Mount Wahleach is right above Wahleach Lake, commonly known as Jones Lake located east of the city of Chilliwack and southwest of the town of Hope. The name Jones Lake is the main name used locally. The name Wahleach is associated with Indian reserve on the other side of the Fraser, meaning “crossing a neck of land between two bodies of water”.
We drove along Jones Lake FSR till more than 12 kilometers and then turned to a branch on the right. We passed 6 big water ditches and parked our truck on the roadside at 740 meters elevation. We then followed this logging road till 890 meters elevation, where we turned to left onto a cut block covered with plants with sharp thorns. Very annoying but luckily it did not last long before we entered the nice forest, after which we passed another huge cut block covered in crusty snow. Soon we entered the forest again and some blown downs were at low elevation, but can be easily bypassed or walked over. Snow became deep above 1300 meters of elevation; and even deeper above 1400 meters. We left our snowshoes in our truck and now we paid for it. From 1400 meters elevation to the top, we basically moved slowly in the snow as deep as above our knees; and at many places as deep as to our waists. We tried to stay as close to the trees as possible, but sometimes we fell into deep holes. It took us around 4 hours to get to the top, but unfortunately clouds were rolling in and it started snowing. We had our lunch, took some pictures and then left the peak. On the way down we took a different route. It is slightly longer in distance but quicker and easier to get back to the logging road, along which it was nothing but a relaxing walk back to our truck. C2C 5 hours and 45 minutes. Totally 9.1 kilometers with 931 meters of elevation gain per my GPS watch. My friend has a slightly different number of 8.31 kilometers in distance with 890 meters of elevation gain. I think my elevation number is close to the right number while my friend’s distance number sounds more reasonable.
