Elevation Gain: 1,929m
Distance: 18.47km
Total Time: 9 hours 10 minutes
Date: April 5th, 2025
Alex had been dreaming about a winter or spring ascent up Chamois Peak and Anderson River Mountain for some time now. This cirque of granitic fins and domes west of the Coquihalla, used to be a hot spot for climbers and hikers. As loggers pulled out of the area, the roads deteriorated gradually, but did not stop visitors from driving up. It wasn’t until 2021 during the major floods that a key bridge washed out and reduced access to those with a 4×4 and penchant for long road walks. Nonetheless, people have still trickled into the area over the years. Climbers often go to ascend up Les Cornes and Geoff and I were there in 2023 to climb the SE ridge of Ibex.
Finally this winter, the weather and snow conditions would finally align for Alex’s plans to come to fruition. Trevor was originally going to join us as well, but in the eleventh hour had to pull out when he was feeling too sick.
I drove Alex and from Vancouver around 4:30am and we were crawling up the precarious cliff-side road to the Anderson River area as the sun was rising. We hit snow about 3.5km shy of the bridge washout and opted to hike in from there. When we reached the bridge, the old log that used to cover the gap had slid part way down the embankment and looked too sketchy to use. Thankfully, just 50m downstream a natural log bridge offered a way across.
Once on the other side we walked for a short ways down Anderson South and then bushwhacked up through an old cutblock. We hit unlogged forest around 1000m and then reached the NW ridgeline at 1200m. The ridge had numerous steep sections and made for some challenging snow shoeing. We finally hit some more open terrain at 1600m and then out of the trees just above that.
It was a pleasant ascent up to the summit from there, although I was feeling terribly out of shape. We paused for a long lunch on the summit and soaked in the blue bird sunny conditions. Once we felt satiated it was time to head for Chamois Peak next.