Augerpoint Mountain, Syd Watts Peak and Ruth Masters Lake are all located inside Strathcona Park along the eastern shore of Buttle Lake. I traveled there with three friends from our hiking club at the last minute. In fact, we planned it just 12 hours before departing! At the time, severe fire conditions from a long, hot summer meant most BC Parks had to be closed to hiking. Our planned trip was to Castle Towers in Garibaldi Park, a trip we postponed to the following month. This is a picture from the saddle of Augerpoint, looking over Ruth Masters Lake and including Syd Watts Peak in the upper right.

One of the aforementioned snow fields. Going up the slope was easier on the rock but it was fun to glissade down the white stuff on the way back.

This is one of two pictures taken on slide film (Augerpoint at sunset is the other). It looks down at Ruth Masters Lake. The route down is very steep and follows a dry creek bed. The water was very clean and tasted great but too cold for swimming. There we met a local couple spending a few more days in the area. George and Sharon generously offered (and we accepted) us a better map of the area and joined us later that evening on the summit and then at camp for hot cocoa.

From just east of Ruth Master Lake, the terrain falls steeply. Here we can see Mount Frink, and visible behind it is Castlecrag Mountain. After briefly enjoying the view, we returned back up the steep sides of the bowl toward the top of Augerpoint. We summited about an hour later, but the clouds had showed up in force and it began to rain. Since it had been so dry for so long, for once this wet weather was more than welcome. We quickly returned to base at this point.

Sunset from camp. Augerpoint looking saturated in the deep tones of the fading evening. It was a long trip: excluding breaks, we spent over 13 hours on the trail and covered about 32 kms over three days (much of it on Day 2). Our total elevation gain was around 3000m since you have to descend and ascend several times along the way. It's a beautiful area that showed me parts of Vancouver Island I will certainly have to explore in the future.

One my earliest photos, and one of my favourites. As we hiked from the highway (near Gold River, BC) along Elkhorn trail, we came upon this fast-flowing creek. A half-second exposure really enhanced the majestic beauty of the scene, turning the water into a soft mist.

As the heavy snowfall accumulated on the ridge, we could here avalanches all night. Would they be large enough to fall into the lake and wash us away? We hoped not. At 2 am, with the roof of the tent weighed down on our noses, we had to leave our warm sleeping bags and shovel the snow off its sides. The snow collapsed it again 3 hours later. We decided to leave ahead of schedule before an avalanche from Mt. Colonel Foster should ruin our trip further.

Visibility did not improve much after sunrise, but as soon as it did, we packed up. Cold, wet, tired, hungry: the 5 hour return trip began that morning. Though it was scary since the heavily snow-ladened branches obscured the trail, it was surreal to hike in such a whiteout. As our elevation dropped, the snow became rain and we were thoroughly soaked. I vowed to never return to this trail.