3 of us made use of the Mosaic gate key to have 3 nights around Red Pillar, Harmston and Argus. Dealing with logging road logistics to paddle a lake to access a mountain is an excellent Vancouver Island experience - the paddling part Rach and I hadn’t had the pleasure of before. Highly recommended.
Wildlife spotted on the approach included eagles, elk, owls, mosquitos, and more were identified by scat (cougar and bears). The trail was rough in places but well worth it once we emerged onto the ridge and found excellent tarns and heather to camp on at 1470m.
Saturday started in bright sunshine and we picked our way around the west side of Red Pillar linking as much snow as we could to access the Upper Cliffe Glacier, which was an easy glissade down from the Red Pillar North West shoulder, and provided some self arrest practice.
Red Pillar in Saturday morning sunshine, snow patches used to pick our way to west shoulder:
We had decided to attempt Harmston’s South West Ridge and mistakenly tried to access it directly from the toe of the Lower Cliffe Glacier. The creek draining from the Upper Cliffe Glacier to the Lower Cliffe Glacier is not recommended access. It goes but large blocks of moraine move with very little weight. We got through with minor bruises, anyone looking to access the Harmston South West ridge should travel over ridge bounding the west side of the Lower Cliffe Glacier and look for a more solid approach to the toe of the glacier/outflow creek. Photo below looking back up the wrong way to go. Mistakes were made, lessons learnt, please don’t repeat our mistakes.
We reached the Lower Cliffe Glacier slightly shaken up so changed plans and headed for the South East Ridge on Harmston. We left a pile of rope, gear, and spikey things at the bottom of the scree field and trudged up the scree slope off the Lower Cliffe Glacier to replenish supplies in the Harmston summit register. Congratulations to Brianna on making the grind for her last Island Qualifier.
Scree Ramp to Harmston South East Ridge:
Having enjoyed the excellent view on the summit we made returned to the Lower Cliffe Glacier and took the snow slope up to the shoulder of Argus on our return, a much better route.
Summit views:
On the way past it would have been rude not to enjoy the third class scramble up Argus’ West Ridge. This is excellent and not to be passed up if you are in the area. We were treated to more summit views similar to those on Harmston from Argus.
Snow slope off the Lower Cliffe Glacier:
Argus third class:
Whilst returning to camp a Ptarmigan and chicks were added to the wildlife spotting list for the trip.
We woke on Sunday above roiling valley cloud, excited to enjoy some of the excellent rock reported on Red Pillar’s East Ridge (5.6 in Island Alpine Climbing). We tool care not to disturb our family of Ptarmigan on the way past.
We descended from the base of the regular route looking for the notch in the east ridge with an obvious couloir that should be full of snow. We saw one feature which we thought matched the description, and had an excellent time kicking steps up the couloir. Maybe we had descended too far, or traversed too far around confusing a “North East Ridge” for an “East Ridge” (it is difficult to define ridges coming from a Pillar after all), we definitely missed the correct couloir, we found ourselves looking at Argus and the Upper Cliffe Glacier and after some debate at the top of the couloir decided to continue kicking steps around red pillar until we were able to enjoy a snack in the sunshine on a rock looking at the North Side of Red Pillar, with the views we missed the previous day.
steepest, thinnest section up “incorrect couloir”:
The views we had missed the previous day, snack rock in middle of frame:
After a snack, and much debate about where we had gone wrong, we headed for the West Ridge of Red Pillar. This was an excellent route with a couple of low fifth class moves, excellent scrambling, solid rock, amazing exposure and stunning views down to Tzela Lake.
West Ridge:
After a lengthy summit lunch we returned to camp and headed down the following day, with some more forest yoga, and an unbelievable paddle back across Oshinow Lake.
I will not be sad to go back another time to figure out where we went wrong looking for the east ridge and enjoy some of the other routes on Red Pillar.
Spot the tents.
Forest Yoga.
