Little Goat

GR288642 (Little Goat) and GR293647 (Bigger Goat), near Goat Mountain – June 9, 2007

Mountain height:           2215 m, 2360 m respectively
Elevation gain:               1350 m
Total ascent time:          7:20
Descent time:                3:15

Scrambling and mountaineering with Mark.

I spotted this potential route a month earlier during an ascent of Morrowmount. Lying immediately south of the very distinctive Hassel Castle , the intended objective appeared to offer several hundred vertical metres of slab scrambling, as well as some route-finding challenges. Getting to the top would take us to a lower highpoint west of the summit of Goat Mountain (that we'll call Little Goat).

The scrambling was preceded by a 2 hour hike up Jura Creek. The recent wet weather followed by very warm temperatures had raised the level of the creek a fair bit. This was especially noticeable at the false fault, where several previously non-existent torrents of water made their way rapidly down the fault. Though there was a little confusion as to which peak to ascend, once on the correct mountain, the scree-free, slab scrambling was indeed very enjoyable. The grade of the slope was quite manageable and amounted to moderate scrambling. Still, we opted to rope up, just in case something more challenging came up.

Higher up, the grade did increase, but there was a prominent weakness through the steeper terrain, which we gladly availed ourselves upon. All too soon the slabs gave way to the summit of the peak, where we both enjoyed a brief nap. The view from the top was quite respectable, however, everything to the east was blocked by the long ridge of Goat Mountain . Since the day was still relatively young, we decided to try to gain that ridge by dropping down to a col between our summit and the ridge and then scrambling up the other side to another slightly higher summit (that we'll call Bigger Goat).

Getting down to the col proved to be a greater challenge than expected. We down-climbed the east ridge a short distance, before the terrain suddenly dropped off. Further progress would require a rappel. A very large rock provided an ideal anchor and Mark started down. Unexpectedly, he soon discovered that the 60 metre rope brought him about 3 metres shy of the plateau we were aiming for. Luckily he had another 30 metre length of rope in his pack and after some tricky maneuvering, where he tied the ropes together in mid-rappel and then switched his ATC onto the other rope, Mark was able to reach the plateau.

At this point, there was still a significant vertical distance that separated us from the col. I didn’t want to rappel down, in fear that if we couldn’t get down from the plateau to the col, we would be stranded. At least if we bailed on the route, at this point, I would be able to belay Mark back up the rappel route. Mark searched for a feature to rappel off, or a down-climbable route. There was nowhere to set up a rappel anchor, but heading straight down the ridge did, for the most part, look downclimbable. Only the bottom section was not visible.

We opted to take a chance we could down-climb the last section and I rappelled down onto the plateau. Getting the two rappel ropes down proved to be a little more of a cerebral challenge than expected, but Mark’s devised a simple loop system where he could pull one end of the rope, untie the knot that joined the two ropes, and then pull the other end of the second rope to retrieve both ropes. He explained the system to me, but I had no idea what he was talking about – so we did it anyway. Good thing his engineering skills are stronger than mine – the system worked perfectly.

Downclimbing the first part of the last section was straightforward at first. Just before the bottom, however, one much steeper step proved to be the crux. Mark was able to squirm his way down this section with a belay from above. He then assisted me down and finally we stepped down to the col. This approximately 100 vertical metre elevation loss from the summit to the col took almost 2 hours.

Getting to the summit of Bigger Goat, again involved only moderate scrambling, but was also a very enjoyable ascent with beautiful rock scenery. We topped out 7 hours, 20 minutes after leaving the car – not the short, easy ascent we were expecting. Another nap was in order at the summit, as we were both quite fatigued.

The descent was thankfully easy. We didn’t return to the summit of Little Goat (even if we wanted to, neither of us could upclimb the section we rapped down), but instead headed south, down scree and treed slopes into a drainage, south of our objectives. We then simply followed the drainage out to Jura Creek and then back to the car.

A most enjoyable day of exploring and adventure.