Mount Galwey II, Mount Dungarvan II

Mount Galwey II, Mount Dungarvan II – August 9, 2007

Mountain height
            Galwey:                           2348 m
            Dungarvan:                     2566 m
Total elevation gain:                   approx. 1500 m
Ascent time to Galwey:              2:20
Traverse time to Dungarvan:     3:40
Descent time from Dungarvan: 3:45

Scrambling with Kevin.

We actually planned on doing an ascent in the Crowsnest area, but neglected to consider that the whole area might still be closed to the public because of extreme dry conditions. It was and therefore we backtracked and headed to south to Waterton. I suggested to Kevin an ascent of Mount Galwey, followed by a possible high-level traverse to Mount Dungarvan. Kevin had done neither ascent and was happy to be granted the possibility of a double-summit day. I had done both peaks, but not the traverse from one to the other and so I was also quite motivated.

We started the trip at 11:30 am. Still trying to recover from being assaulted for twenty straight hours on Mount Burney the day before, we took a leisurely pace, arriving at the summit of Galwey in two hours, twenty minutes. The traverse to Dungarvan appeared to involve reaching two intermediate summits in the process. Mark and I had already visited the first (the slightly higher north summit of Galwey) and so Kevin and I bypassed this summit by side-sloping the east side of the mountain.

The only significant challenge between the north summit of Galwey and the higher Unnamed summit farther north appeared to be a huge vertical rockband along the ridge. We had brought with us a rope and climbing gear, but in the interests of time looked for a non-technical route around it. There was one and after regaining the ridge we continued easily to the Unnamed highpoint at GR850475.

Both concerned about threatening weather conditions and the prospect of another “Burney” descent, we picked up the pace quite a bit for the remainder of the traverse. It took us one hour, forty minutes to get from Unnamed to the summit of Dungarvan. Just before the summit I was pleasantly surprised to stumble onto the chewed up and tattered green sling that Mark, Dan, James, and I had used two years earlier to rappel off the summit block. After removing the sling I continued to the summit. Kevin had already made the top and was on his way down. Low clouds from the east were pouring rapidly over the mountain and we needed to lose some elevation fast.

After Mount Burney and our first nightmarish descent from Dungarvan in the fall of 2005, this descent was sheer heaven: fun scree slopes, a long but relatively easy boulder hop down a tributary of Lost Horse Creek, and a scenic hike alongside the creek to end the day. Thankfully the creek was low enough that could stay in the canyon throughout and avoid the hideous bushwhacking above. A fantastic day and a pretty decent route to get to two summits in a single trip.