–sbumitted by Jain Alcock-White
A fire on the Malahat on Friday evening delayed our South Island participant’s arrival in Nanaimo, where we had planned to transfer gear and the canoe from my vehicle to his. This also meant we picked up our third participant slightly later than hoped on Saturday morning. Fortunately, the drive from Nanaimo to Port Alberni went smoothly. We picked up the Mosaic gate key without issue and made it to the beach at Oshinow Lake in good time – though it did take all three of us to figure out how to get the key to open the gate.
Low water levels in the Ash River meant we had to pull the canoe the last stretch to the trailhead, but it was a beautiful day and a good way to warm up our legs. We found one canoe already stashed and squeezed ours beside it. We began hiking at 10:36 a.m., only 36 minutes behind schedule, which felt like a good omen considering the earlier delays.
The Hike In
The trail begins by meandering along the river before veering inland and uphill. This first section has most of the blowdowns – mildly irritating on the way up, and mind-numbing on the way down. The second section steepens but remains manageable. The third is nearly vertical, smooth, and dusty – at times it felt like we were using fingernails for traction. The fourth section winds through dense thickets of white-flowered rhododendron, red huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, Alaskan blueberry, and oval-leaved blueberry, which eventually give way to dwarf blueberry as we reached the fifth section: the ridge.
As we transitioned from the blueberry thickets to the ridge, we met the owners of the previously stashed canoe heading down. They had summited the Red Pillar that morning and recommended continuing up the ridge beyond the first tarn above Esther Lake, where people often camp, mentioning a pair of tarns about 45 minutes further.
Though our original plan was to camp as high on the ridge as possible, we were feeling tired, and the unrelenting uphill in the hot sun wore us out. We stopped after about an hour at the best tarn we could find – not the ones they’d mentioned, but serviceable. Our water tarn was small but deep and clear, and to our surprise, I discovered a much larger and deeper tarn just 75 metres west along the ridge – a perfect swimming tarn!
Summit Day: Argus and Harmston
We were in our tents by 8 p.m. and watched a lightning storm pass to the west, which fortunately left us dry. Up at 5 a.m. and hiking by 6:30, just 30 minutes behind schedule. The ridge offered more tarns, including one home to a white-tailed ptarmigan, and finally, the two side-by-side tarns we had aimed for the day before. We felt ours were better – especially the swimming tarn, which offered more privacy.
The sunrise was phenomenal. A seepage channel along the ridge, just before connecting to the base of the Red Pillar, was lined with wildflowers glowing in the morning light.
We began traversing west under the Red Pillar toward the Upper Cliffe glacier. Along this section, we encountered a mother ptarmigan with two large chicks and passed striking geological formations – pillow basalts of the Karmutsen Formation. These volcanic rocks, likely formed submarine or subglacially millions of years ago, did not erupt on Vancouver Island itself but were accreted from ancient ocean crust. White quartz fills the cracks between broken volcanic glass (hyaloclastite), and prominent white bands are igneous dykes cutting through the basalt. Glaciers later scoured and smoothed the landscape, with the Red Pillar standing as a resistant block of volcanic rock.
At the Upper Cliffe glacier, we put on crampons and began the descent. The glacier starts steep, then levels off about halfway before joining the base of Argus’s northwest ridge. We scrambled easily onto the ridge and continued to the summit. It was a fun, direct ascent on solid rock. We reached the summit at 9:55 a.m., had a quick snack, and descended the northeast ridge.
Though we had brought a 30m rope and rappel gear for this section, we ended up downclimbing the loose gully. The trickiest part was the snow mounds connecting to Harmston’s northwest ridge, which required careful footing.
Argus was the more enjoyable summit. Harmston, on the other hand, was a steep slog in the heat. Still, a lovely tarn partway up and a carpet of tiny purple alpine azaleas made the climb worthwhile. The final scramble to the summit was straightforward, and we topped out at 1:25 p.m.
On the way up, we had scouted the west side of the ridge to locate our descent route to the Lower Cliffe glacier. Evan led the way and descended rapidly on scree – disappearing in a cloud of dust and rolling rocks. Anne and I took it slower, navigating a mix of unstable scree and large, loose boulders. One suitcase-sized rock I touched came loose and tumbled down the scree slope, only coming to a stop about 20 feet out onto the glacier below. It was by far the hardest section of the day. In hindsight, I’m unsure whether this was true scree/talus or lateral moraine, or a mix of both.
Once on the glacier, we roped up. Cracks, moulins, and the unnerving sound of rushing water made for an interesting crossing, though the solid ice in between made it manageable. We traversed high and reconnected to the northwest ridge of Argus. This section wasn’t hard because it was technical, but because it was so smooth and not grippy. The glacially striated rock made for a slick scramble, but we made it back to the Upper Cliffe glacier and retraced our steps.
Near the top of the glacier, we came across bear tracks – a mother and cub had crossed from the east, climbed to the top of the glacier, and turned back. The claw marks acted like crampons, even leaving slide marks in the steeper sections. It would have been incredible to witness them from Argus, but they must’ve passed while we were on Harmston.
A short sun shower and rainbow greeted us on our return to camp, which we reached at 7:30 p.m., a 13-hour day. We cleaned up in the swimming tarn and prepped for an early start on the Red Pillar the next day.
Summit Day: Red Pillar
The night was windy, with another lightning storm, this time to the east. Despite tired bodies, we headed out at 6:20 a.m. and retraced our route to the Red Pillar ridge. Rather than loop around to the west, we aimed straight up. Our plan was to climb the standard south ridge route, but the guidebook description didn’t quite match the actual terrain. Instead of going behind the pinnacle as suggested, we ended up going in front of it. We did follow the left of the two gullies mentioned in the book and generally stuck to the rest of the route description – though I don’t recall seeing any white granite boulders in the final gully. That said, with no snow present, we might have been travelling below them.
We mostly followed the path of least resistance, keeping an eye out for cairns and the occasional sling. Only two sections stood out as steeper scrambles, both of which we rappelled on the way down using a 30 m, 8 mm rope.
We reached the summit at 8:15 am. The top of the Red Pillar is surprisingly broad and flat – I’d be curious to learn more about the mountain’s geology. After a quick snack and a few summit photos, we returned to camp by 10:30 am, packed up, and began our descent at 11:30 am.
The Descent
I mentally broke the descent into six sections:
- The ridge
- The berry thickets
- The steep section
- The less steep section
- The river
- The canoe
Each section took roughly an hour, though some were shorter – we reached the vehicle by 5 p.m. Everyone faced their own challenges on the way down. For me, the steep section wasn’t as bad as expected. The less steep part, however, begins the blowdowns, which increase toward the river section. By then, I was hot, tired, and looking for distractions, so I started counting blowdowns.
My rules:
- If I could easily walk over or under, it didn’t count.
- But if I had to do so many in a row that it felt aggravating or exhausting, it counted.
- If it required climbing, crawling under, or walking around, it counted.
Final count: 110
It’s unfortunate. Many of the blowdowns covered sections that had been painstakingly cleared and chain-sawed in the past. While this trail is more of a route than an official trail, perhaps BC Parks should consider maintenance. After uploading our GPS track to Gaia, I was surprised to see that the Strathcona Park boundary extends well south of Oshinow Lake, including a portion of the lower Ash River section. This area, accessed off Ash Main logging road, sees heavy ATV, hunting, and fishing use. The beach at Oshinow Lake is littered with garbage and old fire pits. Because of this, I had assumed this wasn’t within the park, but the maps say otherwise.
Why is there no park boundary signage where Mosaic land ends and the park begins? Perhaps BC Parks needs to install a separate gate for park users or patrol this area more often.
Heading Out
Once we loaded the canoe, we took a celebratory swim. Before hitting the road, we cleared some impressively large black and yellow spiders that had spun webs all over the front of the vehicle. We returned the gate key in Port Alberni and made it home in good time.
Another successful and beautiful trip in the mountains.
