Gibbon Pass Peak
August 13, 2019
Mountain height: 2593 m
Elevation gain: approximately 1700 m
Ascent time: 3:55
Descent time: 3:00
Solo hike/scramble.
I didn’t think for a second that this trip would give a recent ascent of
Watermelon Peak a run for its money as far as amazing scenery goes – but it
did!
The Matts (Clay and Hobbs) had set the stage for this one and I was
happy to read their reports to get an idea of what I was in for. Mr. Clay had
approached Gibbon Pass from the Vista Lake trailhead and Mr. Hobbs from the Twin
Lakes trailhead. The different approaches are of about equal length, but Matt Clay’s
requires 450 m of additional elevation gain because of a few significant
elevation loses along the way. The upside of the route is the opportunity to
see four different lakes; the Twin Lakes approach only goes to Lower Twin Lake.
Having been blown away by the lake scenery during the Watermelon trip, I chose
the Clay route.
The first lake (Vista) is easily reached because its downhill all the
way. The lake was certainly pleasant, but Lake Alice it was not! About 600
vertical metres later I arrived at Arnica Lake – wow – a considerable
improvement over Vista. The two Twin Lakes were likewise pretty spectacular,
each back-dropped by various parts of Storm Mountain’s impressive east
side.
Approaching Gibbon Pass it became very apparent why this is such a good
larch season trip – the whole area is teeming with huge, mature larches.
Unfortunately the weather decided to break down at this point, but the
scenery still continued to elicit many “Wow’s!”, especially as I made my way up
to the summit. Surprisingly, two individuals were already at the top when I
arrived. They had ascended from Shadow Lake.
The summit panorama was outstanding – far better than you would predict
for a relatively diminutive peak, surrounded by much bigger peaks. The deep
turquoise colour of Shadow Lake would have been a show-stopper, had the skies
been completely clear.
After a long and very satisfying summit stay I started the long descent
(and ascent!). Trudging up the huge hill back to Upper Twin seemed to never
end, but the other elevation gain from Vista Lake to the parking lot was quite
tolerable.
A fantastic trip! Big shout out to the Matt’s for bringing it to my
attention. I have no doubt I will return during larch season of one year.
Vista Lake
Reflections in Vista
Two terrific Kane scrambles across the valley: Mount Whymper (left) and Boom Mountain (right)
One of the many outliers of Storm Mountain
Very nice layers of rock on this outlier
Arnica Lake - lots of larches back there
More lake reflections
Upper Twin Lake
Nice rock layers here too
Lower Twin Lake
Waterfall at the back of the lake
That's a lot of larches!
The trail is lined with larches too
No yellow larches, but the wildflowers provide some colour
Gibbon Pass
Looking up at Gibbon Pass Peak
Storm Mountain is a pretty impressive lump of rock
There's even a trail going up Gibbon
Massive Mount Ball makes its first appearance
The north ridge and summit of Gibbon Pass Peak
One of the other hikers nearing the summit
View to the east includes Copper Mountain at the right
First look at vibrantly coloured Shadow Lake
Shadow Lake close-up
Some nice scrambly rock to finish the ascent
Storm and Ball end up garnering most of the photo attention
The other two hikers start their descent
The north ridge of Gibbon
The east ridge, with Copper, Pilot, and Brett
The east ridge looked very tempting for some exploration
More excellent colours - too bad the weather was not quite co-operating at this point
Closer look at Mount Ball
Descending the south ridge a short ways provided some decent scenery
This outlier of Storm also looked very tempting to try
Back on the trail and looking forward to a big chunk of elevation to get home!
Parting look at Upper Twin Lake
The End
