The Approach
So,despite our lack of a guidebook or much of an idea of where we were going, Angela and I got up early to prepare for a day on Wiwaxy Peak. No one else in camp was stirring yet and I feared waking everybody with the very creaky water pump in the center of camp. Instead I headed across the road and down to the creek to get some water for breakfast. Just as I was about to dip my bottle into the creek a trout swam past! I thought that was pretty cool! Back at the campground, I noticed frost glistening off the tables in the glow of my headlamp. It was going to be a chilly morning up on the shady west side of Wiwaxy Peak!
Since we wouldn't be back until sometime in the afternoon, we had to vacate our campsite to make room for incoming campers, so it took just a bit longer to get going than usual. Somewhere just before 6:00 we were geared up, heading out of camp and hoping we'd have some good luck finding the approach to the climb.
Heading
up the avalanche chute we had noticed the day before, we found an obvious cairn
and were able to discern a faint climbers path heading up through the bushes and
trees. Though faint and intermittent we were able to follow this path with
out much trouble. On the way up the hillside we encountered a couple short
cliff bands that must be scrambled up, but we took these in stride.
Eventually the trees thinned a bit and we could
see
the base of the ridge. I think we were both surprised to have made it to
the base of the climb so easily!
