The first two miles were great--steady upward climb through fields of fire flowers, Saskatoon berries, and thimbleberries. A huge forest fire decimated much of this park in 2017, but we were lucky to hike a long stretch through a face that had escaped the fires.
Then the hard part started, going more or less straight up the face of the mountain. It became progressively steeper and more slippery, with loose shale everywhere making our footing unstable.
We reached a massive wall of cliffs, where you had to wind your way through little ledges and breaks. All the while slipping on shale and sending rocks tumbling hundreds of feet below. Because we had a large group, we had to be very careful not to dislodge rocks. If we did, we had to shout "Rock!" and everyone below would hunker under the nearest cliff wall or overhang to avoid being smashed.
Near the end of this massive cliff face, multiple children had breakdowns, including several of ours. I have to admit, even I was spooked at this point.
We were still 400 meters below the summit but I sensed that it was time to turn around. Two-thirds of the group headed back down, and the rest decided to complete the hike.
Going back down was arduous and slow. We were only going 1/10 our normal speed due to having to avoid sending rocks down and also due to some hikers being extremely cautious.
We finally made it back to the trailhead. Over 9 hours of hiking, 7.5 miles, and 1000 meters of elevation gain (for us--the summit was 1400 meters). We are exhausted!
Oh, and when we got back to camp, our tent had collapsed. The main tent pole had snapped in half. Yay us. With the only camping supply store closed until tomorrow, we're going to have to rig up something temporary with duct tape and anything else we can scrounge up to reinforce the pole.
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