Elevation Gain: 1,008m
Distance: 6.15km
Total Time: 3 hours 4 minutes
Date: April 12th, 2026
Alex had been mulling over the idea of doing a spring ascent up Mount Arrowsmith on the coming weekend. I was debating something else, but in the eleventh hour, I decided to join him. He had already sorted out all of the ferry logistics so this was an easy one to sign up for. Alex booked the 6:15am ferry and we showed up with plenty of time. By 9am we were at the trail head and making our way for the Main Gully Route. This route and the summit itself are very well documented, so I’ll just add that the most significant part of this mountain to me was it being the genesis for Mystery Mountain and the ensuing expeditions to reach the highest summit in BC.
Our route started on a well punched in trail and it was snow free until about 1200m. This is around the time we left the forest and started booting up snow in the main basin on the south west side of the summit. We accidentally started up the wrong gully afterwards, but back tracked and found our way on the proper route.
At the top of the bowl was a narrow constriction which formed the upper part of the main gully. It looked to be in fine shape and one party was already ahead of us. We trudged up and past them and made a second route finding error. This time scrambling part way to “Peter’s Peak” before re-routing back to the summit line. Now mostly on rock we reached the summit without any further errors. Clouds were whirling in and out and while we didn’t have the best views it was a scenic outing nonetheless.
We followed our tracks back from the summit down the gully and reached the forest not long after. Alex had us deposited in the ferry line with more than enough time to catch one home that day. It was a short outing, but nice to go somewhere different.