Triple Peak

Triple Peak (main summit) - 1557M

936M Prominence

49.15741, -125.30228

June 3, 2025

10H 50M C2C, 9H 20M Moving

1050M Elevation gain

The main purpose of this weeks Island trip was to climb Triple peaks, Tyler and I had been planning this one for a few months now, and we expected it to be nearly fully melted off by this time of year. Unfortunately from the top of Steamboat Mountain 2 days prior, I could already tell that there was more snow than we were hoping for. We still went for it though, and are very glad we did. On the morning of the third we drove from Comox and arrived at the Triple peaks trailhead at 8:20. Bags pre-packed, we immediately got going. We had planned for an overnight stay at the lake to climb as many of the towers and routes as possible, so packs were quite heavy. We began the approach trail by balancing on a log to cross Effingham river. The approach trail was a bit more challenging than is to be expected for a trail, with definite class 3 scrambling in many sections. Additionally, there is a handful of roaring water crossings near some pretty exposed waterfalls. In a few spots there are some old fixed ropes to pull yourself up, which does help. The trail is also incredibly well marked, and hard to lose, even in the snow. The snow started sooner than we were hoping for, and were starting to find significant patches of snow at as low as 800 meters. After an 1HR 25M we made it to the lake and started to have a look at our objective and surroundings. We took a good half hour break, emptied our bags and discussed what we could go for. From the lake the main summit tower is not visible, but we could see that the route we wanted to do on it's slabby northwest flank was soaking wet and had a large patch of snow over it. The East summit looked less interesting and was also still snowy. We saw footprints, likely from the weekend heading up in the direction of the main tower though, so we followed them with hope. We ascended minimally steep but rotten snow for around 350 meters until we arrived at the North face of the main tower. Foot prints ended here, at the start of a gulley on the North West side. We attempted to scramble the first few steps, but it seemed to be quite challenging, and finding a belay station was tricky with the large moat around the base of the rock. I convinced Tyler to turn back and go have a look at the South East ridge which we had more beta for. We began by kicking steps across a quite steep snow slope and then making our way up to the col between the main tower and the East tower. This area was filled with glide cracks and melted out bits, so it was a bit unnerving. We got to the col and saw that the route appeared to be dry as far as we could see. We struggled to find the route itself at first, as the first move was likely the crux of the day. We decided that if we were going to try the move we would need to be roped up, so I anchored in to a shrub on the col and gave Tyler a belay up the first short pitch. At the top of the weird move was a wedged in rock with some webbing around it. Tyler belayed me up from here, and then I belayed him from the same spot as he went for the second pitch. The second pitch was a bit dirty but fairly easy. I sheltered from loose rocks and debris constantly coming down. He made it up to another shrub with webbing on it and belayed me up. From this tree I took charge of leading the last pitch, an open book corner with great gear. I enjoyed my lead, and it took us up to another stone with some webbing wrapped around it. After belaying him up, we un roped and scrambled our way to the summit, we traversed through some bushes and this took us to a short but challenging 5m scramble to the summit. We enjoyed a good break on the summit on a beautiful day, then downclimbed our way back to the last belay station to start rappelling down. 3 rappels took us back to the col, and then we did one further rappel to safely and quickly downclimb the sketchy snow bit. From here we cruised back down to the lake, hung out for a bit, then decided to call it and turn back to the truck via the same trail we came up. I am stoked to have done my first alpine climb and lead my first pitch of it too. Even though the trip didn't go entirely as planned, we got the main objective done. It was a very spectacular area and I am sure the view from 5040 peak is one of the reasons 5040 peak gets so much attention. We hung our on the FSR and had dinner, then made our way to the base of Pogo Mountain to set up camp for the next morning.

We crossed the water many times

Tyler scrambling up the trail

Snow started to appear on the trail around 800M

First views of Triple peak from the trail, this is the North tower

The lake was just starting to melt

You could see the three towers as we started to follow the steps

Main summit in sight

Me following up the crux on the first short pitch

Setting up belay for Tyler to climb pitch 2

I lead the open book corner 3rd pitch

Sawtooth Peak (Left) and the Cats Ears

One of my proudest summit shots to date

Tyler rappelling his way down

Rappelling the upper section of snow

Back at the lake

Downclimbing the trail

Route