The Devil’s Range is the long east-west ridge between Gwillim Creek on the south and Evans Lake on the north. The Devil’s Couch is on the east end, and Black Prince Mountain is on the west end.
Both Devil’s Dome and Devil’s Spire must be climbed; there is no easy way up either of them. Gneiss is the bedrock here, and is often quite good. All the rest of the peaks of the Devil’s Range are easy or scrambles.
Maps – 82F/13 Burton and 82F/12 Passmore for access
ACCESS
The only practical backpacking route is from Drinnon Lake although float planes operate from Evans Lake. From Drinnon Lake (see Drinnon/Gwillim lakes Trail post) follow the B. C. Parks Division trail high around the west side of Drinnon Lake above Gwillim Creek. Descend to the creek bottom, and ascend rock bluffs and a dry gully to Gwillim Lakes, about 4 hours with heavy packs. There is a pass between Black Prince and Lucifer leading to the Evans Creek drainage, Rocky Lakes and Hird Lakes. This is the usual start of north/south traverses of the Valhallas.
TRAVERSES
The Devil’s Range is 9 kilometres long, there are no trails and it is necessary to make traverses along the range to reach the peaks. All traverses are described from west to east. This may be done in three ways:
1. Descend to Gwillim Creek, proceed east, and try to find the appropriate route up to the desired climb. This would be masochistic. Gwillim Creek has typical West Kootenay bush and other than the crossing below Gwillim to start a traverse, nobody goes near it. Besides the bushwhack, there are 1500-foot cliffs.
2. A Technical Traverse of the Range
This is a technical rock-climbing trip that travels high on the crest of the range. It was done by two very fit young climbers – they did not climb Black Prince or Satan’s Spire. Only the technical climbs are labelled.
From Gwillim Basin, start by scrambling up Black Prince, climb the 5.3 northwest ridge of Lucifer and then the 5.3 southwest ridge of Trident Peak. Traverse Trident, Rosemary’s Baby and Mount Mephistopheles, one long ridge. Climb False Devil’s Dome by its northwest ridge (5.9) and descend to a difficult headwall of crumbling rock to a gully and broken ramp on the NW side.
The long way to Chariot Peak is easy. Then climb Banshee, Diablo and Satan all close to each other and low Class 5. Ascend Banshee in a blocky gully on the southwest face, go over Diablo and climb the east ridge of Satan Peak. The two climbers bypassed Devil’s Spire, and ended on Devil’s Couch, a very long day. Nelson Rocha, Cam Shute, 27/7/2014.
3. Traverse of the Lower Slopes (the preferred route)
If starting at Gwillim Lakes Basin, contour below Lucifer, Trident, Rosemary’s Baby and Mephistopheles on an easy ramp at approximately the 7300-foot level. The cliffs of Devil’s and False Devil”s Domes force you to descend 400 ft altitude south to a beautiful tarn SW of Devil’s Dome (Cauldron Lake).
If starting at Drinnon Lakes, hike along the Gwillim Lakes trail to the small tarn (Warlock Lake) 1.3 kilometres north of Drinnon Lake. Leave the trail here following game trails, bushwhack north-northeast for 200 meters and descend talus to Gwillim Creek. Walk up the creek coming out of Cauldron Lake, and at a wet marshy area on the east side, ascend a lightly treed gentle slope to the ridge above (about the 6800-foot level and 200 metres south of the lake). The two routes meet here.
Trend ENE to the immediate horizon. To keep above any cliffs gain 200-300 feet on the boulder field and steep grass. Maintain elevation on boulders and descend to 7100′ at the base of a large cliff, the SW summit of Chariot Peak.
Ascend contouring above the steep bits, cross a small creek and small cliffs to gain a broad grassy ledge that ends at another small creek and boulder field. This is below the high cliff that runs down south of Banshee Peak. (can camp here).
Contour up and around the boulder field NE then east to 7800 feet between cliffs at the ridge above and SW of Coven Lakes. (Apparently, there is a goat trail below here that saves having to climb 400 feet, but we could never find it and wasted a lot of time doing so).
Descend to the lakes at 7250′. The four lakes that comprise Coven Lakes are surrounded by granite cliffs that give the whole basin the appearance of one large volcanic caldera. There are many potential campsites with virtually no sign that a human has ever been here. And on average, only one group per year has been here. The best place to camp is on the strip of land between two lakes. It catches the most breeze to help deal with all the mosquitoes. The water in the upper lake and small tarn above it is very murky – due to all the fine glacial mud above the lake. There are wonderful sunrise and sunset views due south towards Mulvey Basin.
The lakes give great access to all the mountains surrounding the caldera: Devil’s Couch, Satan’s Spire, Satan Peak, Mount Diablo and Banshee Peak. We spent three nights here climbing Devil’s Couch one day, avoided the climb on Satan and climbed the other three on a second day. In retrospect, we should have also climbed Chariot on that second day. It is an obscure summit truly in the middle of nowhere and is possibly the furthest mountain in the range that can be climbed in one day from the parking lot. The climb down from Banshee looked technical.
Some Climbing and Exploration Notes
1967- Bob Dean, Frank Nixon and his dog. (KK 7:62) 1971- Bob Dean, Howie Ridge. (KK 13:20;14:51;16:21;
CAJ 57(1974):80; 66(1983):88; PC: HR)
1973- Howie Ridge, Gordon Stein, Peter Wood. (KK 16:23,24; CAJ 57 (1974):80; PC: HR)
1977- Peter Koedt, Elena and Gunther Offerman, Jara Popelkova. (KK 20:19,21)
1982- Jim Jones, Dan Offin. (CAJ 66(1983):88)