South Mist Hills
  
 
November 9, 2024
 
Mountain height: 2452 m
Elevation gain:    600 m
Ascent time:        2:05
Descent time:      1:25
 
Scrambling with Raff.
 
Two days after a disappointing ascent of Mount Lipsett, I was back in the area with Raff for even bigger disappointment - as clearly depicted in the opening photo!
 
Both just craving some exercise, we downgraded an attempt of Highwood Peak South to South Mist Hills, in light of the overcast skies. Spot Wx was forecasting several hours of clear skies later in the day, but we were both somewhat pessimistic about conditions improving. As such, we agreed a shorter objective with less elevation gain might be preferable.
 
And boy, are we glad we downgraded! Although there was a brief period of blue sky halfway up the east hill, what followed was the equivalent of starting at a blank sheet of white paper for several hours! Not only were we completely denied a summit view, but it lightly snowed for much for the descent - not quite the predicted clearing trend! 
 
Although the weather was very disappointing, the company was great, and shockingly I enjoyed this trip far more than others with similar weather conditions. A return trip is in order.   



Hiking up the mess along Picklejar Creek caused by the 2013 floods



Now on the south ridge of the east peak of South Mist Hills (photo by Raff)



Signs of clearing and perhaps an inversion



Heading east to get a better view over the ridge (photo by Raff)



There it is - the original objective, Highwood Peak South



Highwood Peak (centre) is shrouded in clouds



Lineham Ridge has a terrific scramble route up its west ridge (photo by Raff)



The outlier of Highwood Peak I made it to on my first attempt



Cool views with the low-lying clouds



Same as above



And again



Raff points to South Highwood, now also shrouded in clouds



With the weather deteriorating, I took to some rock photography



The south ridge turned out to be more interesting than expected



Still getting some views (though not great ones)



Might be some scrambling coming up




Cool rock and now the outlier of Highwood Peak is disappearing (photo by Raff)



The west summit of Mist Hills



Nice variety of rock on the upper ridge



Raff at the start of some easy and pleasant scrambling







The summit cairn, but not much else! (photo by Raff)



View to the north



The summit team and lots of greyish white (photo by Raff)



View to the east



Raff and the only view we got of the west summit before...



...this!



Heading down, with some sense of urgency. It started to snow and we didn't want to get caught in a blizzard (photo by Raff).



Raff negotiates some tricky terrain on the ridge



We left the ridge for a short distance to get around the rest of the tricky stuff (photo by Raff)



Onto easier terrain







Luckily the blizzard never materialized (photo by Raff)



There's something you don't see everyday (photo by Raff)



  Fitting tribute to Rick Cross at the trailhead (photo by Raff)

The End

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