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Awesomely Absurd Peak Bagging and Alpine Swimming Trip to the Howe Sound Crest Trail · Sat. Aug. 5th, 2017 - Mon. Aug. 7th, 2017

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Organized by: Nathan Starzynski.

Start: Saturday, Aug. 5th, 4:00 pm
End: Monday, Aug. 7th, 10:00 pm
Pre-trip meeting: Thursday, Aug. 3rd, 7:30 pm
Pre-trip meeting location: clubroom

Description:

AKA BC Day long weekend hiking and scrambling on one of the most incredible and scenic trails in the province.

You will need to have a high degree of fitness to complete this hike. It will be beginner friendly in the sense that we won't leave you behind. Group size will be limited to minimize impact on the trail and other trail users. If there is significant interest, we can split into two groups or two weekends.

The HSCT starts at Cypress Mountain Resort, and ends at Porteau Cove 30km to the North. We will be traveling through coastal forest, alpine ridges, talus slopes, and beside several lovely swimming lakes. After passing the well traveled sections at the South end, the trail becomes very rough and involves a healthy amount of ups and down, sometimes scrambling small cliffs and descending using fixed ropes. Despite losing 800 metres of elevation to the parking lot at the end, the total elevation gain just on the trail going North is close to 1600m. 

In addition to all the summits gained directly on the trail, there is also the opportunity for multiple side trips, some involving class 3 and 4 scrambling. Total possible summits for the peak bagging challenge is about 12, with each having an automatic multiplier of 1.58 if we have 10 people at the top.

Summit panorama from Mount Brunswick:

Likely, our itinerary will be to start hiking on Saturday afternoon, making our way into the alpine and camping in the vicinity of a tarn on Unnecessary Mountain. Day two will involve possible summits of the West Lion and Mt. Harvey, before camping close to Magnesia Meadows or Brunswick Lake. Day 3 will involve summits of Hat, Brunswick, and hopefully Hanover before the downhill to Porteau, and heading home. 

Check out this trip report from two years ago. Note that there is a lot more snow this year, and it is possible we may still be crossing some snow sections of trail. This also means that we will have less problems with finding water. http://www.ubc-voc.com/2015/07/11/howe-sound-crest-trail-team-slog

Howe Sound Crest Trail - VOC trip - June 2015 from James Webster on Vimeo.

Posted: 2017-07-16 15:29:42
Last modified: 2017-08-05 13:40:09