Mount Loomis II

Mount Loomis II – September 30, 2006

Mountain height:     2822 m
Elevation gain:      approx. 1400 m
Ascent time:            8:05
Descent time:          3:05

Scrambling with Mark.

We failed to summit Mount Loomis last November (on what continues to be one of the most outstanding trips we’ve ever done), via Odlum Creek Trail. Though we were fairly close to the summit, we ran out of daylight and had to retreat. This time we wanted to approach the mountain from the south, for two reasons: 1. the opportunity to visit colourful Loomis Lake; 2. simply for some variety.

It took us 1.75 hours to negotiate the first 8 km of Loomis Creek Trail on bike, and we were both more than happy to ditch the two wheelers, in favour of our preferred mode of transportation – two legs! Getting to Loomis Lake took another 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, Loomis Lake failed to impress, perhaps because we were expecting a repeat of another one of our favourite trips – the absolutely stunning blue of the waters of Carnarvon Lake (followed by an ascent of Mount Strachan) earlier this year. We couldn’t figure out why, but Loomis Lake had a more green hue to it than the expected blue. It may have been the low position of the sun in the sky or the time of the year. We decided to attempt the ascent and then return to the lake when the sun would be in a different position.

Initially, we wanted to see if we could gain the col between two unnamed outliers south of Loomis, then summit the north one and continue on to Loomis. From the lake, the terrain looked to be too steep and so instead we decided to pick our up to the ridge north of the lake, with the intention of descending to the valley directly below Loomis and attempting an ascent from there. There also appeared to be some interesting rock formations along the way and so this seemed like a decent idea.

The formations and pinnacles were spectacular and did not disappoint. By the time we made it to the ridge, another potential route became visible – right up the ridge to the summit of the outlier. There were several significant and vertical rockbands along the way that would obviously need to be circumvented. When comparing the scree slog route directly to the summit and this new route, we chose the latter, knowing full well that if we failed, we wouldn’t have the time or energy to return and take the easy route up.

Almost right away, we reached a vertical rockband and had to lose elevation to get around it. Mark took the lead, at this point, and he, in fact, led the entire ascent. The scrambling was fun and the route-finding quite challenging. Several sections were steep, exposed and the rock hideously loose. I was very impressed to watch Mark scramble up terrain, definitely right on the borderline between difficult scrambling and technical climbing.

After several hours of meandering up and down, back and forth across the southeast face of the outlier, we finally reached the summit. At 2743 m, the outlier sported a pretty decent view. Getting to the summit of Loomis was easier than expected: a scenic ridge descent of 200 vertical metres followed by an equally interesting slog of about 250 vertical metres to the top. At a little over 8 hours, it was a much longer ascent than we anticipated, but often that makes the summit that much sweeter, especially when taking an unknown route.

It was too late in the day and we were too tired to return all the way to Loomis Lake, so we opted for the shortest and easiest possible descent route. This involved descending scree and rubble slopes from the col between the two summits we had reached, eventually leading to Little Loomis Lake. Disappointingly, the scree was not surfable, but once down to the hanging valley with the lake, the remainder of the descent was very easy. The bike ride back was fast and thrilling. A very memorable day with terrific scenery and challenging scrambling.

Strachan (left) and Muir in the morning light

Mount Loomis (just right of centre) and the southern outlier to its left

Approaching Loomis Lake, with the southern outlier in the background

A larch

More colourful scenery

Part of the unnamed peak south of Loomis Lake

Mark arrives at Loomis Lake

More of the lake and the southeast face of the outlier

Initially, we wanted to ascend to the col behind the lake

Mark starts towards the outlier

The lower slopes of the outlier

Looking back to yet another outlier of Loomis

Approaching the pinnacles

Same as above

A closer look at some of the pinnacles

The most interesting and unique of the rock formations

Exploring the rock

Looking back towards the rock formations, Loomis Lake and Mount Bishop (centre)

On the ridge of the outlier, looking at the summit of Loomis; the easy ascent/descent route descends to the valley below and then goes up the scree at the far left