Mt Saunders was immediately stuck in my mind after seeing it during last years trip to Bella Coola, and after a wintersummer of research I'm planning to three-peat John Clarkes 1994 Jump Across Creek traverse, including an ascent of Mt Saunders via the West Ridge, this August. If you have watched the 1995 short film "Child of the Wind" (and you should!), much of it was filmed during this traverse.

I tracked down Lisa Baile (author of Johns biography) and her partner Peter, for details on their 2015 repeat of the traverse and their route. Since I began planning this trip last fall, it is also now detailed in John Baldwins new book "Coast Mountain High Routes". I had planned for this trip in 2026 but have bumped it up a year due to health circumstances, and am flying back from Australia specifically to knock it off.



My usual crew for this kind of thing has burned their "big trip time" this year on a mega epic ski traverse and other ventures, so I'm poking around to see if anyone with the skills (glacier, navigation, alpine mountaineering), fitness level, time off, and finances is interested in joining me. This isn't the usual "sign up and maybe come on this trip", posting, but rather fishing for 2-3 "expressions of interest" from the handful of people who can legitimately do this.

This is not a trip for the inexperienced or faint of heart. It requires 1-2 days of bushwacking a steep 2km up through dense coastal rainforest, 4-6ish days of high alpine travel across decaying icefields, an effectively blind ascent of a peak (Clarke said it goes at 5.4, gives a vague description of conditions 30 years ago) and at the end 2 days of bushwack descent through more coastal rainforest - to the old cannery near Bella Coola. From our experience on the opposite side of the fjord last year, this is some of the roughest and slowest terrain you'll ever deal with in BC, but the scenery will be among the best you'll witness in the province.

I've been told that at least two days in the alpine are spent traversing through vast alpine wildflower meadows while the icefields soar above you, if the weather cooperates for an early August itinerary. I expect the meteor shower view to be stunning, as it was last year.

I've got a quote for a 4 person float plane drop off with Nimpo air to the mouth of Jump Across Creek in Dean Channel, I am wholly covering the cost of this flight. I'm also attempting to quote the cost & travel time of a boat up the Dean from Bella Coola as an alternative. My current plan is to get to Nimpo lake (drive, or ???), do the traverse, spend a night at Tallheo Cannery, take the guest boat back to Bella Coola, and from there fly to Vancouver (or hitchhike to Nimpo, and drive back). Total 12-14 days, 8 of them on the traverse itself and a few weather days allowed. Participants would have to cover their own costs of getting to the plane/boat and back from Bella Coola, and their food. I'm expecting a heavy pack from food, mid-route helicopter food drops probably aren't in the budget or logistically feasible.  

Give me a shout. :)

(Shu Yu Fan in front of the Mt. Saunders Massif, 08/2024)