Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

April 27, 2026

2937m

Lillooet Icefield, BC

Stanley Peak and “Bridge Peak” are the two 2900+ meter objectives at the head of Bridge Glacier. The former might be less of an iconic peak but is about 10 m taller. They are traditionally approached by a multi-day trek (mostly on skis) from Salal Creek and the route is fairly well established with several options existing, but they can also be fairly easily tagged as part of the Lillooet Icefield traverse. Alex, Seb, Francis and I were on the 4th and final day of the heli-assisted traverse and the plan was to both of them before flying out. We unfortunately only had 4 days available in this incredible weather window and even managing 4 days was putting a lot of stress on our work schedule.

In the previous day we had made a detour to climb Mt. Fulgora, the highest objective in this trip and then we camped literally at the base of Stanley Peak. It made sense to climb Stanley in an “up and over” fashion so that’s why we saved it for the last day, as we would have to go over the col SW of it anyway. The weather forecast wasn’t 100% bomber and we even got some snow showers overnight, but the clouds dissipated in the morning so we woke up at sunrise and resumed the traverse as planned. There was still fair amount of plodding to carry the heavy packs to the base of the NW Ridge of Stanley Peak. We then ditched the packs and went to tag the summit. Francis opted to skin all the way up the NW Ridge whereas Seb took a more direct route on snowshoes. Alex and I however, decided to make a transition to don crampons. I led the boot-pack following Seb’s snowshoe tracks and there’s fair amount of post-holing involved. The views were of course stunning but we were all looking at the clouds in the distance. I texted the pilot from No Limit Helicopters to request an earlier pick-up if possible. The Rogers had put me on their satellite connection such that I could simply text whomever on Messenger and What’s App, which made communication infinitely easier.

While descending Stanley Peak I got a text back from Denise, that I should directly contact the pilot who’d be flying us home. I then sent a few more texts but didn’t get anything back until a couple hours later. We originally scheduled the pick-up at 5:30 pm near “White Cross Mtn.” but we managed to change that to 3:30 pm at the base of “Bridge Peak” without additional costs. The peak SW of Stanley Peak had minimal prominence nor a name so we skipped it. Instead, we side-hilled across the west side of that bump and made a rough descent down the south ridge which involved a few steep and rocky rolls. More side-hilling later we arrived at the next saddle, and then reluctantly plodded to the summit of “The Dome”. This bump is somehow named on bivouac.com but I think they messed up the elevation of it. I actually don’t think it boasts over 100 m prominence after consulting with the various map layers but we did it anyway, as it’s basically on the route to “Bridge Peak”.

Francis then went ahead since he’s on skis, and the three of us on snowshoes simply followed his tracks side-hilling around the next bump to the basin NW of “Bridge Peak”. There had been fair amount of side-hilling on this day and most of them were done on firm snow, so our ankles were in pain. We took a long break at the base of “Bridge Peak” and the final decision was to ascend the east ridge. The glacier appeared broken and the snow condition was more “interior” than “coast”. The bergschrund to get onto the east ridge felt the sketchiest in this entire trip, but we still didn’t bother with roping up. Francis then led the boot-pack up the east ridge which involved some easy class 3 scrambling and 45-degree snow climbing. With two ice axes and steel crampons the route felt mostly straightforward. I then texted the pilot if we could schedule the pick-up to 2 pm but that wasn’t possible due to another group flying with them.

We lingered on the summit of “Bridge Peak” for at least half an hour as there’s no need to rush anymore, and eventually down-climbed the east ridge and plodded back to the gear stash. Francis enjoyed doing some turns but the condition wasn’t the most prime for skiing. The next 1.5 hours were spent doing nothing and we kept watching the weather system to the north. Fortunately it never really migrated south so the skies above us was still clear. The helicopter showed up on time and we were back in Whistler in less than an hour. This was again, a very long but scenic ride. We flew directly over the pass between Mt. Meager and Capricorn Mountain and got some very cool views of the Meager Group peaks. Unfortunately I had already done most of them so the “beta photos” weren’t that needed. Our eyes were all sore from spending 4 days on the icefield so it was a nice change to take off the sunglasses for the casual drive home. I eventually got home at 7 pm and worked for another 1.5 hours remotely. As mentioned earlier I was really pushing for the 4-day trip so I might as well catch up with some work since we were able to finish the trip slightly earlier than planned.