In the morning, it was immediately evident that it would be a hot weekend. The humid air felt suffocating as I set off towards John Clarke, and I wished in vain for a light breeze. I had all day to get to the summit though so I took my time, stopping in shaded spots to pick blueberries and enjoy the scenery. After only 1km I’d already downed my 2L of water, and was very thankful to see a snowpatch up ahead. I knew I could melt snow almost instantly with my camelback sitting directly against my back, and the ice water was the refreshment I needed.

Once I reached the ridgeline the travel became easier and more fun, hopping up large boulders and running down low angle slabs. Much to my surprise I spotted a few cairns, and began following them along the ridge. What the cairns tell you is “stay high along this ridge” and what the cairns do not tell you is “DO NOT FOLLOW THE CAIRNS ALONG THE RIDGE!” Lol. I reached the end of my ridgeline and became completely cliffed out. I walked to the edge on every single side to find steep and smooth granite walls, or complete drop offs under me. Without a rope for a quick rappel, I begrudgingly realized I’d have to backtrack to get down to the col, and so started making my way back where I’d come from. I soon found a bench that looked like it would connect with the ground, and I followed it down. It still involved a few uncomfortably exposed and loose moves, but I was happy to not be wasting time redoing about 2km.

Now finally at the col, I relaxed a little. I could see a connecting rock shoulder all the way to the summit, which meant I wouldn’t have to touch any glacier. Upon closer inspection though, I realized that the edge of the snow was so thin I could see the ground, meaning the glacier was actually nonexistent under the snow near the edge of the rock. This was great news since the snow would make for much easier and faster travel. I put my crampons on, and then followed the snow up to the base of the summit tower.

The last bit of rock to the summit was really easy to navigate, and finally provided some fun and solid scrambling. As I climbed higher the views around me began to open up, and my heart raced faster in anticipation of looking out towards the ocean. This was the moment I’d been waiting for, and it did not disappoint! I could see much of the Princess Louisa Inlet, as well as many beautiful mountains, and some very very sharp looking peaks in the Powell River range. Finally now that I stood up here, I could see why this summit of all summits was chosen for John Clarke. It has a little bit of everything he loved: huge alpine slabs, glaciers, ocean, views of the coast range, and many alpine lakes. It’s truly spectacular, and I felt so lucky to be able to witness it.

After many photos, I went over to check out the summit register, hoping to find some interesting names, but much to my dismay it was stuffed full and totally wet. Someone had forgotten to close the lid, and years of history was falling apart inside. I delicately pulled out the little pieces of paper and laid them out along the rock to dry. I didn’t find any familiar names, but I did see hundreds of entries from the Malibu church group that comes up here every year. This means that the register is actually filled with excerpts from the bible, and random angsty notes from teenage boys. One actually said “I’m going to break up with my girlfriend when I get home.” Okay buddy.. inspiring summit note!

I left only my name and the date so as not to fill any more space, and noticed that the two guys whose car I’d seen had summited just the day before. I later found out via Facebook that they were doing the Outrigger traverse I’d initially wanted to do, and were doing a car/bike swap with two more guys who were coming up and over from Princess Louisa inlet.

As I was admiring the ocean, I suddenly realized I could see two figures on the lesser John Clarke summit, heading my way. They were a long ways off still but they yelled over a hello and I happily yelled back. I didn’t know at the time but these were the other two guys coming up from Princess Louisa. Busy weekend for such a remote mountain!

I hung out on the summit for nearly an hour just snacking and enjoying views; It was wonderfully sunny and hot, and very hard to leave. Eventually though, I realized I would be missing my daylight time to swim, so made my way back down to where I’d stashed my crampons and axe.

The descent was easy now that I knew my route back, and I ran down the soft snow to the col. From there I followed a short section of glacier to the benches west of the ridge, determined to not repeat my route from the morning. These benches were a mix of slabs and small pieces of glacier just barely clinging on to life, and they made for easy and quick travel. I then hopped back down to camp in record time, stopping only once to refill my water with more snow. I actually think I drank more than 4L of water over the course of the day! At least I was hydrated.

Back at Bug lake, I had a wonderful swim, picked blueberries, and ate dinner which was my homemade sweet & spicy vegetables with rice. I still had some time until sunset, but was happy to just tuck into bed and relax while admiring the stars as they slowly came out. It had been a perfect day for me, and I reflected on how happy I was I’d picked a slow pace trip where I could really enjoy every moment rather than the exhausting Outrigger traverse. I’m happy any time I get to be in the mountains, but sometimes when I’m moving fast it feels like time also goes fast and I don’t get to appreciate actually being there. It’s nice to have a bit of both sometimes.