There were 6 of on this trip, 2 going to the lake on the Friday and the rest of going in on the Saturday AM. We were on the trail in an hour and 20 minutes after leaving the North Van church.  How good is that for a short drive to a trailhead?  The 3 1/2 hour trip to the lake was quite slow as 1 of my knees was giving me trouble of late and didn't want to over do it on the first day.

After making camp we retrieved a shovel that was left there from last year and went to a grassy area near the top of the knoll and started trying out different locations to get the best position for a cabin; trying to have as many of the foundation posts on solid rock as possible.  That done, we then went looking for the best place to position an outhouse.  All that getting done, staked out, and pictures taken, we went back to camp.

In looking towards the other end of the lake we could see 2 more tents being set up so others were there for the weekend.  Now then. John and I, being the more senior of the 4 of us, we decided to not do any peak bagging on this day so we stayed around camp while Wilson and Andrzej left to climb Gibson and Martin Peaks.  On their way back they encountered the other 2 club members that had come in the previous day and invited them to come visit later on.  So a lazy supper was had and the other 2 club members came over for a visit and we all caught up on the latest gossip, and talked about what we were going to do the next day. 

After a great nights sleep -- don't we all sleep better in the wilderness -- John and I left for dreadnought Peak the idea being that Wilson and Andrzej would catch up with us later on.  Now then a surprise.  On all of my past trips to Dreadnought, passing by the north side of Watersprite Tower, we always went over a fairly large snowfield.  But it was gone!  With the next to no snowfall last winter and the prolonged hot spell the snow was gone and there was a small pocket glacier!   Who woulda known!  I took John over to the col between Dreadnought and the Tower to get a look over towards Crawford and other eastern peaks. 

Now comes one of my favourite scrambles, up the south ridge of Dreadnought.  We backtracked about 150' from the col then went left, then looking at the ridge, approached a Y shaped rocky area and headed up it's right side on a small ledge.  I have found that starting up Dreadnoughts south ridge direct from the col is difficult going through small trees and thick heather.  Going this way  gets you up onto the ridge proper way easier.  After topping out, from there on one gets onto micro terrain of flat, heathery, rocky areas interspersed with fun class 3 scrambles all the way to the summit. 

Arriving near the summit there were Anya and Greg waiting for us and about a minute later came Wilson and Andrzej.  And a plan comes together!  What views!  Mamquam right there in our face, and the misty icefield peaks, the Judge, the Lions, the peaks of the Tetrehedron area, Sky Pilot, the Tantalus, Garibaldi and everything in between!.  We took out mandatory pictures and carried on down. 

Having been here before I suggested a way down, John and Andrzej followed me down, the others went a different way.  We thought that they would have to retreat as it appeared they would have become bluffed out but in the end they ended up beating us to the bottom.  From here we caught up to those that were in those other 2 tents and they turned out to be 3 more club members. Marcus Dell, wife Robin and friend.  Marcus followed us to where we had marked out a place for the cabin and we talked about the whole process.  He agreed that the place was good. 

On the way to our camp we came across another group of 6 who had just come up for the day and were all swimming in the lake.  Two of them were club members from Squamish.  So there were about 15 at the lake this day!  We packed up, hiked to the car, and arrived at the highway and saw to our horror both southbound lanes were solid out of sight in both directions and not moving!  This doesn't look good at all.  Nothing we could do about it so we went to eat and got into the lineup.  Then shortly, wonders of wonders, after getting past the first merging point of 2 lanes into 1 and getting back to 2 lanes again the traffic moved well all the way back to the church. 

So there ended up being 7 more BCMC members getting into the area,  cabin and outhouse sites were staked out, the weather was great.  A fun trip. Wilson Edgar, John Halliday, Andrzej Jarzabek, Greg Stolltman, Anya Pakendorf, and organizer David Scanlon