Mount Outram
 |
Mount Outram is the highest Cascade summit north of Highway 3, who's trail begins just inside the Westgate of Manning Park. This is a steep trail: shorter than Golden Ears yet 260m greater in elevation gain, and without the tree cover protection from the sun. This picture is taken from the Eastern-most lake about 3/4 of the way up. |
|
We continued, passing several marmot holes and then came upon the dreaded scree. About two hours on the trail, and well over 2000 metres at this point, we began to feel it. Our group of four had been moving fast all morning and suddenly found frustration at wanting, but unable to, climb faster. The thinner air was taking its toll.. |
|
 |
Not too much longer, and finally, the summit. We did it in 2:50! We couldn't believe we had summited in less than 3 hours (two 5-minute breaks excluded)! I expected at least 4:30 (it's an 8 hour return trip). we had left the trailhead at 9am and summited at noon |
|
The views were tremendous, but it was cold. The wind had us quickly don our summit wear. This is looking West toward Hope, not far away. You can actually see the roofs of the buildings there. While enjoying the views, some of the 10 other hikers we teamed up with made their way to the top to join us. |
|
 |
Now we are looking Southeast into Manning Park. The prominent peak in the centre is Silvertip Mountain with Mount Rideout to the right. |
|
After we took our photos, the assembled group then headed East down the ridge, taking the long way back. We sauntered along a precipitous ridge, marked with many steep gullies and chutes. Extreme geography. There are two lakes Southeast of the summit and a swim was on the minds of a few so we wanted to make sure we didn't pass by them. |
|
 |
Here's one of our group passing us on our way down. He's on his way to the summit. The sheers cliffs on the Northeast side of the mountain are apparent here and it's a long way down. |
|
A broader view of Mount Outram from the drying lake bed. The lake was about half its normal size. Mountain stats: elevation 2440 meters; elevation gain- 1760m; round trip length including loop to the lakes: 20 kms. It took 2:50 going up (excluding 2 5-minute breaks), and surprising to me, the same 3 hours coming down. Of course, we did take a longer route down. All photos on this page taken August 24, 2003 with my EOS 7e 28-90mm, 28-90mm lens shooting Fuji Reala 100 ISO print film |
|
