Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

July 9, 2015

2675m

Inveremere, BC

Merioneth Peak is one of the smaller objectives in the group of Welsh Peaks that I ascended last week as part of the Welsh Lakes camp. It’s also the last objective that I ascended after successfully reaching the summits of Alpha Centauri, Antrim, Leitrim, Gwendoline, Carmarthen and then Harlech. Unfortunately Eric and Ben weren’t motivated for this peak so I had no choice but ascending it by myself.

The traverse from Harlech to Merioneth was nothing science but did have some elevation loss/regain and again, on boulders. Merioneth Peak is slightly higher than Harlech and offers some better views, but again, nothing really spectacular considering what I just did in the past few days.

On the descent I was supposed to reverse the route up and over Harlech Peak but for some reasons I decided to short-cut it by side-hilling around Harlech. That indeed shaved me off roughly 50 meters of elevation regain but the price I paid was some miserable steep grass side-hilling. Not a recommended route choice unless you’re really pressed with time. The rest of the way down Harlech’s SE Ridge was uneventful until near the end where I down-climbed a very difficult rock step (low 5th class) to pick up my ditched backpack. Had I paid more attention to route-finding it’s no more than moderate scrambling, but oh well..

Once re-joining Eric and Ben at the outflow of Aberystwyth Lake we resumed the return. It’s not a long return but did feel quite tedious at places, particularly due to the furnace-like temperature (glad I brought my iPod along).

The driving out of Forester/Horsechief FSR was a bit easier than what we remembered from 4 days ago. At least Eric’s Volvo didn’t get bottomed out this time. We checked the weather forecast in Radium and it’s no good for the following few days with chances of thunderstorms on each day. So the decision was easy – driving all the way back home.