Irina on Tszil and Taylor Peaks:
“Dan, Pavel, Stephan, Carlos and Evgeny joined me, and Saturday morning we started the hike from the Joffre Lakes parking lot. Once near the upper lake, we came across a sign post and followed the route to Tszil glacier. It’s a fairly well trodden trail when on the grass or in the trees, but some route-finding is required on the boulder field.
Spotting the moraine, we first went to the right of it but ran into abundant deadfall. Oh well, let’s see what the moraine is like from the top. It turned out to be quite wide except for a couple of more narrow, half-a-foot wide sections. Then it’s all boulders up to the Tszil-Taylor col. We crossed a couple of small icy snowfields where I would have liked to have and ice axe or traction aides, especially if we were to descend the same way.
While Tszil looked somewhat intimidating from the col, the scrambling turned out to be a lot of fun with no exposure and excellent sturdy rock. The views were spectacular! The whole Cayoosh range was up on display, and Slalok so close! We didn’t even notice how 40 minutes on the top passed, and if we wanted to get to Taylor, we should hurry! So Pavel, Evgeny and I packed quickly and hastened down. From the col, it was 30 min to the top of Taylor, zig-zagging between short cliffs at a good speed. A few quick pictures, and down we go. Back in the col at 5:10 pm, with two hours of daylight left. Dusk descended on us at the second lake, and we caught up with the rest of our group between the first and the second lakes. Huge thanks to Dan who courteously accepted the role of a guide for the other two in the group and descended straight from Tszil, allowing us to bag a second peak.
See full report with geo-tagged pictures on Livetrails: https://livetrails.com/report/1205/0/Tszil_Mountain-Mount_Taylor_loop“
