Saturday, August 23, 2008

Mt Loki at Last



Finally, a day to climb Mt Loki. I've mentioned this peak a few times in my blogs - a West Kootenay classic, easily visible and prominent across Kootenay Lake from Kaslo and one I've wanted to climb ever since we moved out here.

A small group from town decided to "do" the peak today so I got my neighbour to come along with me and we headed over last evening. In typical form, we took the ferry across the lake, drove up the FSR on the east side of the lake and followed the Portman Creek FSR to the top. This recently developed route eliminates hundreds of meters of sweaty elevation gain. After a quiet and cool night in the woods way above Kootenay Lake, and some breakfast, Bob and I started off. The rest of the group would be some ways behind us, having only left Kaslo early in the morning to catch the first ferry across the lake.

In about 2 hours, the peak was well in view, but it was nearly 4.5 hours to the summit, with some wandering around here and there searching for the best route through all the rubble and the rock bands and false summits.

This day there were 10 people summiting as well as one dog. I'd rate the difficulty as a mild moderate. There is some mild exposure, some route finding, some easy slabs and lots of elevation gain.

After lunch on the top, we headed down, taking 3.5 hours back to the truck, in lots of time to zip back down the hill and on to the ferry at Kootenay Bay, getting us back home in time for a beer and supper.

Pictures of the day can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.mcc51/MtLoki

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congrats!