The Centre Creek Traverse // Mt. Corriveau to Mt. Lindeman

A traverse to link the summits of Corriveau, Webb, MacDonald, and Lindeman - with Blake!

A few days after biking for 25 hours for charity, as I tend to do, my attention turned to the next adventure. The weather was good, and my friend Blake had as weird of a work schedule as I did to be available on a Tuesday. Thus, we decided to set out on an adventure to link up a few new-to-us peaks.

Some neat background is that my dad did a similar traverse from Webb to Lindeman and all the way around Chilliwack Lake back in the early 2000's. I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old when my mom drove us all to drop him and his friend off for their multi-day grand adventure.

In 2018 or so, I nearly summited Webb with my dad and brother... but we turned around at the saddle due to smoke. Now forest fires were at bay, I was a lot older and fitter, so Blake and I would try to connect 4 or 5 peaks in a single day: Corriveau, Webb, MacDonald, Lindeman, and Hanging Lake Peaks. I will admit, I was not quite recovered from the charity ride, but the allure of mountains was stronger than my lingering fatigue.

Mt Corriveau - 1977m

S/N Rexford Summits, the Nesakwatch Spires, and the Illusion Peaks from below

Unlike Blake's and my last hikes together up Baker and Rainier (when we started at 2 am), we decided on a "casual" alpine start, aiming for 6:30 am. In the morning, Blake picked me up, and we drove up Chilliwack Lake road before turning off towards Centre Creek FSR. We parked the truck, setting off at 6:22 am up 2 km of looging road switchbacks before bushwhacking straight up to Mt Corriveau. We started up an old cut-block, overtaken by vibrant fireweed.

Much to our surprise, while the hillside up to Corriveau was very steep, it was much less bushwhacking than we anticipated. It was almost more clear of brush/debris than on some trails we've hiked! After about 2 hours, we were standing on top of Mt Corriveau. I must say, it is unfortunate that no trail goes up to it, because it offers the MOST spectacular view of Mt. Rexford and the Illusion Peaks. We ended up scampering further North along the ridge to explore the granite playground.

Mt Webb - 2163m

We started southbound along the ridge towards the intersection with Webb and MacDonald. The day was already going to be a huge endeavour, so we decided to drop off the ridge to get more directly to Webb, rather than stick to the undulating ridge.

Skirting around the base of the ridge, directed to the col on the left.

We made a bee-line the the Webb-MacDonald col, where I had been halted years prior. This time, I had no pulmonary particulate matter to be concerned about inhaling from forest fires. Webb was a rather loose and sandy, which made for a bothersome ascent. Still, it was a new summit for me, and thus was worthwhile to stand atop! We arrived just before 11 am, 4 hours and 20 minutes into the day.

MacDonald Peak - 2247m

We carefully picked our way down the kitty-litter-ridden slabs back down to the col before setting off towards MacDonald. It's always surprising how big the terrain feels, and it seems as though it would take an eternity to travel through it. However, a kilometre is a kilometre, and we steadily made progress up the slopes.

In contrast to Webb, MacDonald was a incredibly fun. Large chunks of granite, hewn from the mountain, lay jagged and beckoning exploration. It was one of the most enjoyable easy scrambles that I've done, rambling amidst the boulders to the summit. We arrived about 1 hour after leaving the summit of Webb - much quicker than anticipated. There were a few towers at the top to scramble up, and we stopped to snap a few photos before continuing on to Mt. Lindeman.

Mt Lindeman - 2312m

Our route to Mt Lindeman. Note crucial bench to access standard hiking route

Blake and I packed helmets for this section of the journey, as it was uncertain how difficult the scrambling would be. In Gary Robbin's 100-mile Big Chill run, I'd seen him wearing a helmet between MacDonald and Lindeman. Thus, I assumed a helmet would be required. I was wrong. I wore my helmet for about 10 minutes before taking it off. There was no overhead hazard, no difficult moves, and honestly it was quite simple terrain as far as off-trail ridge-line travel goes.

We picked our way through the talus field and found ourselves on the regular route up Lindeman. This time, however, I knew the correct way up. In 2021, I'd accidentally scrambled up the North tower with my friend Jesse, only to realize that the knife-blade ridge was impassable. Thus, Blake and I cruised around the base towards the Southern summit, admiring the glimmering lake.

Upper Hanging Lake, Hanging Lake Peak above

I actually question what the highest point of Mt Lindeman is. By the looks of it, a difficult-to-reach middle summit could be higher, but the South point is so much easier I think everyone is happy to believe that it is the true summit... Regardless, we did the South summit. It requires a bit of a steep climb from the col above Upper Hanging Lake, mostly loose dirt, boulders, and slabs. All-in it is more like steep hiking than scrambling. We reached the summit of Mt Lindeman just over 2 hours after leaving MacDonald.

As we surveyed the next possible peak to tag, we decided go for a lake dip and head home rather than venture out to the unkown of Hanging Lake Peak. Getting home before dark sounded preferable to an even longer day at this point. On the way down to the lake, we had just finished a slabby section of down-scrambling when I slipped on some wet moss and landed on my right hand clutching my poles, spraining my thumb. That didn't stop us from enjoying a frigid lake-dive though!

We packed up our bags and followed the Mt Lindeman hiking trail down to the car, just over 2 hours after leaving the lake. All in, it was a 12.75 hour day complete with 4 summits (3 new ones for me), 29 km of distance, and about 3,000m of elevation gain - steep! Aside from the thumb sprain, it was simply a textbook outing with a great adventure buddy.