Knight, Baby Munday, and Stewart Peaks, Southwest BC TR

[Cirrus2000]

Big long trip report coming up, but considering that this was my biggest dayhike of the year, so far, please bear with me...

On the weekend, I was thinking about what sort of long day trip I could do on Monday. I wanted to go somewhere and camp at a trailhead on Sunday night, and spend the whole day Monday hiking. I decided to head up the Chilliwack Valley and try the trifecta of Knight, Baby Munday (north summit) and Stewart Peaks.

I reached the trailhead at dusk on Sunday evening. As I was setting up the tent, I realized that I had somehow separated the poles from the rest of the tent and left them at home! After much cursing, I set up the fly with my hiking poles and tent pegs. Mostly for the dew, of course - not a chance of rain for days!



After a good night's sleep (despite the brightness of the full moon), I was up and packed by about 7:40 and hit the trail, expecting to be back in about 10 hours. A number of minor routefinding errors combined to mess that up...

The initial part of the trail is along an old deactivated logging road, which is becoming pretty grown over. Pretty good views across Airplane Creek to Baby Munday Peak.



From there, it's up steeply through the trees to the alpine below the peaks. I wasn't sure which way would be the best - counter-clockwise, Stewart, Baby Munday, Knight, or clockwise in the reverse order. I was less than convinced that I'd manage all three, so figured I would start with what appeared to be the easiest - Knight. I also wasn't convinced of the best way across the grassy slopes toward Stewart, so I continued up toward Knight. Went too far to the right, though, and up a nasty steep slippery grassed slope, slow and tedious. Small routefinding error 1.

Looking back whence I'd come


View of Knight/Munday col.


I left my pack in the col between Baby Munday and Knight, and took the basics up toward Knight Peak. Easy scrambling up talus, then along the ridge to the summit. On the way back, I dropped down sooner, and crossed much more interesting and varied micro-terrain before rejoining the talus slopes. I'd say that as soon as it looks slightly do-able, start up toward the ridgecrest...

View of Munday


View of Knight's summit ridge


View of Munday & friends


Lady & Cheam


Summit shot


Dropped back into the col, grabbed my pack, and started up the snow then talus toward the notch between the central and north summits of Baby Munday. The talus was terrible! Loose, slippy, dusty. Extremely treacherous. Halfway up, I was wondering whether it was worth it. I angled across to a big stony outcrop partway up, and scrambled up to the top of it. From there, the talus was slightly firmer, so I moved up to a little gully before reaching the actual notch, and started up it.

Very steep gully. A little bit of loose rock, and a bit exposed in some spots. Finally made it over the crest of the ridge, and found that from the top of the notch it would have been way easier... Small routefinding error 2. Another minute or two, and I reached the top of the north summit of Baby Munday Peak.

Nasty Scree


Central and south summits. Yikes!


Me on summit


View of Stewart


After a short snack, I dropped back down the east side of the peak, and toward the Baby Munday - Stewart col. Had to contour around a bit of steep, slippery snow, and then down into the basin. By now, it was shortly before 3:00, so I figured I had enough time to get to the summit of Stewart, and be on my way by 4:00 - leaving almost 4 hours to descend until full dark. Surely it would take no longer than about 2.5 to 3 hours, right?

View of Stewart from basin


Me - front aspect


Me - other aspect


Headed up to the right side, to do the easier, less exposed southeast ridgeline. Well, I managed to keep a little too far to the right, looking down into the abyss off my right as I strenuously scrambled up the last dozen meters or so. Small routefinding error 3. Not too bad, but just a little harder than it really needed to be.

On summit of Stewart


View of Baby Munday and Knight


Looking down into the basin


I reached the top at about 3:20, took a couple of photos and signed the summit register. I ate a bit of lunch, and at 4:00, I started down into an easier descent gully, and continued down into the basin. Dropped down, down, down, and passed around the left side of a lake in a lower basin, beside Baby Munday Peak. I knew that I was looking to drop into a gully that ended at a certain GPS point (from the Scrambles guidebook), but I picked the wrong spot. I dropped into the creek running out of the lake in the basin, where I should have gone a little further west. Biggest routefinding error, number 4.

The creek wasn't so bad, but got a lot steeper as it went on. I mostly stayed on the left side (LDC), just out of the creek bed. In a couple of spots, I had to follow the creek itself, wet slippery rocks and all. It was a very slow, careful descent, until finally I reached the elevation where I had to cross the creek and head across the grassy slopes below Baby Munday Peak to rejoin the trail I'd ascended earlier in the day.

At this point, I was getting a bit worried about my progress (the creek section took almost an hour, where it should have taken about 20 minutes to cover that ground), so I didn't really stop for photos.

Finally, I reached the trail I'd taken up (at about 5:45) and started hoofing it back toward the trailhead. Made fair progress, and the sun was just disappearing from the peaks as I walked the last portion of the trail above Airplane Creek.

Shot from just above treeline


Baby Munday in last of sun


Back to the Jeep, finally, at 7:35 - almost exactly 12 hours after I left that morning.

After consulting with the GPS, I traveled 15 km, in 12 hours (that's a pretty slow average!) and ascended a total of 6750 feet, overall.

Google map


The green is where I should have gone


A long day, but a beautiful one. The most challenging day I've done this year, and in fact probably the most challenging solo dayhike I've ever done.

Thanks for your patience! I feel a sort of... catharsis.

Oh, and the Taco Del Mar on the way home was closed by the time I got there. I was really looking forward to some post-hike fish tacos...

[Jaxx]

Holy cow that is a full day. And none of the pics show you sweating or out of breath.

[sparker1]

You're an animal. Great pix and TR.

[cp0915]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing! I love BC.

Bagged a few peaks there in summer 2007. Glorious.

[Felicia]

Excellent report with beautiful scenery!

Someday I will get to BC.

[Win]

Great TR, Kev, quite an undertaking.

Win

[rwpontius]

Great shots and an impressive set of peaks. My legs hurt just looking at them!
RP

[accadacca]

Awesome TR!

[bbennett]

BEAUTIFUL

[Brewhaha]

Those are great pics. That looks like a very nice trip. I especially like this picture where you do a little Les Stroud Survivorman camerawork. Nice.

[accadacca]

Those are great pics. That looks like a very nice trip. I especially like this picture where you do a little Les Stroud Survivorman camerawork. Nice.

Yep. Lots of that.