Elevation Gain: 818m
Distance: 10.19km
Total Time: 5 hours 47 minutes
Date: January 11th, 2025
The name: Mount McKendrick was adopted in 1941 and is apparently tied to a prospector that lived in the area around 1913. There is little of note about this mountain except that during high avalanche conditions you can at least get out and stretch your legs. That’s what Andrea and I aimed to do this last weekend, as the weather and conditions just weren’t lining up for anything more fruitful. Our plan was to approach from Babine Lake road through some old cut blocks and pray the trees weren’t re-planted by the mad men around SWBC.
We made an initial stab at an ascent on the Saturday but turned back early on when we realized we wouldn’t have enough time. On the following day we woke up earlier, albeit still at a leisurely time, and plotted a more direct line. When we arrived on scene, clouds clung low to the mountains but Mount McKendrick looked unobstructed and there was even a dash of sun to the west.
From the road we skinned through some moderately dense trees and up to an old logging road. It was still fairly chocked with alders low down so we continued on through a more open cut block and then rejoined with the road higher up. We followed this a ways until we reached an open burn area and that took us all the way up to mature forest above. The top snow pack was notably saturated and our skins glopped up horrendously, but we made the most of it.
Through the trees we meandered up the fall line and reached tree line sometime around 2pm. The clouds had blown in by now and it was clear we’d be reaching the summit in a blustery ping pong ball, but so be it! By now the glopping had subsided and despite the wind, we had an easy time reaching the summit navigating by snow ghosts to our right. There weren’t any views to be had so we returned course and setup shelter behind a large rime covered outcrop of trees.
The saturated snow promised challenging turns and we came prepared for battle. Despite the tough skiing it was all smiles as we descended into the forest and it was nice just to be out. We made reasonable time through the often dense sections of trees and before long we were back at the burn clearing. After reaching the road we skied all the way to our cut block detour and then returned to skinning. As the last of the light faded we broke out from the trees and onto the road where our car awaited us.
A short, but worthwhile outing!