Cirque Peak - North Ridge, August 2009
With soreness in the legs only just developing from the previous day's Ashlu climb, Eli and I got a lazy afternoon start from North Vancouver. We selected the North Ridge of Cirque Peak from Matt Gunn's Scrambles Guide as our next objective as it looked to us to be one of the more aesthetic, if not challenging (and loose) scrambles in the guide. The peak also lies in an area of mountains near Pemberton, BC neither of us had visited before. The idea of 'discovering' yet another perspective on the Coast Mountains was exciting to us. The fact that Cirque Peak seemed to offer a fun ridge climb with great position was an added bonus.
But first we had to get to the trailhead. After a longer than expected drive, we finally finished packing the gear and shouldered our packs around 3:30 pm. The standard parking area described in the guide is still in the same rough location, but seems to have been enlarged and paved since publication. Unsure if we were starting in the right place, the idea is to walk the dirt road immediately north of the paved parking area to a gate with railroad tracks just beyond. We crossed the tracks and continued past the gate on the opposite side. Carefully following the approach description per the guide from this point on, we located the trail and started the grunt up towards beautiful Place Falls. (more...)
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