I did Unnecessary Mountian for the first time ever and it didn’t disappoint. The views were crazy good. Took around 4 hours to get there.

Great conditions to go up Mount Cook. I think the trail is pretty straightforward and easy to follow with all the cairns and footpaths. The scree climbing the ridge is looser than my morals and it is a pain up and down. We also did a part of the Armchair Traverse and around the lake. 11h22min c2c, 22km 2138m vert.

There have been numerous posts in here, and on the local FB groups, asking about smoke conditions on various hikes.

The amount of smoke in a given area changes hourly, so asking conditions questions is very unlikely to be helpful. What one person experiences today will not be what you experience tomorrow.

Use this link to check smoke forecasts:

https://wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca/map

If you're unsure what it would visibly look like to hike in yellow/orange/red smoke layers, I recommend using the webcams at various mountain resorts including Cypress, Seymour, Grouse, Whistler, and Manning.

Look at the date and time stamp on the smoke map and compare it to the same time and date as a webcam to get an idea of what you're likely to see.

Photos posted are an example at Grouse from this past weekend.

This past weekend was my first two-night backpacking trip and I am pleased to say it was my best yet :)

My intention over the summer has been to build up experience and fitness for the daunting goal of a double HSCT (out-and-back from Cypress) over 3 days. I wanted to get a feel for the time with significantly more resources available before attempting something as wild as the HSCT.

Day 1: Got rolling on Singing Pass shortly before 9:00 am and enjoyed the slow ascent with mixed rain, cloud cover, and breaks of sunlight. The slight hint of smoke came across my nose a couple times and the haze was apparent but fortunately the smell didn't linger and breathing was easy throughout. Arrived at Russet Lake around 12:30 pm, crushed a couple chicken salad sandwiches, made camp, and prepped my vest for Overlord. After a crazy windy tent assembly, I held off for some sunshine and was rewarded for my patience. The sun beamed from behind scattered clouds as I began the ascent at 2:00 pm.

As I put the campsite behind me, the landscape changed dramatically and I quickly found myself feeling like I was trekking across a whole other planet. The clinking rocks and the small plants that jutted out from them seemed like something from a sci-fi novel. Feeling strong and inspired, Whirlwind Peak arrived within an hour and a half and Overlord tempted me from the distance. Making my way down and onto the ridge, things started to feel off. My way-finding was tested; extra caution and plenty of backtracking made the scramble significantly longer than if I had someone who knew the route. I plodded up to a high point on the ridge and clocked my time at 3 hours: 5:00 pm with 1 km left on the trail. With no way of knowing how long this last section would take and feeling particularly careful, I made the tough call and headed back to camp. The return trip was mercifully zippy and fun and my campsite greeted me at 7:30 pm. It felt damn good to sit and give my toes some air.

Stats – Distance: 25 km, Elevation: 2219 m, Time: 8 hours 32 minutes.

Day 2: Woke up less sore than I anticipated and was ready to enjoy a more scenic jaunt. My loop was planned for 22km from Russet to the Whistler gondola via the High Note trail. The sun was on full shine and I enjoyed the chance to bomb some downhills across Musical Bumps and saunter on the groomed track. The High Note eventually became flooded with tourists headed in the opposing direction which slowed my climb but my good mood refused to fade as my sunburnt lips greeted each passing hiker with a goofy smile and a "Good Morning!". Arrived at the Skybridge in less than 3 hours. I caught wind of the chance to enjoy an overpriced burger at a lodge and I decided to detour for an extended lunch break. My deviation ended up adding 5 km as I meandered around Whistler trying to reconnect with my planned route. C'est la vie. I landed back at camp around 6:30 and oh boy that trail ramen hit right as I looked at the thick salt line that had accumulated on my tee.

Stats – Distance: 28 km, Elevation: 1661 m, Time: 7 hours 10 minutes

Day 3: Not much to tell on the descent down Singing Pass, my legs held strong after the two days of silliness and the moderate downhill slope was exactly what I needed to close out the trip. The monotony gave me the chance to reflect on the experiences, cataloging the moments to hold, learn from, and treasure.

Stats – Distance: 15 km, Elevation: 0 m, Time: 3 hours 12 minutes

Total Stats – Distance: 68 km, Elevation: 3880 m, Time on Feet: 18 hours, 54 minutes

WARNING: Alpine climbing and scrambling are inherently dangerous activities! Hazards include rockfall, YGD-level exposure, alpine weather, gear failure, choosing the wrong line, snow travel, and more.

You should have at least six climbs worth of mountaineering, alpine climbing, or class 4 scrambling experience before attempting this route. Helmets, ice axes, leather gloves, and emergency bivy gear are MANDATORY!

Other gear like rope, harnesses, belay devices, trad gear, and slings/cord are optional but highly recommended. We climbed past the site of a cliffside rescue where two climbers had to be airlifted off the mountain after a rappelling accident earlier this year.

The Route Plan:

We chose to follow the route described in Alpine Select by Kevin McLane for the S Ridge/S Col from Berg Lake (route 3). He describes this route as “low-5th" which usually means 4th class, but we failed to notice that the S Col route from Pendant Lake is described as "mid-5th” which usually means low-5th under his arbitrary (over-)grading system. (It was definitely low-5th between the Col and the Summit)

We also downloaded Steven Song's GPX track from his trip report in 2019 to have available off-line, even though we didn't plan to use it. Song confessed to having done “zero homework" and taking "a side-hilling traverse with a lot of scrambling on unstable talus” for his climb from Berg to the Ridge, which sounded unpleasant for him and downright dangerous for anyone else.

The Trip:

Day 1 (2026/08/15) - We hiked up to Berg Lake on Saturday from Chance FSR to spend the night. The road in was fine until we got just below C-1100 and it became too overgrown for my friend’s crossover, so we hiked the rest of the way up the road from there.

The hike in was lovely, despite the added weight of overnight gear, a bear can, and our technical gear. Views from the lake were splendid! We camped along the north end of the lake to be in better position for the following day’s ascent.

While eating dinner just before sunset, we noticed a party of 2 (red jacket & blue jacket) without ice axes or helmets having extreme difficulty navigating a moat and then descending the Steven Song route towards the Berg Lake outflow. We were worried we were going to have to call SAR, but after 1.5 hours they eventually reached the outflow and we breathed a sigh of relief.

“Why would anyone take the Steven Song route?!" became a constant refrain and inside joke between us for the remainder of the trip, lol.

Day 2 (2026/08/16) - Ascent - We awoke early, had breakfast, then departed camp at 0700. We climbed through alpine heather and use trails to the top of the bluff before encountering a large terminal moraine from an extinct glacier.

We rock hopped across large boulders to the turnoff for our route along a wide chossy bench with a snowfield. Above the snowfield, we consulted Alpine Select before choosing a gentle gully between two small cliff bands to ascend to the ramp.

To climber's right of the Cirque we discovered a beautiful, hidden class 3 ramp between class 5 walls that led us up to the the ridge. From the top of the ridge, we followed the ridgeline up until just below the large gendarme.

There we routed west (climber's left) along steep benches and slabs to get to the talus field below the col. We scrambled up the talus to get to the notch-like col, where we spotted an emergency bivy bag on the other side from the rescue earlier in the year.

Above the notch is the crux of the S Col route, which required some seriously exposed low-5th moves to get up the first bench. We spotted and cleaned some rappel tat here and discussed turning around. We chose to keep going up, but to descend via the SW Face instead of down-climbing this technical section.

There's a fin of rock above the crux that we initially climbed to the right only to discover another mid-5th gendarme blocking our way. We descended and skirted around the fin to the left and found a nice chimney just behind the gendarme.

After negotiating this exposed section with a cliff below, we were able to follow the ridgeline the rest of the way to the intersection with the SW Face route. From there, it was a fairly easy scramble up to the true summit. What an amazing view!

Descent - We followed use trails and talus fields down the SW Face until we got to 1950m MSL. There we began cutting skier’s left across slabby benches towards the S Ridge. We crossed a few talus fields and skirted through the upper moat of a snowfield, using our ice axes for handholds (mixed climbing? Lol).

Beyond the moat, we chose a broken section between slabs to ascend to the ridgeline. The last section got steep and crimpy, so I topped out and threw my sling around a solid rock horn before tossing a handline down to my partner. It gave her just enough confidence to top out on the ridge.

From there, we easily followed our original ascent route down the “Thank God for Kevin McLane" ramp and back to the lake. I had some fun boot skiing (standing glissading) down the snow field on the wide bench before my feet slid out from under me and I got to practice my ice axe self-arrest skills.

Summary:

All-in-all, a very good day and an amazing trip :) 10/10 would do this route again, only with a half-rope and some trad gear for added safety. Next year we’ll try the N Ridge and probably take the S Col route down to Berg.

Have fun, stay safe, and make good choices!

Oh, and why would anyone take the Steven Song route?!?!

Resources:

Our GPX route from Berg Lake

Alpine Select by Kevin McLane (2023), Pages 318-323 “Tricouni"

Scrambles in SWBC by Matt Gunn (2005), Pages 56-57 "Tricouni Peak”

“Tricouni Peak” (2019), Trip Report by Steven Song where he did “zero homework"

Edit: sorry y'all I meant to say Ring lake, not cirque, that was for another trip.

Last week I had the pleasure of hiking in the Callaghan park. The original goal of the trip was to get to Ring Lake via the journeyman lodge/Conflict Lake, and do a bit of trail exploring.

The first 12km of the trail goes through a wooded area, the trail is marked with orange plastic strips on tree branches and a few lozanges on trunks. It's quite nice, not too steep with about 200m of elevation.

While it is grizzly territory, there are also a few black bears in the area and we in fact saw a young adult black bear in very good shape, so be bear conscious as you hike to Conflict Lake.

Once you arrive at the lake, you'll find the path to go to the Journeyman Lodge to then left, which then goes around Conflict Lake to Ring Lake. There is also a trail that goes to the right side of the lake, but it was not well marked and quite hard to find, sometimes it was just a trail of broken grass and not a full path. The lake is beautiful, just don't forget your anti-bug spray as always. There are a few wood bridges along that trail that are in different stages of disrepair.

Whichever path you take, it will merge back together after Conflict Lake, and you'll go to your right to Ring Lake via the Ring Lake trail. It will get much steeper as you hike up the side of the mountain and leave the meadow behind. We found it a bit muddy but beautiful. There is a river crossing with a yellow rope to use as a helper. It looked a bit frayed so I wouldn't put my weight on it, but just use it as a visual guide as to where to cross. Right after the river crossing there is a wooden ladder to hep you climb up to the trail, I wouldn't trust that one either, it wasn't very stable.

After that you'll have about 500m of elevation left and only a few kilometers in a dense forest up to the lake.

That is when we had to turn back due to unforseen personal circumstances but I am still publishing this trail report for those wanting to go to Ring Lake.