Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

October 20, 2026

2296m

Squamish, BC

“Mt. Wood”, “Zig Zag Peak” and “Buck Mountain” are the unofficial names of the three southernmost peaks on Ashlu-Elaho Divide. These peaks were almost exclusively tagged as part of the Ashlu-Elaho traverse on skis but since the deactivation of Ashlu Creek FSR circa 15 years ago the area had become quieter. Even 5 years ago I was able to drive the Tacoma a few kilometers in for Chimai Mtn. but these days the barrier had been put right in front of the bridge crossing Ashlu Falls, and the Ashlu Creek FSR had more or less become a “BW2” bushwhack already. Thankfully the access to these southern peaks hasn’t changed much as one ascends straight up the forest within 1 or 2 km after crossing the bridge. Among the three peaks Mt. Wood is the highest and the most prominent and the only one that requires substantial amount of glacier travel. I wanted to prioritize getting this one done.

My original plan for these peaks was to combine with Mt. Charlie-Charlie and Pykett Peak to make an overnight snowshoe trip in spring but then the mega influencer William F. came from the U.S. and completely blew up this quiet zone this year. Notably a gigantic glacial lake had formed underneath Zig Zag Peak and that had drawn significant attention from the masses. Within a couple months 140 people had downloaded William’s GPX track and a footbed had even started to form in parts of the forest that was otherwise a total bushwhack in the past. The bushwhacking was not as terrible as I thought it’d be. That “Zig Zag Lake” would be very much frozen and covered in snow in spring and most of the summer until August so fine, I decided to skip the two peaks farther back on the divide in order to focus getting the three closer ones in a single day in the summer. Most importantly I too wanted to see this lake at least once. That perfect oppourtunity never came until mid-October. The weather was still good and the condition was still dry, and Tanja was keen on getting out. Not a lot of folks in this “SWBC Peak Baggers” group could pull off these 3 peaks in a single day in October but Tanja would be one of them, so we pulled the trigger. Knowing it had taken Tiger L. and Oleg K. 16 hours C2C for just Mt. Wood and Zig Zag Peak we anticipated a demanding outing no matter what, and the decision was made to meet up in Squamish at 5:15 am in order to start hiking no later than 6 am. I knew we would be faster than most people out there but I didn’t expect to finish the round trip in only 10 hours.

The downside for not doing Mt. Charlie-Charlie and Pykett Peak is perhaps I’ll never come back for them, as they don’t look particularly “interesting”, and I had already done the rest of the peaks farther back on the divide, but that’s okay. Maybe I’ll change my mind at some point. For the gear we opted to travel light-and-fast carrying only aluminum ice axe and crampons. I had also decided that if Oleg could manage his trip in only microspikes (albeit, barely) then I would have no issue in wearing trail-runners with the strap-on crampons so I left the boots at home. I was definitely correct. The glacier would be mostly “dry” at this time of a year so there’s no need to bring a rope nor the harnesses. The morning routine went by mostly as expected, and we did manage to start hiking at around 6 am. A simple dash about a kilometer up Ashlu Main followed by a short but steep spur road we came to the minor creek crossing (on boulders) and then dived into the forest. We had William’s GPX as well as the many tracks on Gaia’s public database to follow and the bearing was straightforward. The micro-terrain could be navigated one way or another. The bushwhacking was not “nothing” but definitely not terribly by this area’s standards. At around 1000 m elevation we could finally turn off the head-lamps. We encountered a few thicker bands as well as some very steep and slick stretches but again, nothing’s too overly worth mentioning. The bushes were entirely dry and we appreciated that. After gaining 1400 m elevation we finally emerged out of the forest and found that tiny stream mentioned in Oleg’s comments. We loaded up the water bottles and resumed. In retrospect there were plenty of water sources along the ridge heading towards “Buck Mtn.” but this stream was the only source of running water, and I did not bring a filter this time in order to conserve weight.