Overlook Mountain

September 13, 2026

Overlook Mountain

Overlook Mountain - 1975M

743M Prominence

50.06297, -124.16238

September 13, 2026

10H 30M C2C, 10H Moving

1800M Ascent and Descent

14.6KM

Overlook Mountain is one of the few peaks accessible by roads in the Qathet region that I had not yet completed. It is also one of the more prominent and iconic ones, so I was waiting for a good occasion and day to make an ascent. Originally I thought I might tag in while doing the South Powell Divide at some point, but it is quite far off route even for that. The route I ended up taking would be the South Ridge. This fairly new South ridge goes at 5.7, 2 pitches, and would add a more interesting element to the day, rather than going up the standard SW ridge and "Triple Direct" trail. A few weeks ago I connected with Joseph Logelin, a prolific peakbagger who was coming to Qathet for a work practicum. He was looking to get out on his days off, so this seemed like a great first peak for him in the area, and he was sold. We left town at 5AM and quickly made the drive up to Goat Main, which is in fantastic condition. We parked Joseph's van at the base of Goat 2, and got started just as the sun was starting to come up. I brought my bike, as Goat 2 is in decent enough condition, but I immediately decided that it would save no time and so I ditched it. We hiked up the road to where the trail begins in about an hour, and then turned into the bush. The word "trail" might be a bit of an overstatement, as it is realistically a bushwhack for large portions. The start is supposedly one of the particularly bad sections, and with Jason Addy's suggestion we did a bypass of the first 150M of gain off the road and just pushed up through the forest. The forest was fairly dense and twiggy, with loads of rotten logs and trees, but no bush, so it was fairly easily navigated. We soon got on the "Triple Direct" trail, and for quite a while it was pretty decent. We hiked up the feint trail, loosing it a handful of times, and eventually it started to get quite overgrown, and there was no hope of keeping the trail. The trail was a lost cause at this point, but the forest soon became more open and became quite steep. Around 1300 meters there started to be more shrubbery and some steep blueberries, and eventually we got the first views of the alpine, and the South ridge ahead. Route finding was very easy, as we just stuck to the ridge. Some neat slabs between shrubbery took us past some murky tarns, which are the only real option for water until the summit for the south ridge. The ridge started to get a bit steeper and blocky with some fun scrambling. One small exposed traverse had us pulling out the rope and Joseph tossed me down a hand line. After a little more scrambling we got to a notch in the ridge where a large boulder is slung. One rappel 10 meters down the notch climber's left, and into the start of the climb is necessary. Building an anchor is a little limited in terms of gear, but there is still a small mossy and chossy ledge to stand on, so there is no need to weight any belay. The first pitch (5.7), starts up a fun finger crack with good features either side, and takes great gear after a few meters. The pitch then leads into some blockier terrain with some flakes and some looser rocks. Above this I found a fairly chossy ledge and slung a huge boulder with my longest sling. The pitch was short, but fun. Joseph seconded up, then snuck in behind me to give me a belay for a traverse. I traversed across a heathery ledge about 10 meters, then built an anchor in some solid rock. It was hard to see what terrain looked like above, and the second pitch description I had heard seemed pretty vague, so I decided to give it a try. Joseph joined me at the belay station on the heathery ledge, then I started up the "low 5th" pitch of the climb. This pitch is definitely doable as low 5th, probably even the way I went, but I got intrigued by a short hard crack boulder move, so I decided to climb it. despite it being short, it was decidedly trickier than anything on the first pitch. The steep hand crack was a bit wet at the top, and the full heather mantle move at the top was committing. After this move, the terrain looked very chill, so I built another anchor and Joseph followed up the second short pitch. From here there was a heathery ramp leading to a few fun scrambly moves, and then we were only a few steps from the summit. Summit views were awesome, and we were both stoked to see the south section of the South Powell Divide in it's entirety. Great views of the Rainbow range were also inspiring. Post summit snacks and summit pictures we began descending the standard route back down the SW ridge. The SW ridge route cuts back and traverses across a ledge into the big slabby bowl. We traversed under the steep walls of the South ridge and then opted to gain the South ridge once the terrain allowed it, rather than following the standard route into the lower bowl and meadows. From here on out we followed the same route as we had ascended the best we could, which was easier on the way down as some of it consisted of just falling down the dense parts of the forests. The hike out on Goat 2 was warmly welcomed, and we made it back to the car on a good pace, at 10 H 30M.