Tetrahedron Peak

Tetrahedron Peak - 1739M

1164 M Prominence

49.607474 -123.567451

April 13, 2025

7H C2C, 6H 20M Moving

1350 M Elevation Gain

It feels like it has been forever since I actually summited something that I can be proud of. Although I am quite content peak bagging less interesting and easier peaks, I much prefer to complete more involved and scenic objectives. Tetrahedron peak is the highest accessible peak in the middle Sunshine Coast area. The beauty of this area for a Qathet based person is that the travel time and cost required to access it is only half of what traveling to Vancouver Island or Vancouver might be. Sitting at 1739M, it stands above all other peaks in it's namesake provincial park of Tetrahedron park. The bulk of recreational activities lie on the East side of the park, where Mount Steele, some other lower lying peaks, and a hand full of recreational cabins are located. I am sure I will be back to that area to bag some peaks in the future, but for this trip there was only one main goal, and anything else would have been a bonus. Jason sent me a message a few days before the trip when he caught wind that I was planning this trip down to the Coast. I happily accepted as I was looking for a partner. We came up with a plan, and Saturday night we caught the last ferry South. I drove all the way down through Sechelt, Gibsons and Langdale on the dark and windy road. This took us to the Port Mellon Pulp Mill, which was still deep in operation even at midnight when we arrived. Unfortunately the Rainy River FSR that we would need to drive to access our route was on the other side of the mill area, and recreational users are not allowed to enter after sun down. We drove back down the road a few minutes and found a pull out to camp until morning. We quickly set up a cowboy camp, and slept until 6AM. At 6AM it started to get light and all the cars driving by from a shift change at the mill woke us up. We drove back to the gate operator booth and he let us in without a fuss. We drove through the pulp mill and got to the start of the Rainy River FSR. At this point we met Reece who was waiting for his buddy to arrive for a day of skiing. We picked his brains about the park, as he is local to the area. He told us that the Steven Song route would likely not be as good of an idea for the winter, and that the more standard route on the West ridge should be great. He informed us that the FSR was in optimal condition and the trail was in good condition these days. With this information we were back to square one and planning to climb the only route we were certain we did not want to climb, based on rumors of a nasty bushwhack. At 7:25 we were out of the truck, all geared up and ready to go. We hiked down the de activated FSR, which was still in good condition aside from the massive cross ditches that no truck would make it over. This road went on for roughly half an hour before it came to an end. We expected the bush whack to start at this point, but instead an old logging road was hidden in the forest. This road was still in immaculate condition, aside from the foot wide trees growing in the middle of it. We hiked the road as far as it went, then found the trail. The trail started by crossing a few creeks, but they gave us no trouble. After hopping across the creeks, the trail followed a forested ridge between 2 creeks. Eventually the path broadened a bit and we hit snow. After a while of hiking through the old growth trees in the snow, we reached a large snow debris path that had clearly seen some large avalanches in the past week or two. This path took us across a snow covered creek, and we were then able to see the main gulley leading up to the col below the West ridge. We decided to steer clear of the main gulley and remain in the trees to the left of the gulley for as long as we could. The trees offered harder snow due to the shade, which made the ascent non problematic and unworthy of gearing up with snowshoes. When the trees inevitably started to thin out, we began to traverse and gain elevation across the base of the South West Face. This is when the angle of the terrain started to increase and we were getting closer to 40 degree slopes. We geared up with crampons and and ice axe, and continued our way up. Going up the throat of the South West face might have been an easier ascent, but we opted to go a little further before making our way up. What I am calling the West ridge blends into the South West face, but there was significantly less avalanche danger, as there was less wind loading and no cornice above. This part of the climb was most definitely the crux. I kicked steps up the last 100 and some meters of gain in 45-50 degree snow all the way to the summit. The snow was pristine for kicking steps, and it was great. After 3 hours and 40 minutes of ascent we reached the summit. The views were great, as it was a gorgeous blue bird day. We hung out for 25 minutes or so, then started making our way back down. The descent was identical to the way up, but down climbing the staircase that I had kicked into the snow was far less amusing than on the way up. By the time we got back to the less steep terrain, The hot sun had melted the snow significantly, and we began to post hole past our shins on every other step. We were too stubborn to stop and put the snowshoes on though, so we just kept at it. We finished off the day in just under 7 hours, and drove all the way back to the ferry to head North and home for the night.