Mount Kobau - November 10 2024
Thompson Plateau, Osoyoos, BC
1871m
After skiing Baldy Mountain in the morning, I wanted to nab one more Ribu before heading home, since I'd bothered to drive out about 500km from home and all. So, that meant heading for Mount Kobau, since it was on the west side of town (towards home), and was fairly easy, with a road to the top (though I believe the final few hundred metres of distance must be hiked). The real crux of the day was going to be visibility and driving, since the road was going to be snowy, and a big storm was rolling in, coating the upper mountain in clouds.
The drive started out fairly easily on a well-maintained FSR, but that changed probably around 1500m in elevation, where snow started to be present. There were lots of tracks in the snow, though, so that kept things well-packed and fairly easy to drive with good tires. As I got higher, though, the clouds got much thicker, and the tracks started to thin out as others had turned back, meaning missing the best set of tracks would get you into softer snow, which was much harder to keep momentum up in. By 1780m, I had got out of those tracks a few times and noticed how hard it was to start again if I came to a stop, and decided I was close enough. I found some tracks made my another person who'd turned around, used them to do the same, and parked off to the side of the road, figuring since I was solo, driving in a total whiteout in the snow, also offroad probably wasn't something I had to push on. Especially with under 100m to gain to the summit.
I walked along the road for about 350m until I happened upon a set of tracks cutting into the forest towards the peak.
That would save me probably over a kilometre of tedious walking all the way west of the summit and then back east, plus the same on the way down, so I happily ducked into the forest to follow them. Plus, that meant less time on the road where cars that couldn't see anything could drive into me, which was also a win.
The first few steps were a bit steep, but overall it was pretty easy travel with only minor bushwhacking. In just six minutes, I rejoined the main trail at 1850m, only ~20m below the summit. Definitely a worthwhile shortcut!
From there, it was just a couple minutes of walking to get to the top. I took a couple false summit photos before checking my maps and going a bit further to find the true summit, which was clearly marked with a summit stake and small wind shelter made of rocks. Since I was in a rush to get out of the storm, though, I didn't linger.
From the top, it was a simple 10-minute walk back down. Conveniently, as I was packing up, I met a couple from Manitoba who were driving down from the top. That let me follow them down, with their truck providing excellent contrast to the whiteout in front of us (visibility was literally like 2 metres). On the way down, we actually found a couple hikers who'd parked more or less at the bottom of the road who I picked up and gave a ride to their vehicle, and had a fun chat with on the way down. They came all the way from Quebec and France to hike this random peak in the clouds 😃. Much respect.
After that, it was a simple drive back home, where I was disappointed to find that all the storming I'd worked so hard to avoid didn't even result in snow for most of the alpine! Thankfully the following days were a bit cooler and more productive (see Whistler snow stake from the days following below). After a late dinner at my dad's place, I headed home hoping this would be the last weekend of hiking for a while, and that ski season would be kicking off properly thereafter.