r/vancouverhiking • u/vanveenfromardis • Apr 28 '25
Trip Reports Overnight Trip To A Remote Garibaldi Giant - Mount James Turner - April 25th & 26th
Ascending the Wedgemount Glacier
Crossing the Weart Glacier
Looking back at Weart and The Owls
Contouring around the Needles Glacier onto the Chaos Glacier
The North Face of Mount James Turner above the Chaos Glacier, with Fingerpost Ridge on lookers right
Home for the night
Climbing the SE Face of James Turner
Past the crux, 50 vertical meters below the summit
Topping out a final steep step onto the summit
Alpen glow over Garibaldi Park: Wedge, Lesser Wedge, Fingerpost Ridge, Weart
Sunrise on James Turner summit
Zoom shot on Weart and The Owls
Rapping the crux step
The remote Flood Peak
Looking back at the SW face of Mount James Turner (we climbed the occluded aspect)
Spires on Fingerpost Ridge
Wedge and Lesser Wedge
Climbing towards Peggy Peak, looking back at James Turner
Summit of Peggy Peak
Back to the Weart Glacier, only one more climb before the long downhill home
Myself, my brother, and a friend set out to make an attempt on a remote peak in central Garibaldi Park named Mount James Turner. James Turner requires crossing 5 or 6 named glaciers just to reach the base, and then a steep snow climb to the summit. With stable weather and avalanche forecasts we knew this was a great opportunity to make an attempt.
After linking the Wedgemount, Weart, Needles, and Chaos glaciers we finally reached the headwaters of the Berna glacier, where we setup a basecamp. We were now a mere 4km from the summit, and would be able to make our summit push in the early morning, aiming to summit and descend all before the sun hit our route.
We had read some sparse beta online about the SE face, and various cruxes previous parties had encountered, but due to equal-ish parts good planning and good luck we chose a line that allowed us to go directly to the summit without any false starts or backtracking. There was a single steep mixed step, which we would opt to rap on the way down, but otherwise it was a straightforward, albeit steep, snow climb.
We summited about 15 minutes before sunrise. James Turner is a tall and isolated tower in the heart of Garibaldi, and when the sun breached the horizon we were rewarded with some of the best mountain views I've been lucky enough to experience.
Eventually we reversed course, and made it back to camp without issue. We rested, then packed up and headed out, opting to take a "shortcut" by climbing directly over the summit of Peggy Peak to regain the Weart Glacier.
This was an amazing trip, and a lifetime climbing highlight for me. Stats, in total, were around 35km and 3500m gain.
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u/unkpsbc Apr 29 '25
Wow seems risky, how does one get into this kind of a hobby? Does one need a guide to undertake this kind of a trip?
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u/vanveenfromardis Apr 29 '25
Taking an introductory mountaineering course or signing up for VOC/BCMC would be a great first step.
For this kind of trip you need to be proficient in avalanche terrain, glacier travel, steep snow, building traditional anchors, rappelling, and winter camping. Obviously you also need the base fitness for the travel too.
I would consider myself an intermediate mountaineer and have mostly progressed by incrementally choosing more challenging objectives, and taking some courses with certified mountain guides. Altus and Mountain School West are both great out here!
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u/1882greg May 01 '25
Earned your turns. Well done!
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u/vanveenfromardis May 01 '25
Unfortunately I'm a snowshoer, so I just earned the same number of steps out.
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u/myairblaster Apr 28 '25
Definitely remote; well done, lads.