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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
27 Sep 03 |
2:35 from
Hidden Lake |
0:20 to
Pika Col |
Thanks to my wife for tossing my digital camera into the Atlantic Ocean, and I wasn't able to find my SLR camera, all of these pictures are Paul's.
26 Sep 03 - Getting into Skoki is pretty easy... especially if you can
catch a ride to the Temple Lodge. Getting to the Temple Lodge should take about
an hour by foot, but if you are able to catch a ride from a "Ski Louise" worker,
then it will only take about 10 minutes. Also, from the Temple lodge, the trail
is rather flat, so it's a nice and easy hike to the Hidden Lake Campground. Once
you emerge from the trees coming into Skoki, you have a great view of Richardson (R),
Pika (PK), and Ptarmigan (PT). I think Richardson and Ptarmigan would make good ski
mountaineering objectives.
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27 Sep 03 - As usual, Paul and I got an early start from our campsite. We followed
the trail to Hidden Lake (about 30 minutes away) and that's when the morning twilight started
to make it's morning glow.
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27 Sep 03 - Once you reach Hidden Lake, circle around clockwise to gain the ridge
on your left. Here we see myself scrambling up the loose stuff. The further right you go,
the more technical the scrambling becomes. Pick your line based on your ability.
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27 Sep 03 - Here's a little bit more of the scrambling which leads to the ridge. This is
very typical terrain for this section.
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27 Sep 03 - By the time we reached the ridge, the sun was starting to cast it's alpinglow on the
Louise Group. Here we see Mts. Lefroy and Victoria in the sun, and Mt. Temple in the center of the picture.
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27 Sep 03 - Looking to the north, you can see Mt. Balfour, king of the Wapta.
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27 Sep 03 - Here is a closer look of Mts. Victoria and Lefroy.
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27 Sep 03 - Getting back to the slog up Richardson, shortly after you gain the ridge, you encounter
a bench, seen here. The bench suddenly turns into a scree face.
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27 Sep 03 - Here is the scree face, and this is where the slogging really begins. Mother Nature added
a little bit of snow just for that extra effort. Mother Nature thinks she has a good sense of humour, but I
don't really find her that funny.
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27 Sep 03 - Here we see Paul standing next to some hi-tech device which occupies the summit of Richardson.
If this is a repeater station, it's a pretty advanced one. It's got solar panels on all four sides. I wonder
what happens when the snowpack covers the panels. Hmmm.
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27 Sep 03 - There is a huge cairn on top of Richardson, which serves nicely for blocking the wind.
Although I was a bit nervous about the wind blowing the cairn over on top of me. I could read the headlines
now... Yankee scrambler crushed by summit cairn. By the way, we couldn't find the register. We even hiked
over to the west summit, but nothing over there either. After spending some time on Richardson, we then
went after Pika.
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