The original trip for this date was to be Opal Ridge, but Indian Ridge was rescheduled for this new date since the weather was supposed to be sunny this day - something you want for the great views from the Whistlers and Indian Ridge. With the rescheduling, Carolyn decided to join us. As an added benefit, she could get route conditions and what to expect as Stephanie's group was doing it the day before and they were in the same campsite at adjacent sites.
The day dawned clear and sunny. When the coordinator went to start his car nothing happened. After about 5-10 minutes fiddling with the positive battery terminal (loose from some previous service work), we managed to get it going. About this time, we looked at our Skytrain tickets. James had near an 11:00am flight while mine was 10:08am. Also my second ticket showed 10:20am for the return flight? Something was screwy and we needed to meet with Carolyn to find out if the wrong tickets had been handed to us. A quick trip to Carolyn's campsite determined they had left for the Skytram. As time was getting tight for the first Skytram flight, we booted it up to the Skytram office. Apparently, Carolyn's tickets were a problem and James and her were able to get a 10:08am flightup due to cancellations of two people. When I presented my tickets regarding the return flight it turned out that my 10:08 time was a return flight - go figure - as the Skytram's first flight up is a t 10:08am. I got rescheduled to the 10:43am flight up and James and Carolyn waited at the upper terminal for me to arrive. This was not a good start for a fairly long day.
The trail from the upper gondola is quite wide with a few steeper sections to the Whistler's summit. Absolutely great views from the Whistlers in all directions and worth the cable car trip alone. Beyond Whistlers summit there is a drop to a col and then the climb starts to Indian Ridge, There is a fairly good trail most of the way to the summit. Near the summit, there is one sketchy and scrambly section but the trail is easily seen once through this. The summit was reached by us exceeding by 1 minute the turnaround time Stephanie had recommended (2 hr.) based on Carolyn's previous flight time somewhere around 11:00am. Regardless, we had determined that the traverse would be done and if needed we would hike the trail to the lower terminal if we missed the last Skytrain. We were a little surprised about the fast time required to the summit but were to learn why later in the trip.
After a brief lunch and taking in the views, it was off to do the ridge traverse. The first part is easy relatively flat ridge walking. Eventually pinnacles appear most of which can be circumvented easily. Finally, we arrived at a very narrow section which required a very short mildly exposed awkward scramble over a projecting rock. After getting around this, we encountered the notch. It was necessary to retrace our steps, some of us scrambling down by the projecting rock and others beyond it. Before descending we had noticed a cairn below on the climbers right which we had been told would be there. A few of these cairns were followed to a slope which would provide the descent route. Lots of rubble and avoiding small cliff bands had us traversing back and forth across this slope. Caution was required to not knock rocks down on one another. After well over an hour on this slope, we emerged onto the meadow below and were beginning to understand Stephanie's suggested turnaround time for the summit.
From this point an easy hike up to the low point on the ridge where the trail to Whistlers summit would be found. While climbing up, Carolyn believes she may have seen a wolverine. Whatever it was, it was black with white at the end of its tail. We made the Whistlers summit again in more than enough time to do the descent to the upper terminal to catch our 5:45pm flight. At the Upper terminal we relaxed and took in the views and then caught an earlier flight down.
A very interesting traverse that seems more difficult than one would expect.Thanks to participants James and Carolyn for joining me. Thanks also to Carolyn and James for route finding assistance and Carolyn for the pre-trip information.
BobC/S