Grable Peak Reconnaissance – March 29, 2008

Mountain height:         2650 m (made it to 2340 m)
Elevation gain:            1000 m
Ascent time:                6:00
Descent time:              2:50

Snowshoeing and scrambling with Mark.

Knowing full well that this would be a terrible weather day, with absolutely no possibility of any views, we set off up Grotto Creek to get some exercise and possibly do a reconnaissance mission on Grable Peak. Twice we had failed to reach the summit from the southeast side earlier in 2007. This time we would see if the southwest side yielded better results. The gloomy weather sucked up pretty much all the motivation out of us, but we plodded on to the base of Grable. Gaining some elevation seemed to remedy that and we continued up the south face of the mountain for far longer than anticipated.

After crossing several ribs and then slogging up a long gully, we hit an impasse, where the terrain became far more serious. Perhaps this section was doable in summer, but definitely not in its present condition. Poor visibility also prevented us from seeing any detail.  

We called it a day, approximately 750 horizontal and 300 vertical metres from the summit. A rapid and easy descent ended a surprisingly enjoyable day.

Mark arrives at the first obstacle of the day; circumvented on the right side

 

 Typical terrain and scenery throughout the day

 Snowing

 Trying to find out where we were on the mountain

Mark follows

Mark leads the ascent up the gully to the ridge

My turn to lead

 

Crawling up a short section to see the upper ridge

LOG