Return to Mount Edziza | Ice Caves, Lava Tubes, and Cindercones
We hiked for two weeks in August 2023 as a party of four, traversing nearly the entire park from south to north, culminating in over 200 km hiked and 7000 m of elevation gain. Throughout these two weeks we explored a previously undocumented kilometer long ice cave with connecting entrances and exits, several short lava tubes which made for great food caches and worthy of crawling around to catch a glimpse of what's inside. Currently, there is limited documentation of the region other than a couple old research articles indicating dozens of cindercones surrounding Mount Edziza. Aside from simply wanting to explore this mysterious park, we also sought to document areas where nearly no photographs or videos exist.
From our previous 5 day trip in 2022 attempting to walk in directly from the highway, we caught a glimpse of the epicness of this remote British Columbian park. This time in late August 2023, we got dropped off by a floatplane at Little Ball Lake and picked up fourteen days later at Buckley Lake.
Preparing in advance, we pre-dehydrated and vaccuum sealed the majority of our meals, were stocked with several weeks worth of water tablets and packed far too heavy bags. We also made our best attempt to document the journey and release it as a short adventure film (coming soon).
On the very first day of this trip, I slid with my nearly eighty pound pack about ten meters down a glacier and received a fair bit of road rash after I abruptly stopped in rocks and gravel at the bottom. The very edge of the glacier had a thin layer of snow covering slippery melting ice. A relatively close call that could've been worse and prompted me to behave more carefully for the rest of the trip. After all, this isn't an easy place to get rescued from should there be an emergency.
As the day was getting late, we decided to camp near the base of Mount Yeda. We filled up our water bladders with glacial water coming out of the side of the mountain. Astonishingly and to our surprise, during the late day when it is hot out, this water is murky and dirty, whereas in the morning it is crystal clear and far more refreshing to drink.
Following the base of Yeda Mountain, there is a vicious valley filled with boulders lying on top of a mostly buried glacier. The glacier underneath the boulders is melting and creates massive sinkholes, a type of terrain I've never seen before. Walking here is a little nerve-wrecking as it's hard to tell if there is a void underneath or not. There were several ice caves here, including one nearly kilometer long ice cave with an underground river flowing entirely through it.
We explored the ice cave from both ends, and it appears it likely connects the whole way through, although, were wary of going too deep into the cave as it may be unsafe to spend too much time in the cave. This was quite evident by the refrigerator sized blocks of ice on the cave floor, which were previously attached to the roof.
We spent two nights around the ice cave area with two great camps, while we decided how best to navigate the coming terrain.
To traverse the park, the planned route initially anticipated an obscene amount of ridge walking. However, quickly we learned that all of these mountains are far crumblier than they are steep. The second mountain pass we attempted we ended up deeming to be too risky for rockslide hazard and ended up hiking far down the valley to Obsidian Ridge, where there was a more gentle pass to bring us to the next valley.
This next valley north of Obsidian Ridge was quite stunning and had a beautiful waterfall at the end of it, perfect for an ice cold and well needed glacial shower.
At the valleys end, the plateau floor was shining black with shards of obsidian, fragments of a times past where the traditional Tahltan people would process obsidian for their own use or trade. Before this journey, I read an article which discussed how all over North America this very obsidian has been used to trace the trade routes of Indigenous peoples going back thousands of years. Quite a fascinating read, and cool to know this was an important source of obsidian for a very long time. Although the valley seems untouched, it's historical use by people has gone back a long ways.
The following few valleys were mostly uneventful and involved a fair bit of bushwhacking through gentle meadows and alpine fir to press forward.
After a few more days we reached Mount Tadeda, likely my favourite on the whole trip. The black and orange formations across the South face of Mount Tadeda were almost otherworldly. I came face to face with several caribou not far from here at a very close distance.
A few more valleys to cross over led us to our first glimpse of Mount Edziza from the south, and what a spot. Here you can see a pristinely preserved cinder cone, which as far as I am aware, has only ever been referred to as SLF-11 (referring to snowshoe lavafield #11). There are several other cinder cones such as Coffee Crater and Cocoa Crater directly west of this one.
Near the base of SLF-11 there is an extensive lava field with ankle-breaking holes scattered about. Much care is needed to walk through this area. There are a few lava tubes around here and some of the solidified lava is covering receding glaciers. One unique aspect of this area is that it's still volcanically active, and in the past lava erupted over top of glaciers, creating a dynamic combination of glaciers and basalt. We camped slightly south of SLF-11 in a somewhat wind-protected cove created by the lava field.
After this area, we did a bit of bushwhacking through the Big Raven Plateau valleys in attempt to find the fabled hot springs. Unfortunately, there are a few websites online listing fake coordinates for where the hot springs should be so we never actually found them, despite a very thorough check of the area. Some of the valleys along the Big Raven Plateau had slightly deep creeks to cross.
Along the plateau we also saw a grizzly running in the distance and another herd of caribou, which was daunting yet cool to see up close. This section led us to Eve's cone which was an absolutely epic spot. At Eve's cone, Caleb and Oli decided they wanted to head to the pickup point on Buckley Lake a day early, so we split into two parties for the last day. Kale and I decided to pitch a tent at the very bottom of the cone and explore this area a bit further. Had a pretty good sleep all things considered, despite the fact that we were sleeping at the epicenter of a volcano. We woke up the next morning and brewed a cup of tea on the crater edge, then proceeded to go searching for lava tubes for a few hours.
Adjacent to Eve's cone we found a few good lava tubes worth crawling around with mini lava-stalactites dripping from the ceilings. I'm sure there are plenty more lava tubes hidden around here. The ones we explored were fairly relict, likely due to glacial activity. However, given that Eve's cone last erupted within a millennia they are still in relatively good condition.
At this point, we were already on our last day and didn't have enough time to explore Desolation lava field surrounding Eve's cone. From Eve's cone to Buckley Lake we had a final section of about 15 km to traverse over Desolation lava field. In comparison with Snowshoe lava field, there were far more ankle breakers hidden in here. There are many unstable basalt column and moss covering deep holes between blocks. This had to be some of the most atrocious terrain I've ever walked through that wasn't covered in thick trees or wet and boggy. Great care is required to get passed this section... I think "Desolation's Corridor" would be a name apt for the section. Furthermore, the compass barely functioned in this area due to large quantities of iron-rich rock underground. At times, the compass needle would literally spin in circles.
After about 10 km of nasty lava field to walk through, there's another few kilometers of alder-enriched bog prior to getting to Buckley Lake. Around this boggy area is where Olivier was charged by a grizzly bear.. luckily it backed off and left without incident. Once reaching the South side of Buckley Lake there is a game trail which leads around to the North-East side to the hunting camp.
When we got to the hunting camp we were surprised to see that several of the cabins had grizzly claw marks ripping through the siding.
Due to the nastiness of the Desolation lavafield it took us until 3 am to arrive at the South Side of Buckley Lake from Eve's Cone. From here we shouted across at Caleb and Olivier and they managed to come pick us up in a row boat. Made it to the campsite around 4 am and got a few short hours of sleep in before getting picked up by the float plane. In the morning Oli and Caleb caught and cooked us some a few tasty rainbow trouts from Buckley Lake. We were rationing food for the last few days so were extremely hungry at this point... the perfect meal for the occasion! For anyone in the future who wishes to attempt the Little Ball Lake to Buckley Lake Traverse section, I'd recommend starting real early the day prior.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post. Mount Edziza Provincial Park is absolutely fascinating and there is still so much more to explore here. I hope this can help guide anyone who is seeking to travel there. If you want a more in depth look at our trip, don't forget to check out our documentary (coming soon). Until the next time!