Phillips Ridge, Golden Hinde

Golden Hinde, Phillips Ridge

Sept 28-30, 2024

3340M Elevation Gain And Descent

59KM Total

50H 38M C2C

Phillips Ridge - 1730M

310M Prominence

49.597057 -125.680688

Sept 28, 2024

Phillips Ridge is quite evidently just the high point on the ridge. It is marked as a summit on most maps though, as the ridge itself is quite prominent. There is really nothing to say about this point in the route, we took a few minutes and maybe a snack break and kept on our way.

Golden Hinde - 2197M

2197M Prominence

49.662507 -125.747135

Sept 29, 2024

On the last weekend in September Tyler and I set out to climb the highest peak on Vancouver Island. We got off to a bit of a rough start by narrowly missing the second last ferry from Powell River on Friday night. We ended up having to catch the 8:45 and we ended up getting to the trailhead after midnight and not falling asleep until after 1AM. Because of this, we got a bit of a late start to the morning and we ended up hitting the trail around 8AM. Our route would be the more commonly hiked route from the Myra falls Trailhead in the Westmin mine and up along Phillips ridge. We made good time on the way up, and the weather was nice and cool as it should be for this time of year. After roughly 2 hours we had made it past the million switchbacks and were up at Arnica Lake. We kept at it and eventually started to make our way up to the relentless Phillips ridge. We stopped for a few Snack breaks and a lunch break along the ridge, but never stopped for too long as the temperature caught up to you very quickly when you stopped moving. We went up and over Phillips ridge summit as it was one of the many many bumps along the ridge that the route required going over. The ridge was fairly easy to navigate and the trail was usually easy to find between broad rock slabs. The only real moderately challenging part on the ridge lies closer to the Carter Col side, where an interesting but short gulley needs to be passed. After many hours of hiking along the ridge, going up and down and up and down over an unreasonable amount of bumps, we got to Carter Col. The ridge keeps going past Carter Col, and in theory we could have drawn a route along it to avoid loosing more elevation than we desired. We opted to stick to the trail though, as it most definitely would have saved us time in our already tight schedule. At Carter Col we took a rather large descent down to Carter creek, then gained a bit of elevation yet again to reach carter lake, the second lake along the route. The way around Carter Lake and Schjelderup lake mainly follow the shore for the most part, occasionally they deviate from the stone hopping and take an unnecessarily steep dive up the slopes that rise straight out of the lakes. We took a little bit of an accidental detour on the way in, following a bit of a strange GPX that I had downloaded, but that was short lived and we were back on route around the lakes in no time. Once we got to the end of Schjelderup lake, we took a decently long break, fueled ourselves back up, and chatted a bit to Sarah, a fellow hiker on the trail that we had been leapfrogging all day. After a bit of a break we started up our last climb of the day, up onto another sort of ridge that would eventually take us to a large tarn where we spent the night. The views looking beyond the ridge once atop were quite spectacular, the late hours of sun were illuminating scattered clouds and mist, turning them light orange over Burman lake below, and the Southern island in the distance. We kept on for a short distance before getting to the tarn where we would camp. It was a quite ideal spot with some flat slabs to pitch our tent on, and the water source was optimal. We were quite satisfied with our progress in the first day, even with a semi late 8AM start. We ate dinner, and then started discussing our plan for day 2. We were pressed on time due to the fact we would have to be back at the car by 3:30 on day 3, so we estimated how much time each portion of the way to the summit and the way back would take, and decided we should start in the dark on day 2. We had completely thrown out the idea of tackling the West ridge at this point, as would definitely have added time, despite being a bit cooler of a route.

At 4:45 we woke up and got going as quick as we could despite the unenthusing cold. By 5:10 we had eaten a few frozen granola bars, got our gear together, and were moving. It was slightly difficult to keep on the trail at times in the dark, but we kept going with the help of the GPX files I had. The section of trail from Camp to the South tarn at the base of the mountain took about an hour and a half. It starts by descending into a col that sits at the level of Burman lake, it them immediately goes back up hill until the base of the mountain. By the time we got to the tarn and had a bit of a break it was barely starting to get light out. We got going again in the little daylight that had started to appear, we went in the complete wrong direction for a few minutes, then Tyler, who had been sick since the start decided he would stick behind, as he wasn't feeling good enough to tackle the challenging terrain ahead. I re found the route and made my way up the start of the massive scree slope. Eventually the scree was broken by a bit of a traverse over some more stable rock, but that was short lived, and the scree started again. I looked for the route based on the descriptions in the Island Alpine Select guidebook, and the tracks I had. It was pretty self explanatory though, I would navigate my way up the South East gulley. Nearing the top of the scree slope cone, the ice/snow patch I had read about started to appear. The patch had melted off as much as it would for this year, but the remaining patch was just rock hard ice. Feeling kind of pressed for time, but also slightly committed to climbing the rock on the right side, I opted not to pull out my ice axe and crampons. The scramble got more challenging near the middle of the ice patch, but what made the situation difficult was the light dusting of snow that had come down in the past few days. It was hard to tell exactly how fresh this dusting was. I figured it was only from the day before, when we encountered a short bit of slush coming down on Phillips ridge. The temperature kept dropping quickly as I gained elevation. The 4th class scramble levelled out a bit, and eventually I was past the ice patch and working my way up the very start of the scree slope, I tried to keep off of it and stay on some semi consolidated rock off to the side. It felt a bit too risky hiking up the frozen scree, as one slip would have sent me flying down the gulley and off a small ledge overhanging the ice. At last the rock solidified a bit, despite still being frozen and slick. The summit was frozen over, and although I had been stuck in bubble of fog in the challenging terrain, a few very marginal views opened up on the summit. After a bit of a break on the summit taking in the moment more so than the views, I started to make my way back down. The gulley was just as scary on the way down. once I got to the main lingering snow/ice patch I put on my crampons. Thankfully I felt far less pressed for time as I did on the way up, but still knowing that Tyler was freezing his butt off at the South tarn, I didn't waste any time. I carefully downclimbed by digging my crampons in the more melted ice to the side of the patch while swinging my pick at the ice to keep safe. The scree slope started to open up at the base of the gulley again and the scree was no longer frozen together. I started to adopt my scree skiing skills and in no time I was back at the tarn. I filled up water, had a snack and we got going. There was still a long long road ahead if we wanted to get back in time. We made a solid push back to last night's camp, only to find it completely battered by wind. Thankfully one of the other groups that came after us weighed our tent down with some boulders that were more stout than the rocks and gear we had left inside. We took a bit of a break when we got to camp. We packed up all our gear, had some lunch, and debated how far down the trail we might get before having to set up camp for the night. The ridge was much of the same as the way in, however it started snowing briefly at around 5PM, today really would mark the last day that the Hinde would be doable in summer conditions. Many Many hours later, we found ourselves all the way down past the lakes, back up onto the ridge, up and down past Phillips ridge summit, and making our way down Phillips ridge towards the Arnica lake campsite. At 6:35 we decided that we were quite tired, the sun was soon about to set, and we might have been able to keep the push going, but we called it. We had made it somewhere between the campsite and the descent off of Phillips ridge, with about 10KM to go the next day. We found a tent spot somewhat sheltered by the trees and in close vicinity to a small tarn, or maybe more of a puddle. We set up camp for the night, ate a well earned dinner, and pretty much fell asleep right away. The night was just as cool as the previous night. Temperatures hovered around freezing. We got up for a pretty casual time, and started hiking by 7:30 AM. We said our goodbyes to the last views of The Golden Hinde, made our way down past the Arnica Lake tent pads, and then proceeded to zig zag down the million switchbacks back down to the truck. It was quite the challenge not to shortcut the switchbacks, but in an effort to conserve the quite well kept trail. we didn't. At 10:30 we had both arrived at the truck, and I was stoked. in just over 2 days I had climbed the highest peak on Vancouver Island. It was a summit that I was looking forward to bagging for a few years now, as well as one more Island qualifier done. It was a great time.