Description

to Zupjok Peak
Total Distance:9.6 km (return)
Plan is to meet at the Chevron Station Boundary (west side) & Dominion Rd for 6:30 Departure
about a 2 hour drive to Zopkios rest area

Estimated Time:5 hours
Average Grade:13.2%
Structure:Linear – Return

Starting at the rest area, walk south along the highway. Near the point where the rest area on-ramp meets the highway is a creek and a culvert. After walking past the creek, turn right and head across a clearing/gravel area towards the forest. The start of the overgrown Ottomite Mountain Road is located here. You’ll know you’re on the right track when you see a large sign on a tree warning about unexploded avalanche control shells.

Follow the road as it makes it’s way towards the shoulder of a ridge leading up to Zupjok Peak. From here you will need to do a bit of route-finding. Head off-trail and follow the ridge up through the dense forest, making sure you don’t veer to far to the right as it will get pretty steep in a hurry. The route was fairly well flagged as of May 2006 (and Spring, 2011) – look for flagging and you should be okay.

It takes a couple hours to reach Zupjok Peak, but once at this peak, the ridge beyond towards Llama and Alpaca is straightforward. The route is quite densely forested until just before Zupjok Summit, and after that it’s quite open and heavily corniced (usually on ascender’s right) in the winter. The ridge is wide and the cornices can be easily avoided.

Continuing on via snowshoe to Llama and Alpaca is straightforward with only a few steeper, non-technical sections (possible avy risk in winter). There’s a good place to winter camp in a pass between Zupjok and Llama that’s fairly protected.

The route is definitely recommended for it’s scenery. Make sure you tell someone about your plans before you leave – the area is not traveled very often and Search and Rescue may assume that you’ve gone up the more popular Needle Peak on the opposite side of the highway.