The Charlotte Alplands are a protected area of rocky mountains, forested valleys, and alpine lakes in a remote area between Charlotte Lake (West Chilcotin) and the Coast Range.   The area has no roads or trails so access is by floatplane from Nimpo Lake or through a horsepack outfitter like One Eye Outfit.   Once out of the forested valleys, the subalpine and alpine areas have more alpine lakes than any other area in the province.   The open areas make wonderful hiking.

We hiked two days in the areas to the south of our camp at Frog Lake.   This included a summit hike on the South Peak.   It is unnamed on maps but might be called Frog Peak by locals.   Chris Czajkowski lived at Nuk Tessli 8 km away for 23 years.  She refers to this peak as Louise O’Murphy.

The route angled up the steep slopes from the southwest.

We passed under the western side of South Peak to traverse the pass between the two mountains.

From the upper ridges we had open views of the Southern Chaltotte Alplands and Tweedsmuir Park peaks to the west.

 

With binoculars or a long lens, the high, glaciated peaks of the Monarch Ranges stood southwest of the Alplands.

The rocky ridge of 2222 Ridge rose to the east of South Peak.   The long ridge (2222 m elevation) rises  above the Fish Lake Valley on the north and McClinchy Lake on the south.

2222 Ridge would be an interesting ridgetop hike.

Banana Lake could be spotted in the valley bottom to the northwest.   The Rainbow Range of Tweedsmuir Park is along that same line, 70 km away.

From the south side of South Peak, we could spot the end of McClinchy Lake in the valley below.

 

 

The alpine area beyond has a lot of interesting terrain – dozens of lakes and tarns, craters, and north-slope glaciers.   An area we would like to explore more…

We summited the South Peak on rock slopes.   Frog Lakes were directly below us.  The descent was slow, coming down rocky slopes, but we passed two scenic tarns on the east side of South Peak.

We hiked two days on the North Peak in the following days with much-improved weather, a post to follow.

More information:

• Charlotte Alplands
• Fish and Frog
• One Eye Oufit
• North Peak