The Shark Fin Summit Traditional Cache

This small lock and lock geocache is hidden atop the 2,038 m summit of The Shark Fin, an awesome scrambling summit located up Jura Creek. Travel to this summit involves an off-trail 3rd/4th class scramble (moderate/difficult), covering 10 kilometers return and 800 m elevation gain. It's a fantastic scramble with great views and excellent rock. The exposed ridge along the last ~300m to the top is the highlight, with a highly exposed ridge leading up to the top.

Park at Jura Creek and hike up the creek for about 1-1.5 hours. In springtime during runoff, the creek can have a lot of water flow leading to plenty of creek hopping. In summer, the hike up the creek should be a non-issue. Once at the base of the mountain, the pyramid-like summit of Shark Fin Soup should be visible - aim for this feature and hike up through the trees. Travel through the trees should be pretty straight-forward, the bushwhacking isn't bad and there are some opportunities for good scrambling along the way. For the most part though, it's an off-trail ramble up the rubble.

Higher up, the trees disappear as you enter the rocky alpine terrain. This is where the route starts to really get good! Simply follow the south ridge along its crest. Terrain that looked very intimidating from below now doesn't appear quite so bad, but it is a very thin and exposed ridge - hence the Shark Fin!! Some 3rd class scrambling along the awesome ridge gets you up to Shark Fin Soup, then the final 150m to the summit offers the most challenging scrambling yet. A final scramble up a slabby 4th class section leads you up to the summit.

For sure it's just an outlier of the much larger peak to the north, but I think you'll agree with me that this feels like it's own summit. My ascent was perhaps a first ascent as I saw no signs of any human travel along the way and no cairn or disturbance at the top. But it's definitely a route that deserves some visitors owing to the excellent scrambling, views and relatively short trip - all things considered. I hope you come check this one out as it's well worth it. Enjoy!