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Brazeau Icefield High Camp | 2011-09-03
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September long weekend wasn’t long enough, Benther, Wil and I decided to extend it to a 4-day long weekend to invade Brazeau Icefield.
To Brazeau Icefield High Camp (Day 1):
It was little tricky to find trailhead for Poboktan Creek Trail. The parking lot was east side of the creek and I guess the trail used to start from parking lot but since a bridge no longer exists, the trailhead is west side of the creek (Sunwapta Warden Station side).
We followed the description in the 11,000er book to get to the high camp. After 8 km on Poboktan Creek Trail, we hit the major creek crossing (There were 2 bridges for this creek at waypoint “Turn Left”). Right after the second bridge we found game trails which the book describes.
The trail faints here and there, but we managed to get to a valley. One part we really had trouble was where a waterfall was at the end of the valley (waypoint “Waterfall”). I don’t know if there is any trail around here but we had to bushwhack. By the way make sure to go all the way to the end of the valley. We ascended too soon, ended up traversing heavily bushed sidehill. After the waterfall, stay close to the creek, you should see trail on right side (east side) of the creek somewhere again.
After bypassing bouldering field, we came to scree/rubble steep uphill at GR774170. We almost went wrong way here but the trail went along bottom of SW cliff face (page 4). 650 m of straggle from here, we finally arrived at the high camp.
Tips:
There were 5 person party after us. They actually camped lower. I don’t exactly know where they camped but there was a good spot to camp at waypoint “Low Camp” (GR774175). Advantage of this is that at this point there is water available and more likely protected from wind.
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