At 6am on Saturday morning, while most of Vancouver was sleeping off Halloween party hangovers, 17 VOC members were donning costumes in preparation to scramble up Baby Munday (2210m). The group met around 9am at the base of a 4WD logging road. It was definitely the best dressed group to climb Baby Munday, and fortunately (or unfortunately…) everyone had prepared an outfit so no one was awarded a “Costume of Shame”.
After hiking the 3.9km (+540 elevation gain) road, we arrived at the trailhead. We had lucked out with the weather, it was a perfectly clear day and during the first hour (which was relatively flat) everyone seemed to enjoy the beautiful fall scenery.
Around 11am, we crossed a creek and the real scrambling began. For about 2 hours we climbed at what felt like a 70 degree angle through forest before hitting snow. At around 1pm we emerged from the forest and stopped for a 15 minute lunch where we had a gorgeous view of the mountains. The group hiked for another hour, when we started to realize we were running short on time.
As we continued, some fog settled in and it became icier than anticipated. When we got near to the peak, it started to feel slightly dangerous as we were climbing in a line and loose rocks and ice were falling down. In the end only five people climbed to the very peak, but didn’t get a great view because of the fog.
We turned around at about 3pm, and the fog lifted 10 minutes later, enabling us to see another summit we could have easily climbed. But everyone was still in high spirits and enjoyed running/sliding down through the fresh powder.
It took us about the same amount of time descending as going up through the forest, and by the time the group returned to the flat trail the sun was just setting. We were back at the cars around 8pm.
This was a first VOC trip for many people (including myself), and the first time seeing snow for a few people! Despite not being able to walk the day after, I really enjoyed the trip and think everyone else did too.