Get your mitts and shovels out - it's winter out there! (At least on Mt Inglismaldie).

Our group of seven adventurers set out from the trailhead at 8 AM. We quickly came upon that rare tree species the Kokanee-Coors Fir.

We chose not to follow Kane's creek route (which is a mess after last year's flood), but instead stayed high above the creek on climbers left on moderate side hill terrain. The route was mostly open with minimal bushwacking. After two and three quarter hours of following the contours on game trails, we emerged in the upper drainage without losing any elevation. The recent cool wet weather meant that the last 500 metres of elevation gain were going to be in the snow.

We proceeded right to the SW ridge of Mt Inglismaldie. As we proceeded up the ridge and the ramp on the summit block, the snow depth continued to increase. After exiting the ramp, we headed up the West face where the snow was approximately 10-15 cm deep.

The crux of this scramble in dry conditions is a relatively straight forward moderate scramble. With snow, it became a much more challenging undertaking. While the exposure factor did not increase, the inability to easily determine the stability of hand and foot holds meant a lot of extra time was taken on the upper section from the ramp to the summit ridge. In the end five of the group summited Mt Ingismaldie, while two chose not to complete the final 40 metres to the summit ridge.

A slow cautious approach was used in getting back down the summit block to the ramp and down the ridge.

We followed the same route back down into the upper drainage and then retraced our steps staying high above the creek. This is a trip where a GPS is definitely an asset. We arrived back at the vehicles at 7:15 PM. Net elevation gain was 1500 metres and total distance covered was 17 km. Under dry conditions this trip could likely be done in 10 hours. Thanks to John, Damian, Jeannine, Bill, Arnold and Clifton for their great company and sense of humour and for joining me Kevin (S/C)on a long tiring scramble under challenging conditions. Also thanks to Bill for his great photos.