Mount Livingstone

Mount Livingstone – December 9, 2006

Mountain height:           2422 m
Elevation gain:               670 m
Ascent time:                  2:20
Descent time:                2:00

Scrambling with Mark.

This was just what The Doctor ordered. After suffering a dismal and physically devastating defeat on lowly Mount Erickson last week, a short, snow-free, and easy ascent was exactly what we wanted. A brief perusal of the websites of other RMB scramblers revealed that Mount Livingstone had been very popular this year, with trip reports by Bob Spirko, Linda Breton, and Sonny Bou. All had enjoyed the trip and so off we went.

It turns out our timing was pretty good, as we weren’t aware that Highway 940 is closed from Dec.10 to April 30. 24 hours later, we would have been denied access to the peak. The crux of the day occurred before we even got out of the car. The logging road that branches off the 940 and leads to Mount Livingstone was snow-covered and icy. Not to the liking of my Civic, we were forced to pull over before we reached the parking area. This simply added a few hundred of walking along the road and was not at all an inconvenience. It also prompted us to take a slightly different route to the ridge than the RMB scramblers before us, as we headed up the west-facing slopes to reach the ridge.

A short hike over land left completely devastated by clear-cutting, preceded the pleasant ascent, up lightly forested slopes. Soon we were on the ridge, which provided more interesting and pleasant travel. A temporarily clear sky and some remaining snow made this the most scenic part of the day. As well, shapely peaks of the Continental Divide started to appear on the western horizon. Unfortunately, the sky began to cloud over as we reached the false summit. It would remain that way for the remainder of the trip.

We reached the highest point of the mountain and then continued over to the slightly lower summit further north. Since there didn’t appear to be any chance of clearer skies, we returned to the false summit and then took an alternate descent down the south ridge. Though a little longer, this descent route was enjoyable and offered us a look at the more daunting south and southeast sides of the peak, as well as a potential route up the north ridge of Coffin Mountain, to the south. From the valley bottom, a short hike took us back to the car. Overall, a very enjoyable and easy trip, requiring minimal effort and very little time.