Stats include Tszil, Slalok and Taylor
Elevation Gain: 1,813m
Distance: 20.97km
Total Time: 13 hours 34 minutes
Date: September 16th, 2021
Mount Taylor is minor summit on the south western edge of Joffre Lakes provincial park that stands at 2318m tall. The route up is mostly a hike and it’s not a particularly interesting objective, but to peak baggers it’s an easy one to tack onto a trip up Slalok. From the Tszil-Taylor col, it’s only an additional 200m of elevation gain to reach the summit. For those reasons, after just finishing an ascent of Tszil and Slalok, Val and I decided to run up and tag the summit to avoid having to come back for this peak alone.
We left our bags at the col with Holly while she stayed back to enjoy a break. Val and I only took our poles and started a half-run up the eastern slopes of Mount Taylor. The route was very straight forward with a simple ridge line that lead naturally to the summit. On the way up, we had to contend with a few 2nd class steps and bit of weaving around some vertical micro terrain, but it was otherwise a mere hike to the summit.
About 15-20 minutes after leaving the col, we both stood on the summit. We had some surprisingly nice views of Joffre Lakes, Pemberton and of course Slalok. However, daylight was running out quickly, so we spent two minutes at most on the summit and then started a jog down. From the summit we back tracked the same route we took up. Except perhaps 80m from the col, I ended up taking us to far south along the slope and we had to descend some steep heather and scree before rejoining with our original track. Once on our track again, it was a simple plod back to the col where we met up with Holly.
Now came the long arduous ascent back to the truck. We reversed our course down the boulder field, past the 3rd class bluffs above the moraine ridge and then down the ridge itself. At the end of the ridge, daylight ran out and the head lamps came on. From there it was a bit slower, contending with more boulder field crossings, but we eventually made it back to the smooth trails around Joffre Lakes. Another hour or so later and we finally arrived back at the parking lot, exhausted but happy.
