Mount Harper

May 5, 2024

1485m

Kamloops, BC

Mt. Harper boasts almost 600 m prominence and is home to Harper Mountain ski resort. I don’t know why there’s a separate ski resort given the Sun Peaks is basically in the same area, but in any case Kate and I snowshoed up Mt. Tod earlier in the morning and I wanted to make full use of the day by bagging at least one more objective. I made Google to direct us to the resort and we got there in about an hour. During the dry season this mountain is more used by downhill bikers and there is literally a maze of MTB trails on the western flanks. There are numerous possible trail-heads for us hikers, but I decided to drive as far as possible and take the open runs in the ski resort. This would give the shortest attack while avoiding the biking traffics on a Sunday afternoon.

It turned out that the resort village was closed for vehicular traffic with the exception of having a permit, so we just parked outside the closure zone, which only added about 200 m of walking anyway. Seeing most, if not the entire mountain was dry we decided to ditch the snowshoes for trail-runners and only carry one backpack. This was the correct call as we were able to avoid snow entirely. The ascent itself was no-brainer as all we needed was to follow the open runs to the top. Not far from the summit we wrapped around to the SW side and and final attack was quite gentle from that side. Perhaps the most notable discovery was a violin inside the upper gondola station. It was not locked so Kate went in and played a bit of her music. The true summit on the other hand, was forested with no view.

Kate starting the ascent, without carrying a backpack

Kate marching up with Mt. Lolo and Mt. Fleet behind

We did find some patches of snow, but were able to avoid all of them

The final push to the summit was from the SW side

Kate arriving at the uppermost ski lift station

Another photo of Kate, near but not on the summit

A view of Mt. Fleet that I bagged a few years ago

A quick shower was passing by. This was looking towards Chuwhels Mountain

Mt. Peter in the very foreground with Kamloops Valley behind

This is the southern view with Highway 1 corridor in the foreground

After taking in enough of the mediocre views we followed the same route back, jogging most of the time. The weather was about to turn as we got a few drops of rain back at the vehicle, but I still wanted another objective. I decided to make the final decision after getting back into Kamloops. Thankfully the rain stopped, so we resumed the peak-bagging quest. Kate’s knees were feeling the pain so I picked the easiest possible one.