Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

November 10, 2019

2357m

Stein Valley / Duffey Lake Road, BC

“Cottonwood Peak” is an unofficial name to the highest point on the ridge east of Gott Peak and Blowdown Pass in Stein Valley Provincial Park. The name of this peak is likely derived from the proximity to Cottonwood Creek which is one of the zillion tributaries of Stein River but other than bivouac.com I found no other reference. The access of this area is not from the Stein River trail system but rather Duffey Lake Road and Blowdown Creek FSR. With a “normal” 4×4 high-clearance vehicle one can drive 10 km up the forestry road but those with ATVs or modified 4×4 vehicles can probably drive all the way to Blowdown Pass. The access of this area is surprisingly easy for “BC standard” and there are numerous easy summits around the pass to keep peak-baggers busy for at least a couple days. “Cottonwood Peak” is by no doubt the least popular objective and I found virtually zero information online, although the proximity to Blowdown Pass means that this peak likely sees more traffic than what appears on the internet.

If not because of Alex’s suggestion I actually wasn’t even aware of this peak so this trip was once again, a pure spontaneous, last-minute decision. I did know a little bit about Gott Peak, and the unofficially-named “Gotcha Peak” and “Notgott Peak” around Blowdown Pass because I’d seen them from the nearby Steep Creek peaks, but the lowest of them, “Cottonwood Peak” hadn’t caught my attention yet. Alex’s the expert of the Duffey zone, that this would be his last peak to bag in the close vicinity. I did do my own research and agreed that the Blowdown Pass area would indeed be a perfect choice for this past Sunday. For the most important, it hadn’t seen any significant precipitation in the last two weeks and it’s abnormal that one could still drive high on logging roads in November. It made perfect sense to take advantage of the lack of snow while we could still drive there.

In the morning I picked up Alex from the church in West Vancouver at 5:30 am and made to Pemberton about two hours later. The start of Blowdown Creek FSR is fair a bit of ways down Duffey Lake Road and the forestry road itself was rougher than I thought. There were numerous (shallow) water bars that kept the speed down. None of them presented much trouble to my Tacoma until the last few at around 10 km mark. One particular ditch appeared sketchy but it was the next one that scrapped the bottom of my truck. The last few kilometers were also covered in fresh snow from the previous night but my truck handled it well, even with just stock tires. The tricky ditches were pretty close to the “trail-head” anyway so those without a trusty 4×4 can still park earlier and walk. The weather was overcast with flurries but the forecast was calling for “gradual clearing” throughout the day.

The first couple kilometers on the deactivated road towards Blowdown Pass had lots of slippery rocks and once we hit continuous snow I ditched trail-runners for mountaineering boots. In another kilometer or so we made the call to strap snowshoes on. The snowshoes weren’t needed but we figured that with the extra bits of flotation and traction the plod would be slightly easier than boot-packing. There were of course, many shallow and dry stretches that made snowshoes annoying to say the least, but we did manage to keep the ‘shoes on all the way to Blowdown Pass. The walk to the pass was pretty easy without much worth noting, but expect it to be longer than you think.

Beyond the pass we continued plodding down the deactivated logging road into the Stein drainage. It really didn’t matter where exactly to leave the road for the bush. The longer we stood on the road the more elevation loss/regain we had to deal with but also the less bushwhacking. It also appeared that hauling snowshoes were no longer needed for the off-trail sections so we ditched the ‘shoes before entering the forest. The bushwhacking was more like a walk in the open forest and in no time we were on the ridge with many bumps to traverse up and over. There was more snow on the ridge than we thought but because of the firm conditions we didn’t regret too much for not hauling snowshoes. There were lots of post-holing but those were much more acceptable than last weekend on Hidden Peak, so no complaint. Once starting gaining elevation towards the first of the two main bumps we could finally stay on mostly wind-scoured terrain with minimal post-holing. The wind also picked up, unfortunately so we had to don some layers.

The ascent over the two successive bumps were more scenic than expected. The views were indeed opening up with Skihist Mtn. and Siwhe Mtn. stealing the show looking south and east. There’s about 50 m elevation loss down to the final saddle before Cottonwood Peak along with some brief hands-on scrambling on slick rocks. The rest of the plod up to the summit was trivial and we stayed there for at least half an hour waiting for the clouds to continue lifting.

The traverse back across the two bumps were actually the highlight for views because the sky was clearing up to become a bluebird late afternoon. We took lots of pictures but also managed to keep a steady pace. The elevation regains were surely annoying, but in such a gorgeous afternoon we did not complain.

Once back to the road I decided to bag Gotcha Peak since it’s right there. Alex had done it on skis in the past, so opted to wait for me at Blowdown Pass. I agreed with some that the high Stein divide is such an underrated area that offers endless oppourtunity to explore. I previously hadn’t paid much attention to this zone because of the unofficial status of these peaks, but after this trip I think I definitely will come back more often.