Hiking Memaloose Peak in Manning Provincial Park
Contents
Memaloose Peak Hike Information
Difficulty: Difficult
Distance: 16Km
Elevation Gain: 820m
Highest Elevation: 1,945m
Average Gradient: 10.25%
Effort/Reward Ratio: Moderate / High
Time Needed:
– Slow: 8 – 10 Hours
– Moderate: 6 – 8 Hours
– Fast: 5 – 6 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: Year-Round (Winter Preferred)
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No
Scrambling / Exposure: None
Memaloose Peak Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°07’01.0″N 120°52’11.8″W
Disclaimer: Winter hiking (snowshoeing) involves significantly more risk than summer hiking. Hikers should be prepared with appropriate education, training and equipment for all possibilities, including but not limited to avalanches. A mistake such as going off trail, getting lost or injured can be far more dangerous in winter than summer. You are responsible for your own safety, and while I am happy to give my opinion on this website as to the avalanche risk of a specific hike, do not take this as fact and please do your own research. Everybody has different risk tolerances and mine might be different to yours.
Memaloose Peak Overview
Memaloose Peak is a summit located in Manning Provincial Park, accessed from the highway works yard at Allison Pass. The route begins by following the Memaloose Creek trail before gaining the ridge of your own accord. There is no marked trail to the summit and hikers must self navigate for most of the hike.
There are a few different points where you can gain the ridge, you can either continue far along the Memaloose Creek trail and gain the ridge shortly before the summit, or you can work your way up to the ridge much earlier and follow the undulating ridge for longer. The prior option is preferred if you want the most efficient route as it avoids the undulating ridge and takes a more direct approach, but it provides less views and a longer stretch on the disorienting and boring Memaloose Creek trail. The latter option, gaining the ridge early, provides better views for more of the hike, but makes the hike slightly longer and with a bit more elevation gain as you undulate along the ridge towards the summit. This guide will cover the latter option, gaining the ridge early on in the hike and enjoying the ridgeline ramble for longer.
Memaloose Peak is very much a winter or spring outing that benefits greatly from a snowpack, as the route would otherwise require a significant amount of off-trail bushwhacking in the summer. While some of the Memaloose Creek trail is marked and there is potential for a track in the snow along this section, you should be prepared to self-navigate for the entire hike unless you know someone has recently been. The steep climb up to the ridge does pass through avalanche terrain, albeit in the treeline, so do take note of the conditions and prepare accordingly.
Once you reach the ridgeline of Memaloose Peak the views are great and continue to improve as you work your way towards the peak. From the summit you have fantastic panoramic views of all of Manning Park, with countless iconic peaks visible, including Frosty Mountain, Hozomeen Mountain, Silvertip Mountain, Jack Mountain, Castle Peak, the Brothers’, Lone Goat and Snowcamp Mountain, and countless more.
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Is Memaloose Peak worthwhile?
The views from the summit of Memaloose Peak are fantastic, and the hike is thoroughly enjoyable once you reach the ridge. The Memaloose Creek trail that runs through the valley is not very pleasant and gets quite monotonous. If you are breaking trail it will also be pretty disorienting and you will no doubt need a map. Overall though, Memaloose Peak is a great day out in the right conditions.
How difficult is the hike to Memaloose Peak?
Given the fact that anyone who is hiking Memaloose Peak is likely doing so in the snow, the difficulty of this hike is largely dependent on the condition of the trail and the snow on the day. You will not want to do this hike in fresh, deep powder as in all likelihood you won’t get very far.
Assuming you are hiking on a solid snow crust this is still a relatively challenging hike. The first section of the hike along Memaloose Creek is largely flat for the first 3.5km. Even by the 5km mark you will only have ascended about 100m from the trailhead. Between kilometers 5 and 6 is where the majority of the work is done on this hike, climbing steeply through the forest to the ridge. This is where you need to be most wary of any avalanche risk as the slope is steep and south facing, so it gets sun early in the morning. Once on the ridge you simply follow it west to the summit. By now you’ll likely have deep snow, so while there isn’t that much elevation gain it’ll still be pretty slow going and tiring.
Technically the hike isn’t all that challenging, but it really depends on the conditions when you go and whether a trail has been broken already. The only technical part of the hike is the steep climb up to the ridge. If you have a supportive crust this will just be tiring, but if it’s icy you may find that crampons will be helpful, as well as an ice axe.
Memaloose Peak Route Information
As noted, the trailhead for this hike is from the south end of the Allison Pass highway maintenance yard (see coordinates). In the winter the gate for the yard is usually left open, and parking inside the yard is encouraged as long as vehicles are not blocking any movement within the yard. There is plenty of space to the right once you enter the gate to park cars. In the summer the gate to the yard is usually closed, with people parking just outside the gate along the highway. This is all 2WD accessible, though winter tires are required during the snow season.
Once you reach the south end of the maintenance yard you will note a small trail leading into the forest. Assuming you are going in snow you will now either have a set of tracks to follow or you will be breaking trail from here on out. If it’s the latter you will certainly want to have your map handy as navigating this forest will not be straightforward without. At the time of writing there are no permanent markers on this trail, though you will likely see the odd marker hanging from branches here and there, though certainly not enough to use for navigation.
The trail now meanders through the forest for the next 5 kilometers, with very little elevation gain throughout. At times the trail will undulate but for the most part it’s flat. For the first 3km or so the trail will remain fairly close to Memaloose Creek, but it should always stay north of the creek. You might note at one stage the linked trail actually crosses the creek as we mistakenly followed a set of tracks in that direction before realizing they were not going the right way. Long story short, don’t cross over Memaloose Creek.
At around the 3.5km mark the trail stops running parallel to Memaloose Creek and begins to climb up and away from it, before dropping once again somewhat as you reach the steep ascent to the ridge at approximately the 5km mark.
There is no indication on the trail of when to begin your climb up to the ridge, so you need to keep a close eye on your map if you intend to follow it step by step. As soon as you depart from the Memaloose Creek trail the ascent will go from extremely mellow to very steep quite quickly, with an almost 400m climb in just over 1km. With a supportive snowpack you should be fine to keep your snowshoes on for the entire ascent, but if it’s particularly icy you might need to switch to crampons and an ice axe. There’s not much to say about this grind other than to get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
The good news is that once you reach the top of the ridge the views start to break out and the remainder of the hike is a pleasant ridge walk to the summit of Memaloose Peak, which is only around 2km away now. You will note at the top of the ascent to the ridge that there are two routes we took, a different one up and down. I would suggest taking the down route traversing across the ridge, as the up route goes unnecessarily high before dropping back down.
From now on the route to Memaloose Peak is pretty obvious. You’ll initially be able to see a bump along the ridge that you might think is Memaloose but is in fact just a sub summit. You’ll also have several viewpoints of Frosty Mountain and the double summit of Hozomeen Mountain to enjoy along the way.
Once you reach the sub summit you will then have a clear view of Memaloose Peak itself. You’ll continue plodding along the ridge for almost 1km, with constant views the entire time, before beginning your final climb up to the summit. The last push ascends around 80m and will probably be a bit of a slog, especially if you’re breaking trail. Soon enough you’ll reach the summit though. Take care with any potential cornices, there weren’t any major concerns when we were there but I’m sure this summit is prone to forming them.
Once on the summit the views are panoramic, with incredible views of Frosty Mountain, Hozomeen Mountain, Silvertip Mountain, Shawatum Mountain, Loan Goat & Snow Camp Mountain, Jack Mountain, Castle Peak, Mount Spickard and countless more.
From Memaloose Peak hikers have the option of continuing along the ridge to another summit, Nara Peak. This is about 1.5km further along the ridgeline, but it sits 33m lower than Memaloose Peak and as such the views are likely not as good. Many hikers set off with the intention of summiting both Memaloose and Nara in one outing, but after reaching Memaloose they call it a day. With Nara being lower the only real point of continuing along the ridge is if you’re a peakbagger. To reach Nara you will have to drop about 150m only to reclimb up to Nara. Repeating this back up to Memaloose Peak to hike out will add about 3 – 4 km and 250m elevation gain to the stats above, which will take at least an hour, likely a little more.
The descent from Memaloose Peak is simply the same way you came up. Take care on the steep climb down from the ridge back to the Memaloose Creek trail. By now it will be later in the day and this south facing slope will have potentially had sun exposure all day, weakening the snowpack. We managed just fine in snowshoes, but if the snow has softened considerably you may have to take them off and plunge down in your boots instead.
Once you’re back on the Memaloose Creek trail it’s a bit of a dull and monotonous plod back to the trailhead, but at least it’s easy.
When should I hike Memaloose Peak?
Timing your hike to Memaloose Peak is important as you will want a healthy snowpack low down in the valley to enable easy travel along Memaloose Creek. In all likelihood that will mean going at some point between December and April, though this will vary depending on the years snowfall.
Not only that, you will want to time this after a period of little to no snowfall so as to enable a firm snow crust throughout the hike. Hiking this in fresh, deep snow will be very difficult if not impossible.
Top Tip
You’ll want to prepare for the hike based on the most up to date conditions. As noted there is avalanche risk on the steep south facing slope, so make sure to check avalanche conditions and prepare accordingly. An early start is recommended. If you expect to encounter ice you may well need to take mountaineering crampons and an ice axe, again for the steep slope.
Navigation in the forest is difficult in snow without any consistent markers or a track to follow, so an offline map is mandatory for this hike. There is no cell service in Manning Park.
