Mt St Benedict Summited

A year ago June we finally had our chance to hike the mountain after a few false starts thanks to the weather, but even on our last attempt we were quickly stopped by the deep snow along the ridge line. The 2 meters of snow slowed us to a crawl and the heat wore us down. So we planned to try again this year. I planned the hike a month later in the season hoping that the deep snow would be gone and that we would have an easier time of it. Alas the season was cool and the snow melt much delayed so despite it being a month later we had the same depth of snow to fight. The big difference this year was that the day was much cooler – ideal for hiking – which allowed us to make much better time on the ascent to the ridge. We were on the peak by 1:30 whereas last year we turned back at 3pm while still on the ridge.

The other main change from last year was that this time we set out to summit the mountain, last year we were originally only trying for the lake below the summit and added the try for the top once we had rested at the lake. We wanted to hike in the cool air so we left the house by 7:20 which got us to the start of the hike by 9:20 – still lots of time to hike in the cooler part of the day. On arriving at the start of the Lost-Murdo FSR, we noticed that the road had seriously degraded from last year. It was far rougher on most sections than what we could remember. But we continued up and soon reached the wide section of road, just below the slide area, that we parked at last year, with not a truck or person in sight.

Once parked Geoff and I tested out the radio conditions and started to set up my dual band co-linear antenna. That took around 15 minutes to get up and secured. It wasn’t perfectly vertical but then it wasn’t that high so we felt it would do just fine for our needs. So with the truck secured, the radio set up and communication confirmed we continued up the FSR past the lovely waterfall at the washout and over the very rough road as it made its way up. The road had become the chosen channel for snow melt and the water was flowing quite heavily down the road, it had washed out all the lighter sand and so we were scrambling over loose rock for the next kilometer. Not only did we need to fight the slippage of the rock but we had to avoid the deeper streamlets of water. It was actually a very tiring section of the hike, and coming back down proved no easier. At least the temperature was ideal and we were able to make decent time on the road.

At the place the trail leaves the FSR we came across a chap who had been camping out along the side of the road. He had been there a few days enjoying the solitude. He hadn’t actually hiked for the peak as the past few days the area had been in thick clouds and visibility was nil, today was the first clear day he had seen. We left him at his camp and turned off the road for the path to the lake. It was a bit wetter than I would have preferred, it seemed that every small stream was running with fresh snow melt which made for a muddy path in places. We reached the lake quite quickly and took only a few minutes to enjoy the beauty of it while we ate a few snacks, then we were off to start the steepest section of the hike – the climb to the ridge.

As we made our way to the steepest segment I noticed a few snow patches that were near the trail in the shadows. I didn’t recall seeing snow this low last year so I was starting to get quite concerned that we would be fighting even deeper snow this year. Our ascent over the steepest section went with only a few short stops unlike last year when the heat really wore us down. Geoff did develop a stiff leg muscle, that we had to take a few minutes to stretch out but once that had settled down we continued up to the ridge. Alas, as we got closer to the ridge there before we spotted the ominous white stuff piled deep and unblemished – no trail to follow! It seems that if there had been earlier hikers their path had melted away and so we had to try and find a trail over the snow.