Cascades Youth Expedition a Great Success
I’m slowly recovering form my recent expedition to the
Cascade Mountains of the
The expedition had three main objectives:
- To trek the Wounderland Trail
- To Climb Mt. Rainier
- To Canoe the Bowron Lakes
When we started the Wonderland
Trail on 18th July the rangers reported that no one had got past the first
day. People attempting the Trail were turning back simply because there was too
much snow. I have to say that this 'trek' was more a mountaineering
adventure. Fortunately we took ice axes which were needed. We completed
the Trail in 7 gruelling days. To give you a flavour, day one was 15 hours
before we eventually reached camp. By the time we finished we were
still the only group to have completed the trail. I think the total ascent was
something close to 27000' (with the descents similar).
Word got round the National Park that a bunch of Brit
youngsters had done the Trail. The rangers were even more amazed
when following the Trail we immediately embarked on an ascent of Mt
Rainier and six of the group got to the summit following two days of
being holed up at high camp due to the conditions.
Rainier is a tough mountain, it is heavily crevassed and is a training ground for American Everest teams. We were the first and one of the only teams to make it to the summit while we were on the mountain. Many other teams didn’t get out of their tents or turned back due to high winds (they have obviously never experienced a Scottish winter!). Mark Salmon and I successfully guided six of our young people to the top all of whom displayed incredible technical competence on the mountain.
The third objective was in British Columbia, Canada
to canoe the wilderness Bowron
Lake Circuit. This natural rectangle is over 100 km long and we completed
the circuit in five days.
More information about the expedition can be found on the Expedition Website (which I will
get round to up-dating soon.)
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