Pickles and Puzzles Mountain, Snowy Peak, Thunderdome Peak, Crossroads Peak

September 15, 2024

2500M + Elevation gain

Pickles and Puzzles Mountain - 1738M

78M Prominence

50.113191 -124.158895

On the morning of the 15th, Tyler, Scott and I took off in the Tacoma with Lochlan trailing behind on his quad, we made it to the Emma lake trailhead by 9 and got going. The way up was all to familiar, and after 2 hours and 15 minutes on the trail, we made it to the hut and had a break. The boys were feeling good, so Tyler Lochlan and I set out to start the day's objective; Circumnavigate the lake and bag all the peaks around it. This is something a bit out of the ordinary for me, as it was more of a traverse/peak bagging mission than one single objective. The first peak of the batch was Pickles and Puzzles. Admittedly not the most striking of peaks, but it sure has a damn good name. The way up is pretty simple, we followed the South Powell Divide trail for a while, then eventually left it and went up to the summit. The terrain was pretty simple. Pickles and Puzzles is slightly neat looking due to it's big slab staircases on the North and West face, they are easy to navigate though, and you can reach the summit with minimal effort. The summit is defined by a small tree.

Snowy Peak - 1866M

246M Prominence

50.111627 -124.14619

To get to Snowy peak from the first peak of the day, I had originally marked out a route that was more drawn out, due to the fact that I didn't know what the slope would look like. We instead ended up just going straight down into the valley, close to the head of Hidden lake, and straight up the West face of snowy peak. It turned out to be smooth sailing, and the white granite slabs that cover the Emerald valley and these surrounding peaks made it easy to find a route on. From the summit of Pickles and Puzzles I planned out the route up the side of Snowy peak, following some slightly steeper boulders before getting up onto a wide and relatively flat ramp leading up to where the terrain leveled out nearing the summit. From this point it was just up and down on some big slabs and boulders. We took a big snack break, took more of the great views that engulfed us all day, then made our way down to the unnamed bump. Keeping the massive granite slab and the intense drop off into Emma lake to the left, we kept along the ridge. To make things a little more exciting we opted to throw in some fun scrambles around boulders leading to the unnamed bump. The crux of the day was getting down the north side of the bump to get to the shoulder between it and the Thunderdome. From the cabin the boys were a little sketched out by the look of this section, but when we got there it was pretty simply doable. On a dry day, it would be an easy downclimb scramble of about 100 meters on a section of steep rock. on the day though, the rocks were wet and mossy, so it did add a degree of difficulty.

Thunderdome Peak - 1659M

139M Prominence

50.126941 -124.137292

The way up to Thunderdome Peak from the bottom of the unnamed bump was quite simple and not that memorable. we took our time, frequently looking back at views such as the massive wall that rises out of the South side of the lake. Thunderdome's summit could have been either of two bumps that were close together, but we decided to hang out at the first one for a few minutes. It provided a wicked view over a steep drop off looking East and 500 meters down towards Arctic lake.

Crossroads Peak - 1620M

160M Prominence

50.136828 -124.138275

To get down Thunderdome, it was easy hiking as usual, and only as difficult as you made it. That was pretty much the theme throughout the day. There was one spot before getting to the shoulder between the last 2 peaks where we were faced with a bit of a steep drop off. It probably could have been navigated by sticking to the left of it, but we went down the right, and after a little bit of steepish descending, we were beginning to make our way up to Crossroads peak. At this point in the loop of the lake, the elevation was starting to drop a bit, and the shrubbery was starting to re appear. We climbed our way up to the summit, likely making it far more difficult than it needed to be. That being said, it was never harder than some easy class 3 or pulling our way up some blueberries. The summit was by far the least scenic out of the 4 in my opinion. Eager to get back to Scott, who had been patiently waiting for us at the cabin, we walked right over the summit and kept going without pause. The way down from the summit to the cabin was easy. We were on the South Powell Divide at this point, and were constantly on and off the sort of trail that ran through the meadow. Once back at the cabin, We took a quick 15 to refuel ourselves, then hobbled down the trail for another 2 hours before reaching the truck. Bagging four peaks was an all and all a quite successful day, and no one had any complaints. I am glad I ticked this mission off the list.