Frosty Mt.

Oct. 7 - Stats: 23.4 km / 1323m gain / 2444m high / 8 hrs MT

Manning Park's alpine larches are BC's oldest and toughest trees. They reach diameters of only 32" and yet are almost 2000 years old! And they are the only trees that grow above 2000m. With just a small window of time to view Frosty's famous larches before they began to drop their golden needles, we headed out on a week day, in an effort to avoid the crowds. It turned out to be a day of reunions, meeting some club members on the trail that we hadn't seen in a long time...

Cal is briefing the group on what to expect of the hike. There were 4 newbies in our group of 12.

It was a bit below freezing as we started out at 9:00am. When we returned at 5:30pm, this frosty white coating on the grass had melted away.

Lightening Lake with its morning mist.

The valley through which the chain of lakes flow: Lightening, Flash, Strike & Thunder. The first three are quite close together but Thunder Lake takes almost an hour to hike to from Strike -- west.

Broad switch-backs led us ever upwards on a nice gradual grade.

Lightening and Strike Lakes + Freezeout (2256m) and Joker Mts (2256m) to the left.

After about a km of flat ground, we got to the cabin which is at just over the halfway point.

Only 20 minutes from the cabin we emerged from the forest and entered another world where a forest of gold stood out against glittering snow and black granite cliffs.

We summited the peak in the middle but the true peak (only 30m higher) is the one to the right.

southwest

Winthrop Mt (2286m) -- east.

Walking through the meadows.

Most of the larches were faded and past their peak but I'd say about 10% of them were still holding their deep gold hues.

Ahh. The sun is coming out.

Group shot: me, Rosa & Arnold Park, Wayne H, Lorenz B, Victor Kow, Fred H, Iraj F, Don T, Razz, Cal F + Ling S

Leaving the meadows.

Looking at the ridge we traversed from left to right.

Looking back -- north. Thanks Cal, for coming up with this photo op and congregating in a colorful heap on the cliff.

We ran into Maurice D & Charlotte in the meadows (COC members).

And then as we climbed this talus slope up to the ridge, we ran into John McL, Don McD & Carol A.

Looking down at people coming up.

On the ridge.

The end of the ridge where we'd come up.

Winthrop (2286m), Blizzard (2256m), Three Fools (2316m) and Powder Peaks (2286m) -- southeast.

Castle Peak (2436m) -- south.

We all made it! Wayne is 74 and Don is 79!

From east to west.

A circular shelter from the wind.

The true summit. I was plenty happy with our summit (2409m).

After half an hour we were getting too cold so we started our return journey.

On the top of a very high cliff.

Back at the trees we could take our winter coats off.

Now the sun was out and the late afternoon lighting was perfect.

Two tall trees bend in benediction as we leave the larches behind and drop down into the forest.

5:45pm. Dinner time. Our carload (Cal, Fred, Don, Ling & I) had a delicious dinner at the Manning Park lodge. A great way to end a spetacular day.