Statistics
Distance: 27 km
Elevation Gain: 1500 m
C2C Time: 7.5 hours
June 16th, 2024
Mineral Peak (elev. 1474 m) is a rarely ascended peak perched high above Britannia Beach. It first aroused my attention while perusing maps two years ago while researching the Mountain Lake Hut area. I finally got the chance to hike this peak this past weekend.
With snow still lurking up high in the mountains and less than stellar weather in the forecast, Mineral Peak seemed like the obvious choice. We started at “km 2” on Copper Drive (the main road from Britania Beach) which is closer to 4 km from the highway. There is a hefty gate here which inhibits all future vehicular progress. This is most unfortunate as the next 11 km are painstakingly spent trodding along a well graded logging road.
Closed? Not for Me!
I would recommend bringing bikes as the grade is never too steep and there is a surprising lack of baby heads (as is all too common on Furry Creek FSR, the route to Mountain Lake). The route follows Copper Drive which merges onto Britannia Creek FSR ~2.5 kilometers up. ~6 kilometers up you veer right and down onto Jane Basin Road. From here the road is followed up to its highpoint on the ridge due East of Mineral Peak, past the gloryholes in Jane Basin (more on that later). From here the summit is easily ascended by following the ridge through open to medium dense forest. There is one small false summit that must be climbed up and over on route to the peak.
Tropical Waterfall!
Nice Swimming Hole if Only it was a Little Warmer.
We passed creeks, gravel, trees, the old Mt. Sheer townsite, more creeks, more trees, and did I mention, more creeks! The two bridges along the way have recently been redone and the road has been regraded which makes me wonder what they are planning on doing (hopefully nothing nefarious). This whole area is rich in history, and I heavily recommend the supplemental reading below for all those mining, geological, and environmental engineers who want to get their rocks off.
Remediation work completed to date:
History of Britannia Beach:
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/gc/article/view/18783/20600
Gloryholes as Far as the Eye Can See.
East Fairview Gloryhole
If those don’t do it one could always visit the glory holes in Jane basin, with the biggest, East Bluff Glory hole being able to satisfy even the most perverted freaks1. From here we continued our travel on the road ending at the top of East Fairview Gloryhole. We dove into the forest quickly stumbling upon a half buried mine entrance.
Sneaky Little Mine
We continued on up, with the snowpack getting thicker and thicker. The snow provided a welcome relief from the bush, except for those devious postholes, reaching all the way up to the hip. After what was seemingly an eternity we peaked out on the top. Our view, the lovely clouds smothering us from above. We ate lunch and constructed a nice cairn. To our surprise it started snowing, but it did not stick for the most part. We quickly descended the way we came, powering down the eternal logging road.
New Cairn.
While this might not be the nicest objective for the normal folks, it might have some redeeming qualities for all you little rock and mine loving weirdos. Goodbye for now, and make sure to stay your 
selves.
Signed Marko
- The underlain sentence was written in jest; the author does not recommend sticking biologically vulnerable body parts into copper mine tailings.
Your trip reports are always so good Marko, keep it up. As for the plans for the old townsite etc. I did some work up there with invasive plants last summer and have a bit of intel – they’re planning on excavating the whole area (full of some dangerous metal scraps and gross noxious chemicals etc.) and dumping all of that into some pit elsewhere up there. They were pretty choked to find out from my company though that this site is covered in the worst and biggest Japanese Knotweed infestation any of us have ever seen, which is a plant that is almost impossible to get rid of, and there are very specific guidelines behind its removal (aka cannot be dumped into random giant pit). Normally treated with many rounds of lovely herbicide (by yours truly), Knotweed can also be excavated but its root mass is so dense that you’d need to excavate 3 metres around and 10 metres down for effective eradication. Anyways, I’ll stop yapping now, but I’ll be curious if the public ever gets to hear more about the site, knotweed or otherwise.
Now this is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to find. Thanks Sonia! Goddam those are some deep roots. Even more crazy to think that it is thriving on polluted soil. I can’t help but be a little impressed…..ultimate Supervillain behavior right there.