CHARIOT PEAK 2700m 8858′
Between Devil’s Dome and Banshee Peak. The southwest ridge is one kilometre long, and the northeast end of the mountain is the highest.
1. Northeast to Southwest Attain the wide basin at the foot of the peak. An easy traverse leads over all three summits, which have cairns; the main summit has a two-meter cairn. The southeast ridge of the northeast summit is an easy scramble. Descent was via the east ridge of the southwest summit. (III,3,s).
FA Howie Ridge, Gordon Stein, and Peter Wood Labour Day weekend 1973.
2. Southeast Ridge of South End of Southwest Ridge (Horse Mane).
The Dark Horse Wall is on the south end of the southwest ridge (route on the right side). There is moderate climbing on two-thirds of the ridge. The upper part is technical. Eight pitches. (III,5.9).
FRA David Lussier, Stephen Senecal, 27/8/2014.
Descent was by two rappels and scrambling down the west ridge of the wall.
Probably, the easiest way to reach Chariot Peak is from the Gwillim Lakes trail. At Warlock Lake (just south of upper Gwillim Creek, 475-167), bushwhack (easy) across upper Gwillim Creek to Cauldron Lake (directly south of Devil’s Dome). Then contour the hillside east leading to Devil’s Dome and Chariot Peak. Excellent views from the summit. It is 5 hours to hike from the Drinnon Creek parking lot to the top.
Dome and Chariot Peak. Excellent views from the summit. It is 5 hours to hike from the Drinnon Creek parking lot to the top.
CHARIOT PEAK (2700 M. OR 8,850′) July 17th by Kim Kratky
No, it wasn’t an official club trip, but Fred Thiessen, Larry Smith and I wanted to see if we could get some exercise before the beginning of camp and visit a local peak none of us had climbed. Besides, we wanted to see just how far into the Devil’s Range we could venture in a day.
The guidebook describes Chariot Pk. as “1.6 km east northeast of Devil’s Dome” and of no technical difficulty. Just what we wanted: an unvisited (for us) peak and very light packs. Sunday morning at 4:30 we left Nelson in Fred’s truck and picked up Larry in the Valley.
At 6:20 we began our hike from the Drinnon trail car park and quickly travelled to the small lake below the headwall N. of Drinnon Pass (ref. 475-168). Here, we left the trail, descended to Gwillim Crk., and began a long rising traverse over three prominent ribs and through timber and light bush. We reached the alpine almost directly S. of the main summit of Chariot Pk. and scrambled easily to the top via the SE ridge (5 hrs. up). During our hour on the summit, we checked out a floatplane on Evans Lk. and the worsening weather approaching from the west.
On our return we descended part of the SW ridge (there’s a very long saddle between the main peak and the SW peak, which is the prominent “thumb” east of Devil’s Dome visible from Drinnon Pass) and then retraced much of our approach route, although staying higher during the traverse. By 4:30 we had reached the truck, making a ten-hour day in all.
Summary: light bush, bad bugs, good route finding, and tasty beers. We wonder how many times this peak has been climbed since Howie Ridge, Gordon Stein, and Peter Wood first did it on Labour Day weekend in 1973. There was no summit record.
Kim Kratky
