~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
June 3, 2018
We expected a gruelling day of fighting bush, fording rivers and grunting up steep slopes. We were only half right.
After an early morning departure from Nanaimo, we were hiking the alder-covered logging road on our way to Mount Abraham. We were delighted that the bush was short and the river low; but, even more, excited that within 25 minutes we were hiking in the old growth on our way up to the hanging valley between Mount Sarai and Mount Abraham.
At the lake we discovered the snow was still more than a foot deep which allowed us to adjust our course and use a gully to access the ridge above– we were following a route described by Lindsay Elmes in the Island Bushwacker, from 2003.
Once on the upper ridge, we followed it to the highest sub-summit, just southwest of the main summit. We routed below it on a heather ledge to a notch then attempted to make way over a pinnacle but a sudden drop stymied our attempt. We called it a day and returned to mount the southwest sub-summit before returning to the lake for lunch.
We’ll be back, with Lindsay’s trip report in hand, to give the route another try.