Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

April 16, 2017

1692m

Hope / Fraser Canyon, BC

Immediately to the north-east of Hope townsite locates a large vegetated massif that boasts about half a dozen false peaks as well as a steep and cliffy southern flanks, and this is Ogilvie Peak. The eastern and western flanks are less steep but chocked with some heavily overgrown logging roads while the north aspect is an undulating ridge traverse leading towards the higher neighbour – Jorgenson Peak. Despite the proximity to civilization the true summit of this peak rarely sees visitors thank to the bushy nature of this ascent. Few people I knew would be up to give Ogilvie Peak a try and among them, most ended up having to attempt multiple times which seemed like the norm for this group of obscured summits. The status of this peak remained mysterious for many years.

The fact that it’s literally sandwiched among three of the BC’s most travelled highways (Highways 1, 3 and 5) while looming impressively above the town of Hope, and at the same time it’s so obscured that even the most die-hard peak-baggers ended up having to try multiple times really fascinated me. There were literally only two or three trip reports out there on the internet and I had to dig really hard to get any useable route information. The conclusion was that any successful summit bid was done via the system of logging road on the NW side of the massif, starting somewhere around 5.5 km up the Squeah FSR on the east side of Fraser River. Further digging showed that it shared the same approach as Jorgenson Peak and after consulting with various maps, photos and Google Earth for at least an hour I concluded that I really should try tagging both in one shot. The primary objective then got shifted to the higher Jorgenson Peak and from J/O col I would aim at traversing the entire length of the NE ridge over 5 or 6 subsidiary bumps to the true summit of Ogilvie Peak. This route had no previous account on the internet so would be entirely experimental, but as far as my experience went I was fairly confident it would go.

Earlier in the morning I had just made a successful ascent of Jorgenson Peak. The ascent only took 5.5 hours from truck and was much smoother than anticipated. After reversing my tracks back to Jorgenson/Ogilvie col I wasted no time but immediately resumed the plod towards my secondary objective. The steepest section was actually the initial climb out of the col but the snow condition was really good that I didn’t even have to take the snowshoes off. At the maximum grade I did a few tight switchbacks and the problem was solved. The actual highpoint of this first bump was bypassed on the left side followed by a short descent down to bump 1/bump 2 saddle. Ascending towards the second bump I opted to bypass it again, with this time on the climber’s right side. I managed to get a good portion out of the way by traversing onto a gigantic open slope. About halfway across I did not like the feel of the conditions so bailed back and then found a nice and wide ledge to resume the traverse and then bump #2 was bypassed.

Ascending onto bump #3 started out easily but soon I had to face some heavily corniced sections. Given the recent fatalities I gave each of them a healthy respect. The top of this bump was a flat plateau and then I was off for another brief downhill to the next saddle. Upwards and onwards I again, had to be careful with cornices and near the top of bump #4 I had no choice but to get pretty close to the edge for one short stretch (but without any real exposure). Descending off bump #4 was kind of steep and involved the greatest amount of elevation loss on this traverse. About 50 vertical meters down I was on bump 4/bump 5 saddle looking up at the next section.

Based on earlier observation I knew bump #5 should be bypassed and I was corrected. There’s a very obvious ledge about halfway up this thing and the traverse over to bump 5/bump 6 saddle was very easy with minimal elevation loss. Grunting up bump #6 was nothing fancier than a plod, albeit a tiring one. Another short, but steep descent (for only 15 meters or so) later I was finally staring at the highest point. Ironically after so much of hard work the true summit was found to be heavily vegetated and I had to walk around the edges to soak in the views.

I took a lengthy break for more than half an hour up on the summit or Ogilvie Peak but the time was getting on and at this point I challenged myself another mission to get off the mountain before dark, so I had to move on. Reversing those bumps was tedious but at least went by fast. They really weren’t as bad as appeared and in no time I was back at bump 1/bump 2 saddle. The last uphill grunt of this day was soon over and then the plunge down to Jorgenson/Ogilvie col was steep but very enjoyable. Wasting no time I resumed the descent following my exact tracks. The snow condition was so good that for every step down I could glide a bit forward and in no time the 400 m elevation loss was done and I was back on the logging road. I followed this “Jorgenson spur” road to its end just to see how I missed the start in the morning. The misery was solved that I basically didn’t go far enough, but oh well. Onto the main branch I kept the ‘shoes on till where I ditched my sneakers. Putting the dry socks and the sneakers on was definitely the highlight of this trip and the rest of the descent back to the truck was uneventful.

The drive out of the Squeah FSR was fast and fun and I really liked the performance of my new Tacoma. I challenged myself a new mission that was to get back home for a (very late) dinner. Darkness didn’t fall until I got back to near Chilliwack and I was back by around 9:20 pm which was not bad. Overall I’d say this approach (J/O col then NE Ridge) was much better than I thought with many bumps able to bypass without actually traversing up and over. There was no bushwhacking whatsoever thank to the thick snowpack we’ve received in this year, nor any particularly cruxy step to negotiate. The route also did not cross any troublesome chute or slide path for that matter and in the right conditions it’s most just a cruise sailing. The fact that it only took me 3 hours from the summit back to truck proved that so now with the misery resolved I hope there’ll be more of you coming here to enjoy this mountain.