's a LONG, windy haul continuing south, so bring your patience.

Approach - The decision to tackle Fire this time of year was also in part motivated by reports which suggested that the initial forest ascent isn't too bushy without snow. Come spring, this portion typically isn't ascended with snow anyway, so no harm there. We were generally following others' GPX tracks, which was mostly steep duff followed by blueberry bushes the higher we got. Once gaining the crest of the ESE Spur, roughly at treeline, we expected generally open terrain and easier travel, which mostly held true. All told, the bush wasn't too bad on the ascent, somewhat worse on the descent as we lost our track for a bit, but for a bushwhacking lightweight such as myself, I found it not too terribly unpleasant. YMMV.

Ascent - With our peak finally in view, we dropped a bit right of the ridge proper and made a slightly descending traverse, following benches and heather slopes to a small (upper) lake nestled below the SE Face. Up a short grassy spur at right, aiming for a small basin from which a diagonal talus ramp/gully feature provides easy access to the upper snow bowl. A bit of easy scrambling up to the left here to reach the crest, with the summit now just a short stroll away.

The views, of course, are great, but most unexpected for me was the undeniably volcanic appearance of the summit area, and particularly the large caldera-like basin to the northwest. It's almost as if an eruption blew out to the NE, leaving the remaining crater rim to the west and south. This may be supported by the name itself, although I can find no information describing the geologic nature of the peak. There are also hot springs nearby, so perhaps my theory isn't too far-fetched...

Just under 4.5 hours up, with about 1.5 hrs on top, for a 9-ish hour day. Big thanks to Joanne for doing all the driving on this one!

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The Pinnacles are a compact subrange of the Monashee Mountains directly east of Vernon, BC. It has long been an objective of mine to visit the Monashees, something different and not too terribly far from Vancouver. With marginal weather forecast for much of the South Coast, the time was right to go make good on this plan.

Drove out to Cherryville the afternoon before, calling it a night at a pleasant (paid) campground for a change—Route 6 Campground—nice folks. Note that the Cherryville Rec Site is day use only. On the road first thing in the AM for the short drive to where the FSR forks off from the highway. FSR in excellent shape, 2WD-friendly for the entire ~20 km to the trailhead.

Trail from there to the alpine by Monashee Lake is likewise in great shape, marked, well travelled and maintained by some Vernon-based organization. A couple of kms of beautiful cedar old-growth forest soon give way to a neat stretch of alder tunnels before reaching the base of a large headwall guarding the lake basin above. Trail crosses the creek several times, leaving one guessing what side of the headwall it follows (looker's left). Finally, a steep grunt up a wash and beyond to reach the "hanging" Monashee Lake.

Continued towards the other large lake up there, directly below Middle Pinnacle, before turning up towards terraced slabs above. Soon reached a snowfield (glacial remnant) between the peaks, turning left now to gain the NW Shoulder (occasional cairns). Up as high as made practical sense before traversing a talus slope across the North Face, aiming for the base of a prominent gully that affords a reasonable route up to the summit. Ditched the poles and proceeded up the gully, finding mainly 3rd-class scrambling on relatively decent rock before it makes a short dogleg to the left. Here the gully became quite loose, and I took to the rib at left to avoid this for the final bit to the summit proper. Moderate exposure but beware party-induced rockfall if others are present. Axe and 'pons once again as training weight.

A very casual 4 hours up, making sure to take it slow to time my arrival on the summit to coincide with the forecasted midday clearing. Heavy clouds to the west and north, but a mix to the east and south. Saw a couple of others out on the summits of both Middle and, a bit later, South. Curiously, slightly higher Mt. Severide, a mere ~3 km as the crow flies to the NNW, remained in cloud almost all day.

Great first taste of the Monashees. There will be more to come, I'm sure.

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Always been a bit curious about this one. A major icefield, reasonably close to a major metropolitan area, almost entirely encircled by forest service roads and the source of most of the water feeding the mighty Squamish River. Yes, the Pemberton Icefield is frequently traversed by snowmobiles in the winter, but summertime access is another story entirely. When tales of a rough trail into the zone starting from the literal end of the Squamish Main FSR began emerging, I knew I needed to pounce before the road heaven forbid got washed out again!

Our original plan was for Numbers Peak, initially as an overnighter, but we compressed it into a one-dayer due to a deteriorating weather forecast for our second day. Together with Gina and Ling, we decided to go anyway and see how far we could get. Either way, the views certainly wouldn't disappoint. We ended up calling it at the base of the peak, as time was getting away from us and I was starting to get a faint whiff of a sufferfest in the making. At our average pace, I'd conservatively guestimate another four hours round trip from that point, making for a 14-to-15-hour day and at least 2,100 m of gain (~6900 feet). Note that we did burn an hour-plus faffing about checking out the glacier snout and poking around on Little Ring as a consolation, bringing our total to 11 hours.

FSR/Drive - The Squamish FSR was in decent shape all the way to the end, all things considered, with a few water bars but nothing an SUV should have much trouble with. We parked at the drivable end of S-913, right before a giant split log spanning the road. Much to our surprise, there were already two other vehicles parked there.

Approach - We initially got suckered by some blue flagging leading off to the left and up into the forest, spending the next while making an ascending, semi-bushwhacky traverse before eventually intersecting the "proper" pink-flagged route. I don't recommend repeating this.

We did much better on the return, so here's the skinny: proceed past the split log to the very top of the cutblock beyond. There are numerous ribbons around the trees here, although it's impossible to tell whether they're intended to mark the route or simply delineate the periphery of the cutblock (likely the latter). Either way, go on faith and proceed up and right until reaching the edge of a significant creek/ravine (McKenzie Creek?). Follow the edge upward and, in short order, you'll locate the ribbons. They can be difficult to spot at times, but rest assured they're there.

The route is essentially a flagged bushwhack—mostly through blueberry bushes—rather than a trail per se. The ribbon route generally keeps the creek within earshot as it continues up and right for much of the approach, eventually leaving the creek area as treeline approaches. Here it makes a sharp jog to the left toward a minor boulder field, which can then be easily followed upward into the alpine below Little Ring.

Alpine - Getting around Little Ring is a pain. You have to go up and over the east shoulder, and my instinct was to minimize the elevation gain/loss as much as possible. Unfortunately, traversing all that loose volcanic choss proved far more tedious than expected. We eventually opted for a gully where the footing was better, topping out on the shoulder more than 100 m higher than originally planned. From there came a soul-crushing 300 m descent to the flats below Numbers' west slopes. We called it here.

The route we had in mind traverses up and left from this point across vegetated and somewhat steep slopes, as described in Stephen Robs' 2024 report posted to the SSWBC Group on FB. I'm thinking spikes would be helpful for what appears to be a long and likely greasy traverse—not something I'd be particularly happy about in wet conditions.

We encountered a party of two returning from exploring the glacier snout; they had spent the previous night camped at the large lake ESE of Little Ring. We later encountered another group of three farting around below Little Ring, with, unbelievably, a small wiener dog or similar breed in tow. How that poor thing managed to make it through all that bush and rough terrain is a mystery to me.

Famine Peak, just beyond Numbers, somehow caught my eye while we were up there. Might make for a neat overnighter once the memories of the interminable drive up the FSR and approach thrash have faded a bit!

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