Birkenhead Peak
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How to get there:
Travel north from Vancouver (on Hwy. 99) towards the well known ski resort of Whistler. Continue on 99
to the small town of Pemberton. From Pemberton, take the smaller road towards D'Arcy. Before D'Arcy,
near location N50.52128, W122.50236, fork left. Shortly, make another left fork to access the road that
climbs high on Birkenhead, serving some antenna installations. This road is generally good, but a
4WD, in particular, high clearance is needed as the road has a large number of drainage bumps that
may be tricky to cross without sufficient clearance. The road climbs significantly in many zig-zags
to the antenna facility, one may drive slightly
further (rough road) to parking at
location N50.52389, W122.58273, elevation near 1900 meter.
Route description:
This is quite a nice route, you first climb Kafir Peak, the overall route
makes several directional changes as it follows the high ridge connecting Kafir with Birkenhead.
The steep mountain that rises on your east side is called
Kafir Peak. The
route to Birkenhead Peak first traverses across this
mountain.
Head up the rough remains of a road, then follow the trail towards
Kafir on the connecting ridge. The trail is marked with a few cairns.
Closer to the cliffs of Kafir, descend off the ridge to your
left and follow the small trail that traverses the steepish slopes
on the east side of Kafir Peak.
This is the well known Goat Traverse.
The trail is actually quite easy to follow, one should be cautious since
the terrain below is steep. This traverse ends near a big cairn that marks
a gully. Ascend this gully to reach more gentle terrain, the south ridge of
Kafir Peak. Follow the ridge to the Kafir summit.
You will now see the summit of Birkenhead.
Traverse across three local
summit humps of approximately equal height,
then descend north-west to the
connecting saddle with Birkenhead Peak.
The next section of the route follows the north ridge extending in an arc from
Birkenhead. This ridge
is generally easy to follow with a few points with (YDS)
class 3 scramble. Early on, a short step is most easily circumvented to the
right. The best route
stays near the top of the ridge. Finally, as the ridge
curves right (west) to gain Birkenhead Peak, you climb across a steeper
section that may look hard
from a distance. However, this small face has an
easy route directly up the middle. The remaining part is now only a few steps
across a broad connecting ridge.
The highest point is
located before you get to the antenna station at the
end of the ridge. There is also a small wooden platform for helicopter
assisted maintenance of the installation.
Comments:
I did this climb with my friend Åke. We drove up the road early morning and
were ready to walk by 0745. This was a gorgeous day and the hike/climb should turn
out to be one of the nicest days we had on this long trip in BC.
The route was easy to follow and the goat-traverse did not pose any problems. We soon
arrived at the base of the scrambly gully, then continued towards the summit of Kafir.
This is a bit longer than one thinks. The summit ridge was nice, not entirely clear
which top along the ridge being the highest.
The route traverses this ridge, then descends
to the main saddle along the route.
We had a good time all along, with a number of brief
stops to look around and capture some scenery
with pictures. The long, final ridge was
equally nice and we arrived at the summit
by 1130. We spent half an hour on top, including
the short trip from the highest point to the space-looking antenna nearby. Returning the same
way, we were at the car at 1530, a very nice day on our last "single day ascent" in BC.