Petgill Lake with an attempt to Goat Ridge

Petgill lake was just suppose to be a checkpoint of my dream to spend the night in winter on Goat Ridge.Indeed I have always had this fascination for this long ridge with guaranteed views.

We left around 8 am from Vancouver Friday morning. And got dropped off at Murrin Park around 9 am. Went smoothly to the lake. Bonn-Tien was struggling a bit as this was her first winter camping ever, her pack was a bit heavy and has not carried any heavy packs since our ascent to Harrison hut in september.

We took too much time and it took us 4 hours to make to the lake, way to long. After a quick break at the lake, we took the route to the ridge. To my pleasen surprise, the marking was actually excellent. Because I had read litlle reports, I was not expecting this. We put on the snowshoes at about 800m high, taking some weight off the pack, Bonn-Tien felt much better and the terrain was actually quite good. But unfornatly we arrived at the bottom of this super steep slope.

Without much difficulty we climbed it with our snowshoes, but at the top of the slope we realized it was going to be hell to go down. First we thought the trail was going to the left and it turned out it was going towards the right. Because the traverse was really too sketchy and a slip could mean a fast out of control 100 m slide. We decided to turn back, it was 5 pm and we were nowhere...
I pulled out my 30 m , 8 mm rope, always handy in crappy terrain. And we easily made it down the slope. I think the rope was not necessary but gave some good safety.

Down of the slope we started looking for a camping spot. The sun was right on us so I just had to look for ths pot with the most light. We found an uncoverd moat and set camp on this thin ridge. We enjoyed the sun set and had a chilli night in my new 4 season tent. For some reason, and knowing we would not make it higher than 1100m, iI slept 13 h that night, mI usually only sleep 6...

The next morning, we quickly made it back to the lake, it took us 1 h wad had taken us 3 h the previous day. We enjoyed the viewpoint west of the lake and made it safe back to the murrin parking lot.

I failed Sigurd peak last year almost at the same time. I think I will have a super revenge week end this summer, fast and light, Day 1 Goat ridge, sleep at car, Day 2 Sigurd Peak. Anyone motivated?