Nameless Ridge

GR492007 and Nameless Ridge

August 2, 2010

Mountain heights:
    GR492007:               2650 m
    Nameless Ridge:      2480 m
Total elevation gain:     950 m
Roundtrip time:             6:40

Scrambling with Mark.

Having been unable to coordinate a trip with Mark for over a month, we decided to go out on this gloomy looking, rainy holiday Monday. The objective of the day was Nameless Ridge, as described by both Gillean Daffern and Mike Potter.

Once we found the correct trail, route-finding into Nameless Valley was a non-issue – because there wasn’t any! The trail goes all the way there. The grassy meadows of the valley were quite beautiful and reminded me that beauty can also exist in just one and two colours, not only in the wondrous, multi-coloured excursions of recent ascents in Glacier National Park.

Gaining the Mist Mountain/Nameless Ridge col only took an hour. In the spirit of exploration, we therefore headed up and west towards the southeast end of Mist Mountain, instead of up and east to Nameless. The scenery en route to the highpoint was fantastic, as huge uplifts of colourful rock littered the slopes. Though far from stellar, the weather was far better than forecast, adding further to our enjoyment of this section.

It wasn‘t all a bed of roses, however. Scrambling up a narrow chimney, I suddenly became stuck and could make no further progress up or back down. Apparently either I or my backpack was getting too fat! Thankfully, the backpack was the guilty over-indulger and after several awkward moves taking it off and dropping it down to Mark, I was able to squirm up to the top. Needless to say, Mark found a different route up.

The upper section of the face became a little steeper and involved some enjoyable scrambling to ascend. At the top, upon watching the clouds darken, we opted for an alternate descent into the valley that Daffern uses as an ascent route for Mist. We then went exploring along the pleasant drainage back down towards the col. For some reason, I had convinced myself that I had seen a trip report describing a small hot spring in the area. We went to seek it out, without success.

Returning to the col, we then ascended easy slopes to the summit of Nameless Ridge. Again, this ascent was characterized by some very colourful rock, and the rain stayed at bay. For descent, following the ridge south and then down to the road was very pleasant and relaxing.

A better day out than expected in a very beautiful area.

The excellent trail into Nameless valley; Odlum Ridge behind