Dunwey Peak II ("Rogan Peak")

September 12, 2010

Mountain height:         2442 m
Elevation gain:            approx. 1100 m                     

Scrambling and a little climbing with Mark.

Dunwey Peak appeared on the radar during an ascent of Lakeview Ridge in April of 2009. I had already reached the summit during a wonderful high-level traverse from Mount Galwey to Mount Dungarvan (hence the name), with Kevin Barton. However, an ascent from the east side seemed to have all kinds of potential for interesting scrambling and good scenery. (Note: two months after this ascent, my nephew, Rogan, was born and I subsequently renamed the mountain "Rogan Peak", in tribute to him)

We started from the Bison Paddock and quickly made our way to the beautiful valley on the south side of Lakeview Ridge. Some phenomenal cloud scenery above Chief Mountain was definitely the highlight of this part of the day. The “guaranteed to be easy” route would have been to stay on the Horseshoe Basin Trail to the pass west of Lakeview Ridge and then turn south, following gentle scree to the summit. However, we were hoping to find a more challenging route up and save the easy stuff for the descent. As such, we left the trail and scampered up to one of several ridges descending from the summit. Besides splendid views of the surrounding area, the ridge boasted a couple of very interesting rockbands and some terrific red argillite scenery.

When it appeared staying directly on the ridge would be too difficult we traversed into a gully to the right and followed it up. The gully did provide a relatively easy and fun ascent to a point close to the summit. The easy part ended when we reached a steeper rockband guarding the upper slopes. A quick search revealed one less steep break in the band, but it was still at the very upper end of difficult scrambling and we decided to break out the rope. Mark led the step, I followed, and then it was easier to the ridge and a fine view of Mount Dungarvan. The summit was reached shortly after.

For descent, we took the easy route down to the north, until another straightforward route back to the Horseshoe Basin Trail appeared.

A very enjoyable and worthwhile trip.

Terrific cloud scenery at the beginning of the trip

Bellevue Hill (left) and Dunwey Peak (right)

Looking south to Waterton

More clouds

Clouds and Chief Mountain

Dunwey, with Dungarvan in the distant right

Galwey (left) and Dunwey (right)

The cloud scenery continued to impress us well into the trip

On the ridge

Last of the clouds

The very pleasant valley east of Galwey

The first of several interesting rockbands on the ridge

Scrambling up the band

The long, but beautiful ridge to Dunwey

Mark approaches the second rockband

More excellent scenery

Orange lichen 

Mark and the second rockband

At the top

A very minor, but very colourful rockband

Mark atop the third 

Looking at the fouth and the summit block of Dunwey at the far left

Approaching the fourth and much more serious band

Same as above

There was a route right up the centre, but we decided to go around

The lichen covered rock of the fourth

Traversing around

Some mildly exposed terrain on the traverse

Gearing up for the summit block

In the ascent gully

Typical terrain in the lower section

Same as above

Approaching the crux

The crux rockband

Looking for a route around the crux

Didn't find one

Traversing back to the least steep section

Mark leads the crux step

At the summit; Blakiston, Anderson, and Dungarvan are prominent

Mark at the summit

Same as above

The very easy descent route; Lakeview Ridge in the centre

More pleasant red argillite surprises on the way down

Same as above

The Horseshoe Basin Valley

Hiking out

Mark does his "Gladiator" impression

Same as above

Looking back

While not as striking as the morning view, the clouds persist over Chief Mountain well into the day

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