Train Glacier Traverse
July 30 – August 1, 2023
I was BEYOND stoked when Neva said she’d be willing to travel to Vancouver this year rather than me visiting her in the Rockies! I decided we’d need to make the most of the 4 days we had together and I spent months planning it out and thinking of all our cool options. I knew we had to do a backpacking trip, but I was also keen on taking her rock climbing, so I made those our two main priorities.
On July 29, I picked her up at her Grandma’s house in West Van, and they insisted I stay for waffles which were delicious. Neva’s grandma has the same spirit of life that she does; she’s kind, funny, and very energetic, especially for someone who’s 90! Her uncle was also great and made us most of the waffles while Grandma stood on the porch to call to her crows in the backyard (!!??! yeah I don’t know either?) Love this woman! Haha!
Around mid morning, we got going to Squamish, and I spent some time teaching (or maybe just refreshing) Neva on how to belay and lead belay at once while I warmed up on Cardhu Crack. When Spirit of Squamish had finally freed up a little, we hopped in line and I sped us up the first pitch. I expected to be taking our time but as it turns out Neva absolutely cruises on climbing. Before long, we had decided to pass the group in front of us – a lovely couple and their friend from WA named Andrea, Jacob & Brittany. These folks had great energy, and we spent lots of time chatting with them at belay ledges. Neva was so stoked the entire day that her positive energy radiated through all of us. It was so fun seeing climbing through her eyes as she discovered cracks, edges and face climbing!
Neva on P3 of Spirit of Squamish
Neva and I at a belay ledge
Neva insisted on coiling the rope for style points 😛
Neva at Shannon Falls pools
Me at Shannon Falls pools
Francis was gone early for Mount Bardean, and so Neva and I took our time packing and heading out the door. I knew the approach was quite short so I wasn’t too worried about getting a late start. We’d decided to make the location of our backpacking trip a surprise for her, so I made sure to have all the maps and info downloaded to my phone.
The approach was indeed very short – only around 2km, but beautiful and very easy to follow. I could definitely tell that it’s a popular trail for hiking and camping, but luckily we were coming in on a Sunday so it was mostly empty. We found a really beautiful spot overlooking the third of the Semaphore lakes and set up our camp there. With lots of energy and some time to spare, we decided to go see if there were any views from the top of Railroad Mountain. Although there were a couple pretty tarns, there wasn’t really much other than trees at the summit.
Pretty flowers!!
Pretty views of the lake and waterfall
Our camp spot by the lake
With both of us being pretty big lovers of food and cooking, it was my joy to cook and dehydrate the two dinners for our trip, and we kicked off our menu with my favourite bean and pasta stew. We had lots of time to enjoy this with a desert of chocolate before heading to bed for the night. The sound of the glacier waterfall meant we both slept very soundly.
In the morning, we set off relatively early on our adventure. We set a great pace, gaining most of our elevation for the day on the way to Locomotive Mountain. In contrast to Railroad, the views from this summit were fantastic and arguably the best of the day. It’s hard to imagine the scale of the glacier from camp, but standing above it, it feels… vast. After taking a few photos, we got back to walking and quickly passed over Tender and Caboose peak. These aren’t really notable, and honestly the Chilcotins would have 100 more named summits if they named as many bumps as this area!
Beautiful meadows coming up to Locomotive
Neva on Locomotive Mountain
Faceless mountain was the next interesting summit, with a radio tower on top. We stopped here for lunch as there’s a nice wooden heli platform with views of distant mountains all around. I wish I had Francis or Steven around to name all the obscure summits for me, but we made our best guesses looking at maps. There sure are some giants that I would imagine are deep into the coastal range and very infrequently summitted.
Neva doing handstands on the Heli Pad on Faceless Mountain
A faceless rock I found on Faceless Mountain 😛
Pretty views of the valley beyond!
From Faceless Mountain, the terrain started to get more interesting, and we took a slightly different route than the one mapped out on Gaia to gain Face Mountain. The detour was worth it as we enjoyed some more exciting scrambling/4th class climbing fun! Face mountain was our last summit of the day, so we stayed awhile to enjoy the views. The size and expansiveness of the Train Glacier really can’t be understated: it was beautiful. To the north, we also noted a quickly growing wildfire. In the time that we watched it, the cloud of smoke had billowed through a layer of clouds in the sky and looked vaguely like a large atomic bomb cloud. Without service, we weren’t able to call the fire in to local wildfighters, but we found out later that this is the massive Gun Lake fire near Goldbridge. Beautiful, but a huge shame for local wildlife 🙁
Crossing a short section of glacier after Faceless Mountain
Neva coming up one of the more fun scrambles we picked
The most classic photo of this traverse I think – beautiful scenery!
There were two cruxes of the descent back to our camp. One: descending a gully filled with what I’ve come to know as “scree concrete,” aka hard packed sand, with loose pebbles on top. Absolute garbage to descend – and with all the loose pieces of varying sizes of rock coming down with us, we took turns moving down, and then ducking into alcoves while the other passed.
About to descend the “meh” gully
Neva coming down that same gully
The second “crux” of our descent was actually once we were back down in the meadows. We realized that with all the snow melt of the day, the waterfall was now pretty big and the river below was quite deep. We made an attempt at hopping rocks to get across, but eventually gave in and took our boots off. The water was absolutely freezing. I felt as though I had instant frostbite the moment my poor toes touched the water. The rocks were also very slippery and painful underfoot, and I almost lost my balance many times (so dramatic, I know). Dying in the river on this day was not in the cards for us though and we both made it across with a few painful yelps. When we exited the water it felt like our legs were on fire for a little while!
Neva crossing under the falls
Yellow Monkeyflower growing in the riverbed 🙂
Back at camp, it was time for a speedy skinny dip while we were still warm before packing on all the layers for dinner. Without needing climbing gear on this trip, I’d brought cozy socks, hut booties, and even sweatpants to lounge around! Dinner was a sweet and spicy pepper and rice dish that I love called “Lesco.” I stole it from my Hungarian ex’s mom. Thanks Tindy 😛
Neva and I played a few rounds of Crazy Twos (a Dalinghaus classic!) before falling into another amazing deep sleep. With the entire next day to spare, we had loads of time to sleep in, and probably both got close to 9 hours. Once the sun was well up in the sky, we finally packed out and headed back to the car. Of course we were both sad with the reality of our annual backpacking trip being over, but we’d had a blast of a weekend and are already looking forward to next year. Every time I see Neva I feel like we become closer friends, and at this point I’d even call her a bonus sister. I am so lucky to have her around, and to do fun trips like this together, no matter how infrequent they are! :’)