 
As usual on a Saturday, we sleep-in, have breakfast, then take
pretty much the whole morning to decide what to do. Since my
wife hadn't gone to the mountains in a while, I suggested to
take her scrambling on this day... and as a treat, the mountain
had to be close to a body of water as a backup trip. Mt. Indefatigable
was the first to come to my mind.
We left the jam-packed parking lot at 2:30pm only to realize
that I left my camera at home. I was so disappointed that I
totally lost my motivation to do anything at all. |
| We followed the trail
to Mt. Indefatigable (signed). It first enters the forest, then
goes through the ridge to numerous lookouts. The views from
the ridge were very beautiful, and I hated myself for leaving
the camera behind. I also hated myself for being slower than
the one I used to drag up the slope. I guess my legs were still
beat from the Niblock/Whyte
traverse Ian Cameron and I did the day before.
At the end of the "official" trail (bench), we
left the crowd and headed towards the North Summit. The trail
turns left just before the bench, then enters the forest again
to a t-junction. We took the right turn and after a few minutes
the trail reached the tarn. The objective becomes clear at
this point. Mt. Indefatigable's North Summit on the left and
a false summit on the right. We started seeing more people
here and so I began to doubt the difficult rating of this
mountain. We also met a couple hikers wanting to reach the
summit as well. I contracted them to spare me a shot with
their camera and they agreed to email it to me.
The trail continues to the right side of the small pond.
After about a hundred steps, we took a trail on the left to
gain the col. The trail straight ahead leads to the false
summit (repeater), which, we later realized, is the tourists'
summit. That was the camera couple's destination.
After having lunch at the col, we traversed the left side
of the ridge (as per Kane) towards the final ascent gully.
This gully has a lot of loose rocks and unstable hand-holds.
My wife started getting worried about the possibility of a
more difficult return trip, but a little bit of motivation
pushed her to reach the top. This is my wife's first difficult
scramble so I have to give her credit for her effort. I didn't
want to push my luck with her so I chose not to traverse to
the South Summit. After signing the register, we returned
the same way... slowly, safely. This trip took us an amazing
2:30hrs ascent and 2hrs descent. |
