Lys Ridge
   

September 24, 2016

Mountain heights:      West Castle 2320 m, Lys Peak 2522 m
Total elevation gain:  1500 m
Roundtrip time:          12.5 hours  
 
Scrambling with Dave McMurray and Jollin Charest.
 
Triple WOW for this one!!! Even writing the trip report 9 months after the fact I get a bit of an adrenaline rush thinking about this day. Lys Ridge had been on my brain for some time, having read Rick Collier’s excellent trip report on Bivouac. I was super excited to find that not only was Dave McMurray interested in the mountain, but he had also scoped out a potential new route. Sweet!
 
We met in Beaver Mines and then drove in one car to the trailhead. Within 5 minutes I knew this was going to be an awesome day, summit or no summit. This was the first time I had hiked with both Dave and Jollin and they were great! We had tons to talk about and I immediately sensed their passion and excitement for the mountains.
 
Given Dave’s outstanding report (that all who are interested in this infrequently ascended ridge should read), I will spare the reader the specific details and simply offer…
 
Everything about this trip was gold:

    1.   The boulder field ascent route to the ridge – usually this kind of terrain is annoying, slow, tedious and/or dangerous. However, on Lys it was super fun,     scrambly, with a great variety of rock underfoot.

    2.   Larches – our timing was perfect to see the huge swaths of golden larches everywhere. 

    3.   The ridgewalk to West Castle – super scenic, varied, and enough colours to make a rainbow jealous.

    4.   Watching Jollin do his magic balancing act with cairn rocks – and then losing $20 in a bet because I didn’t think he could do it (I think I still owe him the     money!).

    5.   Another amazing ridgewalk to Lys Peak, with great ridge scenery, interesting route-finding and more incredible colours.

    6.   Lakes – four beautiful lakes reside in the valleys below – Lys, North Scarpe, Grizzly and Ruby. Surrounded by larches, Lys Lake was especially                 breath-taking from up high and Ruby was gorgeous at its lakeshore.

    7.   Dave and Jollin’s light-hearted banter and antics throughout – fun guys!

    8.   The summit view and views throughout were generally spectacular.

    9.   The RASC!!!! *RED ARGILLITE STAIR-CASE*. The descent includes going down a staircase of red argillite. I must have died and gone to heaven!!

    10. Once again, the company – what amazing guys to share 12.5 glorious hours of fun hiking, scrambling and adventure with. Thank you, my friends!

 

Dave's ascent route goes up the boulder field, left of centre



A little sun on Barnaby Ridge before we cross the river



Jollin hits the boulder field. It may look tedious from this vantage point, but was in fact great to ascend









Sections of colourful, slabby rock and the larches contributed further to the enjoyment of this section of the trip









Jollin tackles an enormous, almost vertical slab of rock



And then peeks down it from the top






Awesomely colourful rock!



Looking down the north ridge



Jollin enjoys a short section of scrambling before we hit the ridge






The ridgewalk begins









Looking back at the colourful north end of the ridge



Lots of ups and downs before we reach the summit of West Castle



And some fun scrambling











Impressively steep rock



Dave gingerly strolls along the terrific ridge



The ridge we have traversed is looking even more colourful



Dave, Jollin's amazing summit cairn, and Jollin at the summit of West Castle



That is poetry, Jollin!



The $20 loser in yellow and the $20 winner in black!



My favourite view of the cairn and ridge behind



Jollin and I check out the next and very interesting section of the ridge (photo by Dave)






An interesting rest spot along the way



Dave and Jollin approach the drop off where a little backtracking and route-finding are required




Dave downclimbs



Jollin and I have an intimate moment with the rock (photo by Dave)



Castle Peak




Looking back at the section we went around






The summits of Spionkop Ridge, Mount Glendown, "Newman Senior" and Newman Peak



A closer look at Spionkop and Glendowan



The tallest official mountain in the area, Mount Haig at 2618 m



The tallest unofficial mountain in the area (that's taller than the tallest official one!), "Jake Smith Peak" at 2630 m



Jollin second occupation is a Cornice Tester



Mount Darrah always stands out, no matter how distant



Grizzly Lake



That's a lot of larches!



Lys Lake



Approaching the summit (photo by Dave)



Dave takes a side-trip to check out Lys Lake



A pretty good example of the inaccuracies of GPS (although personally I'm always severely impressed that they are within 10 metres of one another,
given the diameter of our wee little planet is a mere 12,756,320 metres)  (photo by Dave)



Heading down




Dave looks back up at some of the interesting terrain we descended






Near the top of the RASC



Oh Yeah!!!!



Approaching Ruby Lake



Jollin is also a Decaying Log Tester



Jollin and Dave at Ruby Lake. You can see that there are actually multiple RASC's!



Footprints in the mud. Something with hooves and something with claws!



Part of the long hike back, but even that was super scenic











Jollin re-crosses the river. Of course, we had to walk 2 km upstream and go back across the river twice to retrieve our hip-waders!

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