The Old Settler
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- The Old Settler, elevation 2132 m, is the highest mountain in the southernmost part of Lillooet Ranges of the Coastal Mountains in BC Canada, located between the Fraser Canyon E and Harrison Lake W to the northeast of the town of Agassiz. It is not extremely remote, but the access used to be difficult due to a locked gate at the beginning of the FSR.
I met my friend in Coquitlam at 4am on Saturday and then drove to Harrison Lake, from which it took us another 1.5 hours to the trailhead. To reach where we parked, you need a 4x4 with high clearance. Since we knew it would be very buggy, we sprayed bug spray all over ourselves including the backpacks. Then we started the bushwhacking, which was not bad. We basically followed the route with flags, but the morning dew on the grass as high as to our necks soon made our pants and layers wet. After 1 hour and 10 minutes bushwhacking, we got to a creek bed with no more marks. We hiked up and then turned to the left into the steep terrains with annoying bushwhacking. We soon crossed another creek bed. It was so steep that my friend slipped several times. Luckily we found a goat path, which allowed us to side hill for a while. We then gained a bit more elevation before having a bad bushwhacking down a steep hill to Daiphy Lake. I checked my watch. It only took us 1 hour and 55 minutes to get to the lake. Oh boy, the lake was covered with mosquitoes! They were so hungry that they ran into our pants, ears, noses… I got bitten in
my face, shoulders, arms and legs though I sprayed the bug spray all over a 2nd time. We walked around the lake to the bottom of the boulder area, and had our first lengthy break. The boulder area is long and steep; but it did not seem to take long before we found the traverse gully on the right. Most of the traverse on the steep hill is scree. We took the gully on the far right to the bottom of the Middle Peak. The scrambling started with Class 3 with moderate exposure. After we got to the top of the bump, we then walked down to a very exposed path, a ledge with loose rocks to the peak area. We carefully moved each step and climbed to the top. After a few minutes’ walk, we were at the top. Very hazy unfortunately. We took some pictures, had our snacks and drank some water, then we climbed down. We walked to the base of the true summit. The first part of the climb is a vertical wall with good hand holds. This is a no fall zone. A fall here is deadly. We carefully removed some loose rocks, tried each hand hold and foot step before moving up. Once above the crux, it is nothing but a walk to the peak. Again, it was very hazy. We had a good break at the top. It was time to go back. At the crux we took our time to climb down carefully. No mistake should be made here. Once we were back to the col, we had another break. Then it was time to go down the steep ramp with tons of loose rocks, many of which are huge. This is a dangerous slope, as you can easily kick off those rocks, which will carry more rocks down the steep slope. The Old Settler is not an objective for a big group. At many points, I needed to wait till my friend got to a safe location before I moved. Still many rocks flew over from our feet. The heat from the rocks made us tired. It was very hot. When we got back to Daiphy Lake, I refilled my water bottles at a small creek. I had a 40 minutes’ break while my friend jumped into the lake and had a good swim. It was time to bushwhack to our truck. We tried a different route, which started nicely but soon ended up with terrible bushwhacking. Luckily it did not last long before we found a trail thing. We followed it for a while into a meadow area with high grass. Soon we found the flagged route. For some reason, we missed the route several times and ended up with very annoying bushwhacking. C2C 10 hours 50 minutes including all breaks. Totally 12.8 kilometers with 1349 meters of elevation gain.
What a conquer, bravo!
Amazing ❤
Excellent! I'm glad you made it safely.
Way to go Boys!