July 3, 2004, Observation Rock

Four of us arrived at Mowich Lake for an €œearly€ start of 8 AM. Hiked up to Spray Park then changed over to ski boots at the first significant patch of snow. Fog made it difficult to find the consistent snow covered route, so we followed a tedious route of snow islands in a general up direction. We finally poked out of the dense fog in a snow covered bowl just below Echo and Observation Rocks, and just northeast of the main snow field below Observation Rock. We climbed around the back side of Observation Rock then headed down in the general direction we had come, crossing over to the long continuous snow field we had missed on the way up, just below the top steep section. Looking back, Frank commented, €œwe could have skied that€. Next time we€™ll climb around to have a look at it from the top. It looks steep towards the top but the runout is wide open, so it should be doable. Great snow all the way down from there though. We found continues snow all the way to where we had left the hiking shoes. One recommendation, find the long snowfield leading up from Spray Park. It will save a lot of trouble fooling with the skis.