This mountain... no wait Mother Nature kicked my ass on this day, and I was still smiling!

The trail leading up the Williams Ridge is in great condition, and steep; just how I like it. After passing cabin No1.5, at about 1300m elevation, Mark and I made a misstep and started following what appears to a marked off goat trail used by hunters. If you stop heading up the switchbacks, and start traversing on a faint trail with Goat poop, you've gone onto the wrong trail; keep an eye out for the orange diamond markers. (the diamond markers indicate the correct trail)

Once up on the ridge, the trail sporadically opens and closes, as it undulates it's way to the base of Williams Peak. It's my belief that the main issue people have with this scramble is how to drop into the basin; keep an eye out for mixed slope of scree and heather it's hard to miss leading off to the right. Once into the basin you ascend up a boulder field towards the boulder filled gully mentioned by Matt Gunn in his book "Scrambles in Southwestern British Columbia". The key is that boulder filled gully, really keep an eye out for it, because if ascend the boulder field too low, you'll have great difficulty reaching the final heather filled gully that leads to the summit. The final gully section is steep and a bit loose, so bring a helmet.

The summit was fantastic, there were great views of Foley, Goetz, Illusion, Slesse, Pierce, and I believe Outram. I have been spending a lot of time outdoors lately. Consequently, I have come to believe that, as long as it's not a technical climb or really exposed, I can get upto the top without great difficulty. Not the case on this trip. The heat and unrelenting Sun wore me out, and I think I can safely say the same for Mark. Bring your sunscreen; you're getting a lot of interface time with the Sun.

I don't know if I will be going back to do this hike in the summer, but definitely I would do it in the fall. The plethora of fungi to gawk at was fantastic. Simply put, I love the Chilliwack River Valley area.

My summit video: Williams Peak Vista