Sept 25, 2010
Lisa, Agi and I spent a beautiful, though a bit windy, September day hiking along the Yellow Aster Butte trail and scrambling up Tomyhoi Peak. There are some really impressive rocky peaks in this area, aside from the dominating neighbours of Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan. Access is easy too, we drove up to 3600ft on the 2wd gravel road, which also continues on further to the Mount Larrabee trailhead, which is reportedly in similar conditions.
The easy trail winds up through some forest, and then contours around a few meadows before dropping down into a basin with a few tarns. From here, the trail continues up along the gradual southeast ridge, crosses a short snow slope at the top of the Tomyhoi Glacier, and then continues on with a short 50m of good exposed scrambling, which looks steeper than it is. With a strong tailwind, we made it up to the summit in three and half hours at a leisurely pace. The return home actually took longer with all the stops for blueberries along the trail.
I can definitely see why this is a three star scramble! Too bad it’s not on the map wall. Definitely recommended as a fall trip for the colours alone. And it’s probably a good trail run…
Easy hiking along the Yellow Aster Butte trail, passing through meadows and tarns
This would be a nice hike in the summer too, but it’s really the fall colours that do it for me.
To bypass a steep section on the ridge, the route leads right towards a snow slope. We crossed the snow slope and then scrambled up to a notch in the ridge crest.
American Border Peak and Mount Larrabee are in the background.
Agi on the exposed but good scrambling. I’m sure the rock was a lot looser before, but now it seems pretty well travelled. Follow a shallow groove feature on the face for the easiest route up. Good fun!
Good exposed scrambling. Canadian, American Border Peaks, and Mount Larrabee.
From Highway 1, the north face of Tomyhoi Peak is quite impressive, with this hanging glacier suspended above cliffs.
It was super windy that day, and a big lenticular cloud was forming on Baker.
Returning back along the trail. The Pickets and Mount Challenger are in the background. Someday when I’m a bit tougher I’ll go and explore that area.
A big rolling ridge covered in meadows, with views of rugged mountains. It’s hard not to like this spot.
Did I mention that it was super windy all day? The grass was blowing sideways.
Good views of Mount Shuksan.
Blueberry picking on the way home. There were endless amounts of blueberries on the trail, perfectly ripe and tasty.
Whole wheat blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup. Mmm…