hero

“Hero Nob”

December 27, 2008

Mountain height:         2512 m
Elevation gain:            700 m
Roundtrip time:          8:15

Snowshoeing and a little mountaineering with Mark.

After a wonderfully scenic trip up unofficial “Blacksmith Ridge”, a week earlier, we set our sights on “Hero Nob” to the north. A good friend recommended the route. Unfortunately the weather was not likely to be good, but we both wanted the exercise and snowshoeing gives you one heck of a workout!

For the first section of the trip we were able to follow our tracks from last week. We then hopped over into the next valley and started towards the headwall, east of Mount Smith-Dorrien.

After passing by an interesting curtain of ice, we then gained the upper plateau, below the steep walls of the connecting ridge between Mounts Black Prince and Smith-Dorrien. With clear skies, the scenery here would have been fantastic.

The remainder of the ascent was not without its challenges. Gaining the ridge of Hero Nob took a huge amount of effort, up a slope of deep, unconsolidated snow. We hoped conditions on the ridge would be easier, but in fact the snow was even deeper and travel was excruciatingly slow. Thankfully, once out of the trees, the ridge was wind blown and much easier to ascend. It did narrow for short sections and so we traversed below it using a few very fortuitously placed trees for belaying.

Our summit stay was short, as views were limited and temperatures cold. The descent was uneventful, though we were both bitter about leaving our Crazy Carpets in the car – the slope below the ice curtain would have been perfect for them.