Mt. Frosty - October 10th 2022

October 16, 2022

Mt. Frosty - October 10th 2022

I have wanted to do Mt. Frosty for a long time since its so famous and with taking a longer trip last weekend without Sam and Coen I wanted to make sure this weekend I did a hike with them. Since Mt. Frosty is also notoriously "easy" (for a long hike) I figured it was a good time. Its a 1200m gain over 11km so not too steep but at 22km return it is somewhat long, especially if you're not used to trips like that. I wanted to start really early but with the somewhat long drive (1.5 hours) it was hard to convince Coen and Sam to leave the house before 7am which meant roughly a 9am start.

We left at 7am and my brother David, who had stayed the night before, drove his own truck up. We agreed to meet at the Lighting Lakes parking lot, he would only be able to hike for about an hour before turning around as he had to work in the afternoon. We got there first around 8:40 after only stopping for gas and had to wait a bit for David. We started hiking at 8:50 and it was quite chilly, around 5° C so the motion was welcomed. The trail starts switchbacking up immediately but its very moderate and pleasant so we were able to talk alot. There were many other groups as well.

The first hour passed quickly but we weren't making amazing time because Sam and David kept stopping to chat about plants and trees. I am a very impatient hiker so I did my best to not let them notice and eventually we bid my brother farewell and continued. The next hour was similar to the first however near the end we found ourselves on a 1-2km section that was essentially flat. This section ended at the Frosty Creek camp and started to go up again. After a little bit of this we had finally arrived at the famous golden larches and the trail once again flattened out for a kilometre or so.

This part of the hike was absolutely beautiful. The larches were golden and it feels like you're in a park of some sort even though you're close to the top of the mountain. There were tons of people and we could now clearly see our objective. We plodded up and before long we were at the short rocky scree section before the summit ridge. It wasn't too bad because the trail was so well trodden although I did lead us slightly off the beaten path at one point and Sam and Coen didn't like that.

Once we were on the ridge it was very windy and cold. We put on all our layers and it was about 15 minutes to the top. There was a small windbreak structure where a bunch of other hikers crowded in with us and we stopped for lunch. The time was about 12:30. From the top I could see the true summit of Frosty and the way to get there. I decided against going for it because it did look like it would take at least an hour if not more and I didn't want Sam and Coen to have to wait, as well I didn't want to get back too late.

We headed down and there isn't much to say about the descent except that we re-traced our steps. We got back to the car at 4:15 and stopped at the Manning Park resort for some snacks before driving back, we got home just before 6.