Unnamed summits at GR334455

Unnamed summits at GR334455, GR344447, and GR345444 (north of Mount McDougall) – April 9, 2005

GR334455 height: 2,352 m (7,715 ft)
Elevation gain: 914 m
Ascent time: 2:20

GR344447 height: 2,390 m (7,839 ft)
Elevation gain: 248 m
Traverse time: 3:15

GR345444 height: 2,419 m (7,934 ft)
Traverse time:      0:30
Descent time:       2:15
Roundtrip time:    9:15

Scrambling and a little mountaineering with Mark.

We seem to be picking off the unnamed summits of the Mount McDougall range, one (or three) peaks at a time: GR333458 and Wasootch Tower in 2003, GR338442 a couple of weeks ago, and now GR334455, GR344447, and GR345444. Each of the aforementioned trips has been outstanding and this day’s adventure was no exception. As a matter of fact, I’d have to classify this trip as being one of our most rewarding, satisfying, and exhilarating to date. Some of contributing factors were the splendid weather, terrific scenery, varied terrain (hiking to difficult scrambling to mountaineering), and a fair amount of exposed ridge walking. Most importantly, however, was the fact that, with the exception of the first summit (GR334455 – sometimes referred to as WasootchPeak), we had no route information and no idea of whether either of the summits was achievable. We far surpassed our expectations for the trip, by reaching all three summits and then finding an easy way down, making the route into an exciting and extremely interesting loop.

The first section of the trip involved an easy and scenic hike to the summit of GR334455 (named Wasootch Peak by Bob Spirko), on a surprisingly obvious and well-trodden trail. Along the way, we took an opportunity to do some moderate scrambling and explore the very interesting terrain a little. The summit panorama was terrific and included great views in all directions. Even at this point, turning around and going home would have provided a more than satisfying and complete day. However, we decided to continue south towards the summit at GR344447, even though the route looked to be beyond our capabilities.

Downclimbing from the summit of 334455 to the wide ridge below proved to be a mini challenge in itself. An old piton attested to the fact that others before us may have had difficulties. After climbing down and around a small rock pinnacle, Mark did find an easy route and I was able to go straight over the pinnacle. From there, it was an easy and again very scenic descent to a lowpoint on the connecting ridge.

We reached the crux of the trip shortly after starting the ascent to our destination: a band of crumbling rock with varying degrees of steepness. We searched the band for a weakness, but even the least steep section was tricky, due to the downsloping and extremely loose rock. We roped up and up Mark went. Most of our climbing protection was sitting at home, but fortunately Mark had brought along a large cam, that was sufficient to provide him the enough security to ascend the short, but steep section. Though probably rated only as difficult scrambling, downclimbing this section without protection would have extremely treacherous, if not impossible. We knew that we would be rappelling down, should we return the same way.

Continuing up the ridge, we arrived at a second difficult section. Here, I traversed a steep snow slope on the east side, to circumvent a large pinnacle blocking the ridge. The snow was deep, but unconsolidated and did not provide good footing. Again, we chose to set up a belay here. Once passed, it was a much easier scramble to the minor summit at GR344447. We were very happy to have made the summit, but a little disappointed to find that a slightly higher summit lie further south and seemed to be guarded by a narrow and very exposed ridge.

Initially, we made the decision that it was probably best to enjoy what we had already accomplished and return the same way we came. We took a break, enjoying the fantastic scenery. The ridge north and south of the summit was spectacular: towering walls of slabs leading to the narrow and undulating ridge. For two reasons, we decided an attempt to traverse to the higher summit was worth the time and effort: firstly, we all know that looks can be very deceiving in the mountains and sometimes what appears to be very difficult or impossible may be easier than expected (or vice versa!); and secondly, it appeared that if we could get to the summit, we could take an alternate descent route down easy northwest facing scree slopes.

Thankfully, we were right about the deceiving appearance, and although the terrain was, at times, a little exposed, the ridgewalk was very pleasant and enjoyable. At one point we arrived at a small upclimb, followed by a ridge traverse that looked to end in a serious drop-off. Here, we were able to descend a snow gully and then traverse along the base of a beautiful slab of almost vertical rock and then regain the ridge. The “serious drop-off” again was a façade and staying on the ridge throughout probably would have been possible.

Just as we thought we were about to summit, we came to one more unexpected exposed section. I’m certainly glad we had a rope with us – it made not only this section, but several others, far less unnerving. A short traverse, followed by a little scramble and we stepped onto our third and definitely sweetest summit of the day. The beautiful summit view included a magnificent look at the entire route we had just completed and another equally impressive view of the ridge continuing south towards the highest point of the range at 2,728 m (definitely a future trip).

For the descent, we continued heading south along the ridge. The first section was very narrow, with a significant drop-off on the right. Mark went first, but we both ended up traversing the ridge ala Mount Lady MacDonald (on our butts!). After that, we found the scree slope we had being eyeing from the summit and started down. Had we more time, we would have considered attempting to traverse west to GR338442 (the fantastic trip of two weeks ago) and making the descent from there.

The scree slope was absolute heaven – great surfable scree allowed us to practically run down the mountain, losing a huge amount of elevation in very little time. Lower down, we traversed into a snow gully and completed another large section in no time, on our Crazy Carpets. For the remainder of the descent, we followed a stream, right out to the road by the car. A totally fantastic day on a wonderful mountain.

Heading up to the first summit

Looking to the west

More interesting scenery before the summit at GR334455

At the summit of GR334455

Heading down to the lowpoint between GR334455 and GR344447; the ascent route follows the ridge throughout; we used the obvious gully in the center of the peaks as our descent route