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Nameless Valley and Mist Mountain attempt  

  • November 16, 2002
  • Round-trip time: 4:45
  • Round-trip distance: approx. 8 km

Solo scramble.

On an extremely windy day, I made it about halfway up Mist Mountain, before dangerous conditions forced me to retreat. Because of the strong winds and a fresh layer of snow, I chose Gillian Daffern's hike-up route via Nameless Valley and then up the south side of the mountain instead of Kane's scramble route up the west side. As I ascended, the wind became stronger and stronger until I had to resort to lying, face down on the slopes and grabbing onto large rocks to prevent myself from getting blown down the mountain. At one point, while lying down with my ice axe hooked around a rock, the wind actually pushed me several feet down the mountain. That was enough for me to initiate a hasty retreat down to safety.

      

Mist Mountain from Highway 40

 

 

    

The upper slopes of the mountain  

    

Mount Lipsett, Mist Mountain

  • July 29, 2003
  • Mountain height: Lipsett: 2,482 m (8,141 feet)
  • Mist: 3,140 m (10,299 feet)
  • Elevation gain: Lipsett: 392 m
  • Mist:1,050 m
  • Ascent time: 1:25 to Mount Lipsett;
  • 2:10 from Lipsett to Mist Mountain
  • Descent time: 2:55

Solo scramble.

Mist Mountain was a sort of a miserable trip for me. To make a long story short, I lost the trail almost immediately, wasted an hour in thick bush, found all kinds and signs that a bear was in the area and then convinced myself that he or she was stalking me, ended up ascending Mount Lipsett just to get out of the bush (and away from the bear??), started up Mist Mountain, had to backtrack several times, climbed a short section that I knew I couldn't downclimb, made it to the summit, decided to take the alternate return route (because I knew I couldn't downclimb the route I took up!), couldn't decide which gully to use as a descent route, took the wrong one, spent the next hour in a state of paranoia because I was afraid I was going the end up at a drop-off and have to go all the way back up to the ridge, made it safely down the gully, twisted my ankle on easy terrain, and hobbled back to the car. I can't wait to try it again!

 

Aside from the misery, Mist Mountain was a pretty good scramble and there were some really good sections of moderate to difficult hands-on scrambling, right along the edge of the ascent gully. I might have enjoyed it a little more had I not been alone. 

 

   
Mist Mountain, as seen from the summit of Mount Tyrwhitt; Mount Lipsett is the tiny hill at the right, just below center  

  

    
Looking north from the ascent route on Mist Mountain's west side

 

    
The Mist Mountain summit from the descent route along the north ridge

 

    
Finally, near the bottom; I'm not on big flowers, but they certainly provided some beautiful contrasting colours on descent

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