Mt Carnarvon via Hamilton Lake Scramble on 12-Aug-2020

We met at the Emerald Lake TH near Field BC at 8.30am and set off along the good park trail to Hamilton Lake. Despite ominous clouds in Calgary, it was clear but cool (+8c) in the nearly empty parking lot. Two hours later we had a break at Hamilton Lake and studied our approach to the ridge for Mt. Carnarvon.

We crossed the outlet stream and followed a rough trail up a drainage and eventually onto the open ridge with a cairn. Enroute we admired 2 magnificent goats.

Since the wind was brisk we donned jackets as we approached the cliffs on the ridge.
For the most part these were tackled straight on, but higher up we deviated to climber's left to ascend in a series of steps (sort of). At one point we encountered a snow gully which we were uncomfortable crossing even with ice-axes, so we found a good higher route. The axes were never actually used. Cairns were in abundance, They were mostly useful but at least on one cliff they were misleading. We reached the summit about 2.30pm for a late lunch.

The views were impressive and the wind mostly calm. We were only the second group to sign the register this year. We started back down about 3.00pm. Brian did a good job route-finding while your scribe David struggled unsuccessfully to keep up. On a few occasions we had to face in to down climb the mostly firm rock.

With the occasional break we reached Hamilton Lake about 6.00pm and the cars at 7.40pm. We didn't see anyone outside the parking lot all day. I was back home in Calgary by 10.30pm.

I can definitely recommend this scramble: relatively good rock, good approach trail (to Hamilton Lake), in a broad sense its easy route finding (trail then ridge to summit), little grovelling on scree, huge views. Stats: 18km, 1740m in 11 hours. Thanks to the company of Brian photos, and Toshiko from David C&S. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Participants: David,Toshiko,Brian.