All nine of us met at the base parking lot and merged into 3 persons per vehicle with a total of three vehicles going up to the Moose Mountain trailhead. The upper parking lot was unplowed but there was sufficient parallel parking space along the road to accommodate us and quite a few other vehicles as well. We hiked done the road to the connector trail to Pneuma and headed up. There was lots of fresh snow as well as residual snow drifts where the trail went through the trees. Eventually we emerged into the open plateau which is Buggeration Hill (probably a mountain biker name). After checking for the highest point we took a summit photo. It was onward yo the next summit but first we had to find the trail continuation of Pneuma. After a bit of searching around and help from Joe's GPS we were on the "go" again. As there was snow we somehow missed the continuation of the Pneuma trail and ended up down on the Moose Mountain trail. No issues as I indicated we could take the missed section on the return trip. The Moose Mountain trail had quite a bit of snow in sections with trees and sheltered from the sun. along the way we ran into the "killer" grouse hen who attempted to peck the feet of one of our participants. It was shooed away using poles and by us vacating the area. Once we emerged above treeline, we climbed up to the ridge line where we could see the two summits of Thorne Hill. A ridge extends down to the first and lower summit and it is mostly bare of trees, so there was only drifted snow it patches. To get to the second and higher summit required losing about 25 meters in elevation and negotiating a short 10 meter stand of fir trees which were reasonably close together. A short climb of 30 meters brought us to the rocky summit and our lunch spot out of the wind.

After lunch, we did the summit photos and retraced our steps past the "killer" grouse hen (who almost was stepped on by one of our group, who didn't see it) and then to the junction of Pneuma trail. Here the group split with four taking the Moose Mountain trail back to the cars and five taking the Pneuma to the point where we had left it earlier in the day. The group of five then returned to the Moose Mountain trail for the last 200 meters back to the cars. They arrived within 5 minutes of the other groups arrival at the cars. It was just left to descend the very bumpy Moose Mountain road back to the cars at the base parking lot.

It appears that a good day was had by all on a summit that no one had done before and likely a Rambler first. Most had already done Moose Mountain at least once. Thanks to participants Sim,Joe,David,Peter,Jeannine,Jeannette,Janice and Sharon for making this a relaxed enjoyable outing in quite decent weather..

Thanks to David and Sim for photographs of the trip and Joe for GPS assistance as required.

Bob

pictures to be added shortly