John Clarke-Outrigger Traverse
2019-06-29: Getting into mountaineering is not that straightforward. You either spend lots of money on courses and do guided trips. Or you can find a more experienced person and form a mentorship. Mountaineering clubs are great for this and it’s how I got a chance to meet a famous mountaineer in BCMC circles. Allastair Ferries. Scroll to the bottom if you want specifics on just the route.
Through him, I got the chance to do the John Clarke Outrigger Traverse. A horseshoe style traverse with stunning views of BC coastal wilderness. His wisdom can turn clandestine trips into epics or walks in the park, depending on how much adventure he's up to that trip.
It's worth mentioning one of the mountains along this traverse is named after John Clarke. A truly inspirational and larger than life Canadian who made significant contributions to the conservation of the Sims Creek watershed (Squamish Nexw-Ayantsut) and may also hold the record for most first ascents by any climber ever!
We're fortunate enough to be able to have such a perfect long weekend to do this traverse along with summiting Mt. John Clarke and Outrigger Peak.
This traverse is nestled just South of the Clendenning Range and is often mislabeled. Mt John Clarke was posthumously renamed in honor of John Clarke. While the length of the traverse is not that significant (<40 Km), trail access is challenging. Both ends of the traverse involve bushwacking and routefinding. On the Outrigger end, the whole section of the "trail" that leads to the alpine has been burnt down by the 2014 Elaho forest fire and a part of the John Clarke approach was burnt down during the same forest fire.
We started the traverse from the John Clarke side at 8:30AM and traversed over to Outrigger and out over 3 days. This is the easier route direction as it minimizes the amount of sketchy downclimbing/scrambling. It is also an easier bushwack downwards from Outrigger than up as the slide alders are a bit more forgiving on the way down. This is all beta courtesy of the select few who do this traverse and share their beta within the mountaineering circle. To get to the trailhead John Clarke and co. put up decades ago, you just have to follow the Sims creek logging road for about 5km. The turnoff is left just before the second bridge crossing.
The first thing on this traverse you’ll notice is the bugs along the approach. It rivals that of any swamp land. Any exposed skin when you reach Bug Lake will leave you swollen with regret during bug season. However, once we reached the alpine, the bugs died down slightly and we were greeted with clear skies and magnificent views along the ridgeline.
Along the ridgeline, it's really quite straightforward progress. The only tricky section to contend with is downclimbing from the ridge (if not enough snow) to reach the moat of the glacier on Mt. John Clarke. We chose to flank the west face of the ridge. No downclimbing required. Once we reached the glacier toe, we roped up for the glacieted section. This brought us to some straightforward class three scrambling to summit Mt. John Clarke.
Somewhere hidden among the cairn at the top of Mt. John Clarke is a logbook of many of the ascents with only a few pages filled out! We put our entry in and started contemplating ideal Calorie/Weight ratio for food on these types of trips, concluding 5Cal/g is the lower bound threshold for food to be considered worthwhile to bring...
Downclimbing from John Clarke was also straightforward. Once the downclimb reached the next rocky outcrop, we opted to take the slide path to skiers left rather than try to regain the ridge either by climbing straight up the ridge or traversing across a potential bergschrund.
We descended about 100 meters elevation traversing through the slide path and regained about 20-30 meters to get back on top of the ridge. While not obvious while at that moment, staying high was a good choice as steep cliffbands lined skiers left with steep traversing grades. Back on the ridge, the views become even more dramatic as the Mt. Albert complex starts gravitating our attention while sun lake below compliments the prominence.
Once you reach the approximate halfway point, the views just seem to get better and we started to head below the snow line, lush green meadows and conifers blanket all but the steepest ravine. With dramatic views all around, pictures never do the real thing justice. We got some spectacular views of Princess Louisa Inlet that I bet not too many people see every year. Coincidentally enough, we bumped into a VOC group traversing the opposite direction at the halfway point. Given the remoteness of this trip, that was pretty cool! Their trip report sounded like they weren't happy we didn't do a car swap...
As we push back up to the snowline, our spirits gleaned when we found what I would consider some of the best camping views in all of BC. Enough flat granite to dry all our gear and walk around barefoot.
The next day was a straightforward slog to Outrigger. The last alpine crux was ascending the Outrigger "notch" near the start of the prominence. Along the way we saw some fresh grizzly bear tracks at 1900m and got a glimpse of one. I’m fairly happy that was as close as he was getting. Once we got to the summit, we got a chance to relax and pose for some dramatic shots. A great contrast from years of experience and novelty.
After making long work of the Outrigger summit, we made quick work down to the treeline, or more correctly, the forest fire line. From there, it was a 4-5km bushwack through bug central until we reach the logging road out! There is another notch you need to find to make certain you'll hit the logging road out. Also keep in mind the logging road does not exist on Google Maps as Outrigger is part of the Sim Creek watershed wild land zone and special cultural management area
This section details specifics on routefinding if you are navigating from Mt. John Clarke to Outrigger. No specifics on KM marker etc. This is more descriptive features with some GPS coordinates as it will mostly depend on snowpack if the route presented here is even feasible. My GPS tracker failed halfway through the second day, but the remainder of that day was fairly straightforward and the following day wasn't that bad.
1. Take the sim creek FSR to as far as you can go. We got pretty far down the FSR and made it to 50°14.907' N, 123°35.585'W
2. From there it's a 4.9Km walk along the dilapidated logging road to where you need to make a turnoff to the left of the road. This is where bug lake trail begins 50°15.718'N, 123°38.973'W
3. Follow the "trail" up to bug lake. The fire line starts becoming noticeable around 900m or so. From there the trail gets a bit more challenging to find. At time of writing, the trail continues leftwards until you hit the fire line. Once there, you ascend up until you are in the subalpine.
4. Bug lake is at 1270m 50°14.843'N, 123°38.913'W. On the right side of the lake, the trail continues.
5. At around 1450m, the route goes east of the mountain and you'll be greeted with relief on your left side. Traverse this section carefully. A bit exposed.
6. By about 50°14.628'N, 123°39.445'W, the route starts gaining elevation quickly. Maybe class 3 scramble.
7. Keep going up until you are at in the alpine. Our first camp spot was at 50°14.599'N, 123°40.140'W at 1909m elevation
8. When you are on the knoll ridge, you'll need to decide if you want to downclimb the knoll or traverse a slide path. You have to make this decision pretty quickly. We made our way to the west side of the ridge at 50°14.397'N, 123°40.519'W
9. Once you reach the foot of the John Clarke glacier, there may still be an easy way past the moat. Enough rock might be exposed. The ice gets really bare in September. We roped up.
10. Summit at 50°13.853'N, 123°41.494'W
10. downclimbing from the summit takes time to find the right path. 3rd class scrambling.
12. Next crux is navigating another slide path at 50°13.808'N, 123°41.802'W . Stay relatively high. You'll need to get back onto the ridge whenever you see an opening to do so.
13. You now have a long walk along the ridge to the col between the John Clarke and Outrigger. My GPS at this point died on me.
14. To get of the John Clarke Ridge, you'll need to descend the from the ridge 50°11.846'N, 123°43.782'W down some steep cliffs, it's quite open so you'll be able to navigate a route. When we went we found a way to descend the first steep section near a waterfall. You'll then encounter larger blocks you'll need to descend. Nothing was over 6ft..
15. Walk across the col. There are likely tarns all around.
16. When you are on the Outrigger side, you'll now need to ascend some class 3 scrambling starting around 50°11.585'N, 123°43.046'W. Routefinding zig zags you up.
17. Once you reach the alpine again there'll be lots of flat places to camp and air out your gear clothing.
18. Keep walking along the outrigger ridge for a while. You'll eventually hit a notch (which is really noticable from the John Clarke side) at 50°12.740'N, 123°39.769'W or thereabouts. We crossed up the notch around the point noted above.
19. Keep heading straight up the north face of outrigger. It takes a while and is quite steep. No glacier here, but crampons advisable if snow persists.
20. Walk the ridge, Outrigger peak at 50°12.872'N, 123°38.403'W
21. Descend along the ridge (potentially a glacier crossing right after the peak) until you reach treeline. It's at this point I would recommend reading other blog posts about how to descend.