Alert-120

Last Sunday there was a rec trip out to one of the mountains near station – Crystal Mountain. Or legally named Dean Hill but no one really calls it that. Crystal Mountain has made an appearance along with her sister Mount Pullen in many of my photos that I’ve shared so I was super excited to see the view from the top. Of course, this rec trip was about an hour ride by BV (or track truck if you were lucky like me), and then a trek to the base, climb to the top, and back again. Well, Saturday was a four-drink night and let’s just say our original attendance of 26 dwindled to a low 17 people attending the following morning. Even I had to force myself to breakfast and into my B-25 gear for the journey.

Most of these pictures are not mine, and I thank FM for bringing his camera along and being our personal paparazzi.

There’s no official road to the base of Crystal, however, every so often you’d pass a barrel filled with snow to let you know you were still on the right path. There was a pretty scary looking ravine that would undoubtedly give us trouble on the way back trying to ascend rather than ride down which we had on the way in. We had to stop a few times for someone in the BV who had gotten car-sick and didn’t want to make the caboose their personal puke pot. It was really shaping up to be a great trip. I was personally thanking the gods for giving me an excuse to not drive as I had originally been asked to but due to vehicle issues, we didn’t have a truck to spare. The wind carved rocky tundra was James’s problem now.

Waiting for us at the base was a pack of Arctic Hare. These ones had yet to be tagged by the University of Quebec students who come up in the summer that call themselves The Hareforce. Hares that have yet to be tagged are often way more comfortable with people getting close to them than those that have been tagged. Untagged hares shuffle away uncomfortable but make no move to actually run.

Crystal Mountain is made of layers of shale that is ready to break and slide beneath your feet at any given moment. The ascent was a mix of finding secure enough footholds amongst the rocks, and creating your own footholds in any snowy surface that wasn’t packed down enough by the wind to allow such. Despite the loose rocks, it was easier than trying to ascend on the packed snow (and we’d find the opposite to be true on the way down). It ended up feeling like a stretched-out game of hopscotch as you tried to find ground secure enough to climb and avoid the large white patches that meant a potential slip and slide.

If I ever come back, I’d love to figure out what type of rocks make up Crystal Mountain and the places not covered by snow were lovely shades of white, orange, red, brown and yellows. You can find crystals on Crystal Mountain though in the winter, any deeper than the top layer of rock is frozen and not conducive to digging for crystals.

There was a large group in front, while a few stragglers (me included) took up the rear. We’d been climbing for maybe 45 minutes possibly over an hour when we heard a “Shit!” from above us.

“What is it?” I called up.

“They said we’ve climbed the wrong mountain!” one of the guys replied.

“How the fuck do we climb the wrong mountain?”

If you can see from that second picture above, there is still a wall of rock in front of us. We didn’t actually climb the wrong mountain, one of the guys completely overreacted and called over the radio that we had gone the wrong way. The people who had organized the climb hadn’t climbed the mountain before and hence did not know Crystal Mountain had a false summit that wasn’t visible unless you knew what you were looking for. When looking at Crystal from a distance, there is a clear ridge the rides the middle of the mountain, however, once you actually climb said ridge, you realize this ridge is actually a plateau but definitely not a separate mountain.

At this point, we had a decision. Keep climbing or stay with whoever else wanted to stay behind. Well, to put it plainly, I’m not a little bitch and I was climbing this mountain. Besides, only one person wanted to stay behind so the Station Warrant Officer stayed with him and honestly the vibes would not have been great, so I am glad I pushed through.

There’s James and the SWO on the false summit from the heights of Crystal Mountain. This face of the mountain had longer stretches of those slippery ice patches, so we relied on walking on the sides of our boots, utilizing the longer edge of the boot rubber to keep our footing.

The view from the top was beautiful but honestly, I enjoyed the process of climbing and seeing the mountain itself up close. The top was cold, and the wind slashed at our faces, it was also pretty overcast, so the view of the horizon wasn’t that great.

Remember how I said the opposite was true on the descent? Those snow patches made the perfect snow slide to quickly descend and was easily everyone’s favourite part.

Sweaty, cold, and hung over, we were greeted by our rabbit friends before loading back into our vehicles and making the trek back. I didn’t collect any crystals, and the view from the top wasn’t great, I really enjoyed the trip and it makes me excited for the summer to climb mountains that aren’t covered in loose rock, snow and ice.