Pemberton 2011: Day 2, Cassioppe Ridge

On our second day on the mountain, we went for a walk around the Cassioppe Ridge, which is south of Lake Valentine and separates Valentine Lake from two smaller lakes on the other side of the ridge. For those who don’t know, Valentine Lake is where we had set-up camp (see image on the left where the red line “starts”). It’s an easy landmark to recognize… (see image below, you can also spot some of the tents on the North side of the lake). In any case, this walk was much better because it offered some breathtaking vistas and also gave us a chance to see the meadows from above very well.

The trekking on that day was pretty easy compared to our previous walk where we went bush-whacking near Peq creek. We started with a short walk to the north side of the ridge, where the terrain got steep pretty quickly. However, we were on top of the ridge in about 30 minutes. The vista on top of the ridge were unreal; we could clearly see the meadows down below, leading to Lake Valentine, and could also see the two smaller lakes. (See the next few pictures).

The meadows coming to Lake Valentine.

Cassioppe Ridge (and peak) with both lakes (Valentine on the left).

We reached the other side of Cassioppe Ridge (south side) in no time and found another beautiful meadow with two smaller lakes. Compared to Lake Valentine, it is a much more arid environment (because it’s closer to the alpine), but it is also a very beautiful place to camp. We found a bunch of old things near the lake, like the old oil barrels, but nothing that seemed important for our searches. It took us about 6 hours to do the whole tour and we got back to camp just in time to prepare dinner. At the end of the day, I indulged in an hour or two of night photography. The stars were unbelievable up there.

The MSAT communication tent under the stars (with Cassioppe Peak).

In a few days, I will share some pictures from our third day walking, which was up the ridge between Cassioppe and Saxifrage. An incredible view awaited us up there. Stay tuned.

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).