Our group tried to find the bootpath to rainy lake in February 2017 to see how feasible to climb preacher mountain in winter, but we turned around due to bad snow condition and the challenging routefinding in rainy lake bootpath. However, Preacher mountain was still on our todo list and we achieved this goal today with 6 of our group members.
We started to hike around 7:20am and took the spur trail to rainy lake from Pratt river trail. This time, the bootpath is obvious without snow. However, we had to fight with numerous fallen trees. Trail sometime disappeared under fall trees, but we regained the trail after routefinding. Also, rainy lake trail was very wet and muddy.
We found some fresh track on snow and after climbed up a steep ridge to reach rainy lake, we met with a mountaineers group who were targeting for Preacher mountain as well. To save some navigation effort, we tried to follow them from Rainy lake to upper rainy lake. Unfortunately, they took the left side ridge, which seemed not possible to reach the peak due to cliffs. They turned around due to lack of time. Our group pushed forward to cross a wet avalanche zone with spread up technique because the snow was firm today. We then went down another even steeper slope to regain the right ridge of the upper rainy lake. It took us quite a lot of effort and ice axe sills were essential to traverse such steep snow terrains.
After climbed up the right ridge, we finally reached the false summit and then the true summit, which wasn't far away. The view was gorgeous. One side was the middle fork valley with Russian butte, revolution peak, and mount Teneriffe, Bessemer mountain, and others. On the north side, even more mountains. There were cornices on the north side of the summit ridge. Please be careful.
We rested for 30 minutes before we headed down to the upper rainy lake, which was fully covered with snow. We took the right ridge this time and then descended to rainy lake. The snow was firm in the morning, but was soft in the afternoon due to Sunburn, thus we postholed a lot. Snowshoes won't help too much due to the steep slopes. Finally we returned back to our car with headlamps. It was a long day.
If you want to climb Preacher mountain, please be aware that it is a strenuous one. Routefinding skills are required. Ice axe, Crampons or microspikes are good enough in Spring time. Bring enough water.
Comments