Chatting that evening with another group we learned that there was a party of two still on Hermit Mountain. They were in radio contact with the rest of their party at Hermit Meadows. At this late hour they were intending to hunker down for the night and bail off in the morning. There didn't seem to be too much concern overall so we went to bed without worrying about it.
Next morning on our way up the moraines at first light we heard a helicopter coming up the valley. Uh-oh. It flew right over us and sure enough we watched as two figures were long lined one-by-one off the summit of Hermit. Pretty bizarre to watch this unfold as we were heading up to climb the same peak. We spoke with them afterwards. They were little sheepish but fine otherwise.
The west ridge is an excellent route. Clean, continuously interesting, and much more aesthetic than many of the similar easy climbs in the area.
With some careful route finding we managed to avoid using the rope and were on the top within guidebook time. Unheard of. For us.
We considered descending the east ridge but it looked liked an awfully long way. Meh. The descent didn't go quite as smoothly. We kept getting suckered to skiers left onto easier ground that would usually end up leaving us cliffed out. But we sorted it out and after one or two short rappels near the end we were back at the Truda-Hermit col.
An excellent day out and another milestone of sorts as this was the only remaining peak in the Hermit area that we hadn't climbed. A climb worthy or our minor ambitions! We packed up the tents and headed home.
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