Another picture that is courtesy of Marek's Mountain site. This picture was taken from the climb up Tszil and shows a great view of the mountain that Bob and I hiked (Taylor Peak). We ended up at the rocky cliff bands (as seen in the Red line). Instead, we should've followed the trail around the mountain further before heading towards the main summit (the blue line).

Picture courtesy of Marek's Mountain site (I didn't take this one but definitely helps show more of the ridge hike) Wanted to add this picture because it gives an idea of the scale of things. Those little ants at the bottom of the picture are people crossing the ridge. The mountains certainly have a way of putting you in your place.

The mandatory "now we hike" shot. This is the starting point at the Joffre Lakes trailhead. Joffre Lakes is located roughly 1 hour North of Whistler just past the town of Pemberton. We started hiking at 8:40am full of energy. None of us realized that we'd be on the trail for almost 11 hours!

After a quick 2 minutes of hiking, we arrived at Lower Joffre Lake. The lake is easily accessible from the parking lot. As it turns out, this was Scott's favorite lake because it was the closest to the car.

Hiking through the forest between Lower and Middle Joffre Lake.

Arriving at Middle Joffre Lake. We stopped for a quick break, ate some nuts and then carried on to Upper Joffre Lake.

The classic Middle Joffre Lake picture. There was very little wind and the lake looked more like a piece of stained glass.

A bit overexposed, but I wanted to make sure that there was enough light to capture the expressions on Scott and Bob's face. At this point, we were all still full of energy and not feeling the pain of a long day hike.

Another view of Upper Joffre Lake with the Matier Glacier above.

Scott pondering Phase 2a QA along the trail near Upper Joffre Lake.

Quote from Bob -- "I think I finally understand what relaxing is.." This quote after hiking 5 km straight uphill. Being in the mountains tends to simplify things and Bob may have found his next new hobby.

From Upper Joffre Lake, this is the view looking up at the col/saddle. On the left is Tszil. To the right is Taylor. Our original objective was Tszil, but due to time and difficulty, we changed our plans once reaching the ridge and decided to go for Taylor (200' less of elevation gain).

Upper Joffre Lake which is fed from above by the melting ice of the Matier Glacier. The Glacier pulverizes the rock into flour, which is then carried into the lake giving it the glacial blue color.

Looking back at Scott starting along the ridge. In the distance is Upper Joffre Lake.

Bob, looking past the ridge towards Tszil Mountain. This section of the ridge was pretty wide, but further up, the trail narrowed and the dropoff increased.

Scott conquering his fear of heights after "pulverizing" the ridge. This airy ridge was formed of crumbly rock and the actual trail was quite narrow in spots (6 - 8 inches in spots). A fall or slip along the way would definitely do some harm. To help with the exposure, Scott and I actually straddled the ridge and crawled across the narrow spots. Definitely not a traditional alpine move, but one that helped us get across the ridge safely.

Looking up towards the Col. We first tried to hike up the snowfield, but it was much steeper than initially expected. After deciding the snow was not an option (would have been no problem with crampons), we turned back and ascended the rocks/boulders to the right of the snowfield. This presented some fun scrambling opportunities, but definitely took more energy than we had expected.

Bob and Scott coming up the final snowfield just before making the saddle. In the distance is the Cayoosh Range. I’m hoping to do one final hike with the “Phone Bill” team this Summer and the Cayoosh Range is a great candidate for that September hike.

Scott and Bob taking in the views from the saddle. It took a significant amount of effort to get to this spot. 3 lakes, some bushwhacking, mudholes, an airy ridge, 2 snowfields, a wrong turn, and scrambling over several boulder fields. After 8 hours of hiking, we found ourselves at the saddle contemplating next steps. Because I told my wife we'd be down by 5:30pm, and we didn't have cell phone service, I decided we should attempt Taylor rather than Tszil because it seemed shorter. Although this didn't turn out to be true, we did find cell phone service on the way up Taylor and I was able to call Oneea to tell her we were running very late.

Looking South from the saddle of Tszil and Taylor. Duffey Peak is the next mountain over. I can’t seem to find the name of the lake, but it looks like a great place to explore.

Looking down from the Taylor Peak subsummit at Upper Joffre Lake, and what we called Upper Upper Joffre (the dark blue lake in the lower left).

Looking over at Tszil Mountain (rounded mountain in the center) and Slalok Mountain (tallest peak on the far left) from Taylor Peak subsummit.

Looking up at the mountain Bob and I hiked. The black arrow points to the spot where we actually stopped. The actual summit of Taylor is to the right of these craggy peaks. Our hiking led us to these sub-summits. There wasn't much of a trail, and we missed the actual summit (see next picture). While we didn't give up once reaching these cliffs, we did find a few steps that were too risky to attempt. At that point, we threw in the towel and sat down for a lunch happy with the day's accomplishments.

Bob trying to figure out which way down.... At this point, we were all about finding the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, there was no trail so we just walked around, over, under and through the boulders.