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Mount Chester | 2011-10-02
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I had a plan to go to Moraine Lake early and sneak through Park officer’s back in to Larch Valley and Eiffel Peak by myself to complete LL section of Kane’s book, but in the morning the weather forecast changed worse and I also felt little bit under weather as well. Instead of grabbing car key, I grabbed blanket thinking to wake up in 2 hours and do some easy hike. Plan is only plan… I slept more than 2 hours. In fact, I wake up at 11:00 ∑(￣Д￣；)! My little dizziness and chill in the neck didn’t go away, so I decided to go for Mount Chester. That’s right, my decision making never make any sense.
I saw “We are high society, Porsche division” on the high way. There were like 20 Porsches in line. So I decided to cut them in half. For a while they had Porsche Porsche Porsche Porsche DODGE!! Porsche Porsche Porsche.
Approach:
From humongous Chester Lake parking lot, I followed the normal summer trail to Chester Lake. I thought of going off-trail at near the Chester-Outlier col, but decided to stay on the trail hoping there is a trail somewhere. And yes there was. I followed a trail to the right at the lake shore and within a minute there was a right turn seemed to go to Mount Chester’s approach route.
Gully to Chester-Outlier Col:
At the bottom (page 4), still I had trail, but I lost it rather soon. Right side was more of scree and left was grassy uphill. So I decided to stay on left, thinking it would be easier.
SW Face:
From the col, I found many trails, almost confusing which one to take. So pick your line and go up. I thought Chester is more of difficult moderate, but I found it was not bad at all especially if you use ledges and scree paths wisely you can minimize scrambling on slab more. If you don’t care you can go straight up (literally straight up) to the summit (page 6).
Alternate Descent:
From Chester-Outlier col, instead of starting descent via the big gully, I went up to the outlier for extra. Then I continued on the ridge. It was nice that I could see little different views of this pretty area from the ridge. Also it was excellent that the ground was very soft scree too. Once at the bottom, I had to light bushwhack for short distance until I found snowshoe trail sign. Unfortunately the snowshoe trail in summer was more like an animal trail, so I quickly find a way back to the main trail.
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