MOUNT GABRIEL VARDEN 2675m 8773′
Located directly north of Mount Dolly Varden, and named for the father of Dickens’ fictional character in the novel “Barnaby Rudge”
1. South Face, Southwest Ridge. Approach via the Alps Alturas trail (introduction; Hicks Creek Road). Near the Dolly Varden-Marten col, west of the lake, go through the col northeast of Dolly Varden into the headwaters of Dixie Creek and descend 50 meters. (Dixie Creek starts on the north side of Dolly Varden and flows west.)
Contour north up to a col east of the objective. Diagonal up and west to gain snowpatches on the south face, and to grassy ledges and ramps of indifferent quality rock. Continue on the south face, or exit west to gain the southwest ridge (better rock). Five hours up, 3-4 hours down. A cairn with no record was on the summit. (III,3,s).
FRA Kim Kratky, Howie Ridge, 6/7/2002.
Approach to Mount Gabriel Varden may be possible by skirting the west ridge of Dolly Varden into the Dixie Creek drainage (best on snow, early in the season). Leave the trail in the sub-alpine zone and then go around the west ridge to the south bank.
UNNAMED 1 km. north of Dolly Varden (map: Rosebery 82K/3 1:50 000) by Kim Kratky
The club climbing schedule trip for Sat., July 6th, was to this remote Goat Range peak that we thought might be unclimbed. Leaving Nelson at the salubrious hour of 5:00 am, we were ready to hike from the Alps Alturas trail parking lot at 8:00.
We headed up the snow-covered trail and reached the snowy col NE of Dolly Varden (7850’; 810-523) in about three hours. We then descended snow to the W. and traversed the headwaters of Dixie Creek above an unnamed tarn to another col E. of our objective. Continuing W. on snow, we reached a series of snow patches on the peak’s south face, which we ascended. Above the snow, scrambling on the fair-quality rock of the south face and SW ridge led us easily to the summit by 1:00 pm (804-527; 2675 m. 8,776’).
Here, we found a large cairn, which we surmised was built by miners. After putting in a rudimentary summit record and lounging for 45 min., we re-traced our steps to the truck in 3 hours.
Total day: 9 hours. Weather: excellent, about 25 C, with sunny skies going o/c in mid-afternoon. Although we came prepared with rope and hardware, none was needed on this class 3 peak.
Future parties (if any) may find it worthwhile to make a different approach: exit the trail in the sub-alpine, skirt the W. ridge of the Dolly Varden massif, and ascend the S. bank of Dixie Creek (best done on snow and early in the year) to the base of the objective.
Norman Thyer has suggested this peak be named Gabriel Varden, after Dolly’s father; both are characters in the Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge.
On the trip: Kim Kratky, and Howie Ridge (coordinator).
Kim Kratky
GABRIEL VARDEN by Norman Thyer
In the November 2000 Newsletter, I speculated on the origin of the name Mt. Dolly Varden. According to the Oxford Companion to English Literature, Dolly Varden is “a character in Dickens’s `Barnaby Rudge'”, and the article on that book describes her as “coquettish”. “Barnaby Rudge” was one of my reading projects this winter, and my impression was that Dolly Varden was a young lady who was notable for her good looks, but not much else. Evidently, the Bull Trout, or Salvelinus malma, is quite pretty too, which may account for its alternative name of Dolly Varden.
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language says that the name is “applied to fish in allusion to its colouring”. I assume that the mountain is named after the fish since both are found in the same area.
Meanwhile, about 1km north of Mt. Dolly Varden is a higher, and more conspicuous, summit which is unnamed on the map. Would it be appropriate to name it after another character in “Barnaby Rudge”? Besides various contemptible scoundrels, there are some worthy characters in the novel, including Dolly’s father, Gabriel Varden. So it could be appropriate for the “father” to be watching over the “daughter”. Or should this summit be named after a fish, too? (Mt. Sardine?)
(Ed. “I miss Norm.”)
