Dix and the Beckhorn

February 29, 2020

Winterpalooza 2020. About twenty ACC Ottawa folk decended down to Upper Jay for a weekend of winter activities. Various groups went out on adventures ice climbing, skiing, and hiking. I led a group of four up Dix mountain for a romp in the snow.

At 06:00, Grant, Eric, Phong, and I assembled in the parking lot and drove south to the trailhead. Snowshoes on from the start, we were pleased to find that the trail was broken out. At the Round Mountain junction though, we caught up to our trail breakers; Ziplock, Donna, Victor, and dog Tango. After exchanging introductions, my group took the lead, now working hard at putting in a new track. Several spots were a little tricky to figure out the navigation as the woods here are fairly open and everything looks like a path in the deep snow. Eric and Victor took turns finding deep holes to fall in, Eric picking the best one as he walked off a buried rock ledge and dropped over a meter into a dry creek bed. It took two of us to pull him out of that one!

Off on the Round Pond trail.

View of our objective during a water break.

The gang plus Victor.

Eric in a crevasse.

Finally we came out of the woods onto the slide where the open slopes looked wonderous, but the trail only climbs a little way before deaking back into the woods. At this point the navigation got easy (go up), but progress became very slow as the snow depth had steadily been increasing with our elevation. We all took turns at the front, with me trying to keep the rotation quick so as not to burn out the lead person, nor bore the followers. Ziplock did a great stint by using his wizard staff as a cross brace, and then Phong, Grant, and I pulled ahead for a while and traded leads up until the sub-alpine zone. Here the snow got somewhat firmer and my larger snowshoes were floating the best of everyone, so I took the lead with Donna closely following on my heels.

Breaking out the slide.

Congo line of seven.

We went up until a few hundred meters of the summit where the views were fleeting in and out of the clouds. I decided to stop and wait for my group as we had become somewhat strung out along here, when another couple with a second dog arrived and thanked us for breaking trail. Along with Donna, they passed and finished up the mountain. Finally Eric and Victor showed up and I resumed progress. We summitted at 12:30 after six hours of hard work to an unfortunately hazy view. Congratulations and thanks went around and my group sat down for a quick lunch while others departed. Victor planned to go towards Hough, I tried to dissuade him, but he was stubborn as he needed to get this peak so he could finish his winter 46 the next day on Cliff and Redfield.

Climbing the final bit of mountain in the sub-alpine.

Summit attained.

Victor left towards the Beckhorn and we finished up our sandwiches as the wind picked up and it even began to snow a little. After packing up we decided to climb Becky, since she was right there and in a few minutes had caught up to Victor struggling solo in the snow. I took the lead and broke out the Beckhorn, pausing on top to enjoy the no-view until everyone arrived. Victor was still determined to go on, I was not sure that he should, but it was not my place to interfere. I pointed out where the herd path started, voiced my opinion of how difficult he would have it along this route solo, and finally stated that I did not want to read about Hough in the ranger report. He said he did not want to make the report either, ensured me that he would turn around as necessary, and then head off. We turned back to Dix and that is the last we saw of Victor.

Traversing over to the Beckhorn in the gloom.

We were back down at the base of the slide in thirty-five minutes, spending a good portion of the descent sitting on the backs of our snowshoes and bobsledding down the now well packed track. A long slog followed and we began to get strung out. At Round Pond, Phong and I went straight across as Eric and Grant traversed around on the trail. A bit of confusion was had when we did not re-group after the lake, but upon reaching the trailhead all were accounted for, completing this ten hour hike.

Crossing Round Pond at the end of the day.

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