Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

October 8, 2023

2421m

Pemberton, BC

Sun God and Seven O’Clock are two of the scrambles well documented in Matt Gunn’s book. These two peaks are scenic and reasonably straightforward, but the access does require a high clearance, 4×4 vehicle. The access is the only reason to keep the area reasonably quiet as the approach to the beautiful lake between the two peaks only takes less than an hour from the parking. For listers or peak-baggers it makes perfect sense to tackle the two objectives in the same outing, but some might prefer to just do one of them as a “half day” trip. In any case Rex F. and I made the decision to head there. The forecast was much better for Saturday but I had to be at work. The forecast for Sunday wasn’t bad, but we anticipated a mix of sun and clouds with possible high winds and intermittent white-outs. These scrambles are well written on the internet so I didn’t bother to do any research asides downloading Andrew Knapman’s GPX track.

The forecast suggested clearer weather in the morning so I left White Rock at 3 am. Rex lives in North Surrey so I grabbed him from his home and then we cruised up the familiar Sea to Sky corridor to Pemberton. We did one usual McDonald’s stop for food. I was expecting some serious pin-stripping because that’s the reputation of this access, but the road condition was much better than I thought. I did have to push through some bushes but I wouldn’t even call this “pin stripping” at all. Comparing to some of the roads that I had driven in Lytton and Chilliwack areas this was literally nothing. We did have to negotiate some ditches that would otherwise stop vehicles that do not boast enough clearance. I attempted to drive a little bit farther than the start of Andrew’s GPX track to the actual trail-head, but there wasn’t enough space to park, so I turned around and parked at the exact spot where Andrew parked.

The approach was more or less a straight-up type of shot to the basin between the two peaks where a lake’s located. The trail-head might not be very obvious but with the GPX track it was easy to locate. Rex and I then went up at a reasonable pace. I was anticipating a faster-than-usual pace but we didn’t feel particularly motivated about pushing each other. There were some boulder fields but the trail was overall easy to follow. Towards the end of the trail I led us traversing across some open slopes towards the outflow of that lake, which was not the exact route that Andrew took. The lake was prettier than I thought so we spent some time taking photos. Both of us had brought a filter because this was a guaranteed source of water so there’s no need to haul multiple liters up from the trail-head. The ascent from the lake to Sun God Mountain was mostly just a plod across open slopes. The terrain was a little bit loose at places but there’s nothing worth noting. We again did not on purposely stay on any existing track. There was some short sections of scrambling near the summit but as Andrew said, it was “class 2” at maximum. The summit was unfortunately cold and windy so asides taking the obligatory photos we didn’t linger too long up there.

We took a slightly different line on the descent as there were multiple ways to ascend/descend this mountain. I led us descending the open scree slopes all the way down to a wide bench before aiming for a traverse towards the broad ridge between Sun God Mtn. and Seven O’Clock Mtn. We eventually found a sheltered spot to do that much-needed lunch break. The ridge traverse between these two peaks was more complicated than I thought with plenty of micro-terrain. I had the idea to do some side-hilling below the ridge crest to avoid the up-and-downs, but it didn’t turn out as planned. The side-hilling brought us into some horrible bushwhacking. I knew we could have backtracked to get ourselves out of the bushes but I also wanted Rex to do more bushwhacking to gain some experience.

To gain the ridge on Seven O’Clock Mountain we also made a slight error in route-finding but the terrain was easy enough that any “line” would eventually work. As a result we merged back onto the correct route after some bashing on treadmill scree. The rest of the ascent was done by staying more or less on the connecting ridge. There’s one gendarme where Rex bypassed on the climber’s left side. I tackled it head-on and both routes worked. There’s an unexpected traverse across a large plateau to reach the true summit and I found that section to be particularly scenic. In fact, I would say Seven O’Clock Mtn. was more scenic than Sun God Mountain, but the latter is the one that boasts the prominence. The weather turned out to be actually better in the afternoon, contrary to the forecast.

After taking enough photos it’s time to head homewards. We mostly descended while staying on the ridge crest but there’s one section where we took our own route instead of following Andrew’s track. I led us descending in a straight line and despite the steepness it worked out nicely, whereas Andrew took a more meandering way. We finished the round trip in 7 hours and we were not rushing. I managed to drive us all the way back to Squamish but then Rex had to take over the drive. I did not get much sleep at all in the previous evening so I needed to take a nap. We decided to have a dinner in Richmond before going home.