Iyarhe Ipan
December
16, 2018
Mountain
height: 1938 m
Elevation gain: 456 m
Roundtrip
time:
4 hours
Solo
scramble.
(Glad I
can just write the name of this little peak without having to pronounce it!)
At this
time of the year watching NFL football sometimes steers me away from the
mountains on Sundays (every man has his vice!) Iyarhe Ipan seemed to be the
perfect compromise – short enough that I could do the trip and be back in
Calgary by 11am, when the games start. Good trip reports from Bob Spirko
and Sonny Bou
were the impetus for this objective.
After
fording the surprisingly high Elbow River (once again, two thumbs up for
hip-waders) and then gaining the south ridge of the peak, I arrived at the
impressive rock band described in both reports. Needless to say I had to get a
close- up look at the rock and it did not disappoint – more or less – the wild
variety of beautifully coloured rock was fantastic, but would have been
astounding with the Sun shining on it. With a northeast orientation and on the 6th
shortest day of the year, the rock band was not going to be enjoying a single ray of
Sun and so I pushed on.
The equally impressive north end of the ridge was quickly reached. Here, the
remainder of the ascent consists of walking along a mostly treed ridge, but near
the edge of a terrific cliff. The route is not difficult or exposed (unless you
go right along the edge) but is quite a unique experience in this neck of the
woods. It is also quite short and the treed summit was achieved in no time. I had
already decided to loosely follow Bob’s route by descending below it and traversing along the bottom of the
cliff and so I didn’t even stop at the summit (the view was very limited
anyway).
Without
question, the traverse turned out to be the highlight of the trip. While not as
colourful as the aforementioned rock band, the Sun was shining brightly on the
beige, yellow, and gray hues of rock on this one, making for some stunning
scenery. The short traverse took almost a full hour – watching football quickly
took a back seat to experiencing this!
The other
route change I made was to descend the west ridge once at the end of the cliff
band traverse. I was hoping this ridge would offer either some good slab
scrambling or scree surfing – it offered neither. Loose, ankle-jarring rubble
on steep slopes was the weapon of choice and instead of a fast, enjoyable
descent, it gave me only unpleasant flashbacks of Mount Farquhar!
Once down
to the Elbow River, a far more pleasant hike along its shores and a return ford
of the river completed an excellent day out. And I did make it home in time to
watch the 6 solid hours of football (3 of which sucked, as the Rams lost to the
Eagles!)
Encountered this beautiful rock band en route to the ridge
Approaching THE Rock Band
Getting close
Prairie Mountain to the north
The rock of The Rock Band
This dimpled rock was my favourite
Mossy terrain then leads to the end of the ridge
View to the west from the ridge. Much of Nihahi Ridge can be seen.
View to the southwest. The quartet of Glasgow, Cornwall, Outlaw, and Banded are the highlight in this direction.
Looking south along the cliff face to the summit
Another view to the southwest from the ridge
The route I took goes down to the scree below
Pleasant, but not spectacular views throughout the ridge walk
Looking back along the ridge
Last look at the quartet
Cornwall (left) and Glasgow
The Rock of the Traverse
See the laughing face?
Several caves in the rock wall
My favourite rock of the traverse. Now that's spectacular!!
At the end of the traverse, looking back up to the north end of the ridge
Back at the Elbow River, after a less than aesthetic descent down the west ridge
Looking back to Iyarhe Ipan and The Rock Band
A pond of algae
Very brightly coloured algae!
Little bit of a reflection of Prairie Mountain to end the day
The End
