From the vault of the Bivouac.com files. Bivouac is run by my friend Robin Tivy and is worth subscribing to if you are into climbing mountains in North America, particularly Canada.
On the map, it seemed a really good idea. Start at Sawmill parking lot on the Smith Dorrien Highway and trek over to Highway 40 via unnamed (9,600 feet), Inflexible and Lawson. In practice, it's a very long trek and the rock is very loose. Nevertheless, we six and my much abused black Labrador, Kumo, left the Sawmill parking lot at 8.00 am on Saturday July 14 enroute to Highway 40. Almost immediately, we took the wrong trail and zigzagged through the forest for a time before deciding to head up a cut line to the open meadow. I knew, or thought I did, exactly where the trail descended from 9,600 having come down it just last spring after traversing the Mount Kent ridge. However, aluminium pots have taken their toll and nothing was recognisable. Maybe Kumo's idea of scent marking isn't so dumb after all. Soon enough we broke out of the trees to a wildflower dotted meadow. A slight 200 foot loss of elevation brought us to a small col, however, we still had a long way to go, so pressed on sans refreshment.
More meadow and talus slopes brought us to the summit of 9,600. There are good views over to James Walker, an infrequently climbed peak whose talus slope is every bit as loose as it looks. Just two years ago, Kumo had steadfastly refused to go an inch higher on the talus of James Walker and I had been forced to abandon him on a large boulder to pick up on my return. We stopped for a short break and added our names to the summit register before pressing on. On the map the slope down to the col to the west of Inflexible appears straightforward. However, after picking our way around numerous gendarmes we were forced to descend south east facing slopes to get around some intractable cliff bands. A short but loose climb brought us back up to the col below Inflexible. Another quick bite, and we were off again, this time easily climbing up sound slabs and talus to the summit of Inflexible. The summit register on Inflexible is a worthwhile read, mostly consisting of expletives against Alan Kane and his supposedly "straight forward connecting ridge to Mt. Lawson." Some went as far as to decry the honesty of all climbers!
We were undaunted however, and soon started off again for the final summit in the trio. In truth the connecting ridge to Lawson is not overly difficult. Coming from Inflexible there are a few short down climbs, and some stretches of hideously loose rubble. Conversely, there are also some nice solid slabs you can walk down. At one point we were forced to descend below the ridge to surmount a cliff band, and then strained back up dreadfully loose rubble in a two steps forward one step back fashion. Finally, we reached the last ridge to Mt Lawson and strolled to the summit. One last summit register to sign and we were off looking for the route down Mt. Lawson.
Unfortunately, we were a little to the north of the standard scramble route, on the wrong side of the snow gully. I'm not sure whether or not this made any difference as the entire face seems to be made up of precariously balanced boulders ready to hurtle down slope at the slightest provocation. There were definitely many "remote triggers" as boulders crashed down before we even approached them. Needless to say it was a trying descent at the end of a now 10 hour day. Eventually, we did reach the steep meadow at the base of the face. I had lost my watch on descent (a very old and battered but still functional Seiko dive watch, if you find it, please return it), there had been a minor hand injury from falling rock, and Kumo had whimpered like a poodle the entire way (or was that me?). There are some minor waterfalls and cliff bands to scramble around as you head down the drainage, some how they felt very tiresome as I now just wanted to plod. Once the drainage became too choked with vegetation to be passable we found an excellent flagged trail, but continuing the theme of the day we soon lost it and were forced to blunder haphazardly through the bush. Twelve long hours later we emerged on the Fortress ski area road and staggered back to the cars. The most positive comment I had from the others was "Well, it was a very different trip with lots of exploration."
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