By K.A. Pendergast
Recently, an epic climbing hike occurred—a group set out on Sept. 17, a four-person expedition to ascend the previously never-before fully climbed Mount Hugh Neave.
The group included our own adventurer Chance Breckenridge and three equally adventurous members, JF Labranche, Travis Goodridge and Dan Schenkeveld.
The route they were using was via a drainage from the south-southwest. According to Breckenridge they made their way to Hobson lake via Clearwater Lake and the Hobson wilderness trail.
The days were tremendously long, according to our adventurer, and the going extremely difficult as there were no trails at all because of the lack of previous ascents.
The approach started a whopping six km up Hobson Lake and went in east two km past De Weiss Lake and turned north to an unnamed drainage; this, finally, whew, led them to the foot of the mountain.
It already sounds like a tough journey in itself. Brutal, but beautiful, were some of the words used when discussing the trek. On Sept. 19 the expedition gained the summit ridge via glacier to and incredible elevation of 2657m. Wow!
Unfortunately, an extremely sharp and hazardous rock feature prevented the group from traversing the ridge over to the main summit, which was 2829m, only a mere 172m to its peak.
Breckenridge describes the absolute hell of going through no trails, blowdown, devils club etc. that led the intrepid explorers to pure heaven as you can see by the photos they shared with us.
That description nearly says it all. Thanks for sharing with us! The group says they will be back and we can all look ahead to the next Breckenridge encounter.
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