Mount Erickson occupies the skyline to the east from Sparwood, peeking over the Elkview mine. Coming from the east, it's one of the first ridelines heading north from the highway once you're across the divide. A communications tower on top of the ridge draws your eye from multiple directions.
There is no established trail to the ridgetop, and two common starting points:
- Parking coordinates have been provided at highway 3 at the southern end of the ridge. Head straight up the ridge from here; the first section is steep and rocky.
- Start from the powerline where it crosses Alexander Creek Rd; any vehicle can make it here and reasonably far along the powerline. From where you park, go straight up the powerline or continue walking up the road to the alternate parking coords.
- A vehicle with reasonable (e.g. SUV) clearance can make it to the coordinates at the top of the powerline; from here head straight up the ridge, and you will have bypassed a bit of elevation and some rocky bits.
The ridgeline starts as reasonably open forest, transitions to a re-growing burn zone, and then into open rocky ridgeline as you approach the southern high point. Intermittent rocky outcroppings and boulder fields keep things interesting. Once past the southern high point, you will lose some elevation before climbing to the false summit with the Comshel, and onward to the true summit and this cache. Note that this cache is not the pink ammo can summit register nor in the summit cairn. Views of mountain peaks greet you to the east, south, and far to the west. The immediate western view gives you an interesting vantage point of Teck's Elkview Operations coal mine.
To reach the true summit from one of the lower parking spots, this hike is more than 13 km round-trip with about 1300 m of elevation gain, with no water en-route.
