Trophy Mountain Summit
In early July we hiked to the summit of Trophy Two, a long day on the trail. We covered 19 km and spent 8 hours on the trail. The day was warm and cloudy with some mosquitoes in the forest, but none in the upper meadows, nor on the high ridges. We followed the main trail to the end of the tarns, then ascended the ridge between Long Hill and Trophy Two, continuing up the rocky ridge to the summit. On the way back down we came down more directly through the cirque to the tans. There were lots of wildflowers along the way and we were pleased to spot grouse twice and a ptarmigan with 5 baby chicks. This was an all day venture from Kamloops, one we have done every year for the last 42 years.
We hiked continuously up through the forest and through the meadows since we had done this section just 3 weeks earlier (link). The meadows are beautiful in every season.
From the meadows the trail follows a ridge up to the Plateau of Tarns and the first view of Trophy Mountain call us to climb higher.
Along the ridge Sheila Lake is passed in a bowl below, a wonderful place to camp.
A series of tarns sits on the ridge as we approach the cirque below the summit. Snow lingered in drifts from this point to the top.
There are 9 peaks in the Trophy Range and 3 can be seen from the tarns.
We can climb out of the alpine cirque to the summit ridges by several routes. We chose the easiest route then started the long hike over fell fields to the summit.
From the open summit we had 360 degree views. Below to the south was Cwem Cwem Lake and the Raft Range across the valley.
To the east is Trophy One (the highest peak) and 4 other Trophy peaks. We have traversed over and up to Trophy Mountain and down the south ridge and back via Cwem Cwem Lake, but this is a very long and difficult route. The hike is described on this website, but should only be undertaken by experienced scramblers who can route find and hike for the whole day.
To the north is Table Mountain, another fine hike in Wells Gray.
Below Trophy Mountain is another small lake which is filled by the glacier on the north side of Trophy. The lake drains into Moul Creek and eventually down to Moul Falls and the Clearwater River.
Farther to the north is Fight Meadows and Fight Lake below Battle Mountain. We will be backpacking there in August.
We could also see the rugged Cariboo Ranges in the northern end of Wells Gray, the glacier-covered ranges in the northern Monashees to the northeast, the Dunn Range to the south, and the Murtle Plateau of Wells Gray. Mahood Lake lay 26 km to the west. Below us the Plateau of Tarns awaited our return to the alpine meadows.
We hiked back down the main trail through alpine meadows, subalpine meadows, and the forest back to our vehicles, another rewarding day in the Trophy Range.
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