Distance done: 16.0km
Elevation done: 1140m
19 hours trip and 10:40 hours on the trail. I can say confidently it was a long day.
We started our hike in rain. The forecast was only 1mm of rain. But it appeared to me that their 1mm was bigger than 1mm that I know of. It was my first visit to Joffre Lakes area. My initial perception that the lake trail was a piece of cake. But I found it harder and it was not as the quality that I thought - many roots, rocks, and boulders.
Our progress was fairly slow. Part of it was intentional to keep our energy till the end and part of it was that I was struggling with the trail. We got to the bridge that leads to Joffre Campground after 2:20 hours where we had our 1/2 lunch break. All lakes were unfrozen. The trail was also clear from any snow.
I was pleased to see Tszil has a trail. I found it actually in a better conditions that the Lake trail although it is not well defined as the other one. I am not sure if the trail goes all the way to the summit. Most probably not.
After about 50minutes, There was a fork. It was not marked but the trail goes higher up away from the bottom of the gully. I saw the detour was unnecessary. Perhaps it is safer in some others conditions but not ours. We followed it as the trail appeared to be in good conditions. However, after a while it followed a narrow ridge that was about 100m high and it gets less than 1 foot wide in few sections. After that ridge, there was a short scrambling section. It was not easy especially because of snow and wet conditions. Reaching the col from this point was easy.
We got to the col at 4pm. We still had 230m of elevation gain to do. It was whiteout. A large of the slope was still covered by snow. We decided to give it a try. It was not easy. Some rocks were slippery and some of the snow was not in good conditions. We summitted at about 4:55pm.
On the way back, we chose the gully with the snowfield. It was quicker and more fun.
Participants: