As part of a planned traverse from Compass Lake to the Dean Channel, I was looking at a possible ascent up Tzeetsaytsul Peak. Located just South of Compass Lake, it’s somewhat overshadowed by its taller sibling Thunder Mountain to the south but is an impressive formation in its own right. What added to the appeal was that I could find no recorded ascent. Given its proximity to the Bella Coola valley there’s a good chance someone went and climbed it anyways, but it seemed to be a mystery worth solving.
Now the day had arrived to check it out. On the previous afternoon Alex, Brayden, Sarah and myself had climbed Mount Collins to the North and this time we were headed south bound. Armed with small day packs we had to wrestle through the bush in the morning with a particularly nasty patch just below treeline. Once we were out in the alpine the travel was very pleasant. We landed more or less directly under the north face and so we started trending west to gain the tamer looking western face around the corner. Along the way we stumbled across a vibrant blue tarn and made promises to visit on our return.
We followed a natural bench system around to the west side and then up ramps and bands on good rock. At times we travelled on snow slopes to get around steeper sections of rock and before long we dipped our heads into the clouds. Visibility dropped and we soon found ourselves under the steep summit block. We knew from our maps that the south western side might hold tamer ground and so we trended that way.
Sure enough a weakness presented itself, albeit with one low 5th class move to gain the easier terrain above. From there to the summit the route didn’t exceed 3rd class. As we crested on to the true summit an unambiguous assemblage of rocks revealed itself on the summit. Unlike Mount Collins there was absolutely no doubt someone had beat us to it. I would find out after the fact, from Glenn, that there was a significant mineral deposit called the Nifty Deposit below us in the valley. He posited that it was most likely geologists in the early 60’s which had climbed up.
Without that information I was beginning to wonder if we’d been skunked. Collins while seemingly not possessing a cairn still gnawed at me for the possibility and now Tzeetsaystsul definitively had been climbed. We’d make the call later that day to head for summits further afield.
In any event we still had to get back to camp and save for that low 5th class down climb it was a simple affair to get back to that vibrant tarn. We spent a fair bit of time relaxing around the shores and I briefly flirted with the idea of plunging in before realizing how cold it was. Eventually we gathered our belongings and made the bushwhack back to camp for one last dinner on Mosquito Knoll
