Trip Report
Axis Peak
Fun alternate winter route from Eightmile Lake. North face, western gully.
Brian Hill
- Sat, Mar 16, 2019 — Mon, Mar 18, 2019
- Axis Peak
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Drive to Bridge Creek on Icicle Road is melted out. Eightmile Road to the trailhead can be booted on compact snow in morning.
There's a good skin-track/snow-shoe track to Eightmile Lake now. The snow is getting thin in places and won't last long. Eightmile Lake is frozen, but open inlet at western end gives access to flowing water.
Used the western gully to go up Axis Peak. Moderately deep, heavy snow for the first 1,400 feet. Quite steep at times, especially just below the bowl. Once at 6,000 feet, the route opens up into a wide bowl with firm snow making for good steps. Once through the notch, it's an easy walk in post-hole soft snow to the summit where the rocks are already melted out.
An open-ended window of spring-like weather led to a 3 day scramble including Axis Peak and Eightmile Mountain. Our party of 5 left the busy Bridge Creek trailhead at 8am. You'll want to arrive early if doing a weekend trip.
We arrived at Eightmile Lake around 1pm, set up camp, and rested a bit before puting on beacons and pointing at the route in excitement. Followed a skin-track for a bit through the trees. The route is very straight-forward; following a large gully on the north side of the peak (pictured below, as seen from the approach to Eightmile Mountain).
At 6,000 feet we came to the large bowl and snow conditions changed. We used crampons and ice axes as the angle ramped up.
After going through the notch, it's an easy walk to the summit. Of course, we're tripping over ourselves while gawking at the views, having done over 5,000 gain. We had about an hour until sunset, plenty of time to get to the lake just as darkness came. Tired and ready for a good meal, we had to rest up to tackle Eightmile Mountain in the morning.
