Day Five:
On this day, we climbed halfway up Urd Peak, dropped our packs and continued to the summit. By chance, the weather cleared up while on the summit and we got views in every direction. Back down to our packs, we continued to traverse around Urd, nearly climbing it again as we had to reach a high saddle to get where we needed. We descended to Dremers Lake, then up again to get over Dremers Ridge. This was a crux point as the lowest pass had a steep snow drop on the backside that nobody wanted to downclimb 200 feet with packs. No other options appeared except a traverse up and over a small peak called Train. From the summit, Greg scouted the drop down the north ridge. It was possible and we all carefully down climbed the class 3 route with our heavy packs. Now committed to this route, we traversed a ridge north to another peak we called Caboose. A very unnerving traverse was needed to traverse the summit area to get down the north side. After descending much elevation, a final pass was needed to go up and over before we reached our camp in the Avis Lakes area. It was just before dark when we reached a suitable camp area and everyone was just wasted from the hardest day so far.
Canada Hiking & Climbing
Valhalla Traverse:
Hird Lake to Avis Lakes
Downclimbing the north ridge of Train Peak (Matt on left)
Small lake on SE ridge of Urd Peak
Summit of Urd Peak
Leaving Hird Lake
Summit of Urd Peak
Views from Urd Peak
Demers Peak and lower lakes
Highest Demers Lake and Train Peak
Demers Lake
Demers Lake
Resting
Coming down the east ridge of Urd Peak (4 climbers up above)
Hiking up Train Peak
Summit of Train Peak
Camp at meadows above Avis Lakes
Demers Ridge - other side of the gap had the steep 200 feet snow we all did not want to downclimb
Hiking the ridge after Train in route to Caboose
From just below summit, did sketchy traverse downward to reach this saddle.
Evening views from Train Peak