Sixth Trip - Mt. Frosty
On Sunday I competed in my second Okanagan Gran Fondo. It was really good and I improved greatly on my time from last year, chopping off almost 30 minutes and completing my first Fondo at over 30km an hour. On Sunday my wife dropped me off in Manning Park on the way home so I could climb Mt. Frosty, the tallest peak in Manning Park.
Day 1: Windy Joe
11.92km, 685m elevation, 5hr 19min
We hiked up to Windy Joe and then out to the Pacific Crest Trail campsite:
Windy Joe is a cool old fire lookout station on top of a hill. It was a nice hike, but there are many, many logs across the paths and navigating them with a backpack is a challenge. It was also hot hitting 35c around midday according to our thermometer.
So normally it wouldn’t be challenging but with the heat and logs, we were happy to camp in what turned out to be a beautiful spot with a fabulous view up the valley towards Mt Frosty.
The hut on top of Windy Joe
We are heading up that mountain tomorrow
Day 2: Mt Frosty
11.88km, 1,011m elevation, 8hr 7min
This was the big one, up and over Mt Frosty, at 2,426m the tallest mountain in Manning Park.
The trail just goes up continually without almost any breaks, up into the alpine and snow. We had stunning hot weather and amazing views every single way as plants bloomed in the alpine. Parts of the trail were obscured by snow, so we put spikes on, got the poles out and hiked up the side of the mountain as it got windier and windier.
The view from the top is just amazing and every time I hike mountains like this, I find no matter what pictures I take, they are completely inadequate.
At the top there’s a path across the ridge to the top, or down to the campsite. So we dropped bags and headed up to the top for the view.
Top is up there
Top of Mt. Frosty
Coming down was a lot of snow on the other side as we made our way down the to the campsite for the night. We all got sunburnt and wowed at the views.
Day 3: Frosty Creek Camp
9.69km, 2hr 33min
The camp at Frosty Creek is ok, but you can tell this side of the mountain is more popular and gets more visitors as it wasn’t in as good shape. Anyway this is a short and lovely hike down into the valley.
I always ❤️ coming down into the valley after a hike up a mountain, the thick air with lush vegetation full of animals. It’s just such a contrast to being on the top of a windswept mountain.
Lightening Lakes
Summary
A fantastic hike that just caused me a bit of anxiety because I’m not great with heights and being on top of windblown ridge with deadly drops on either side isn’t my happy place. Some people do this in one day, in fact one of our party did when she ran the Frosty Mountain race. I think anyone who does that is bad ass. I was happy to do it at a leisurely pace.
I’ve found that now I’ve got a clearly defined set of gear it was super easy to pack, go through my checklist and get going on a hike, so that’s great.
A fantastic way to end my sabbatical.