Mount Remus

Mount Remus – September 18, 2004

Mountain height:   2,688 m (8,8193 ft)
Elevation gain:      1,050 m
Ascent time:          4:00
Descent time:        2:25

Scrambling with Mark.

Mount Remus definitely makes the list of summits I would like to achieve again, but on a clear day. Like Bertha peak, I wasn’t expecting much from this scramble and we were both pleasantly surprised to find the ascent interesting and very scenic. The only downside was the completely overcast sky that really dulled what would have been outstanding scenery.

If you are looking for an aesthetically pleasing ascent, Mount Remus won’t be providing it. The only real challenge was a chimney right before the summit and even that was very short-lived. The remainder of the ascent was up easy scree slopes and a few water-worn gullies. Nevertheless, we both thoroughly enjoyed it, even in the chilly and cloudy weather.

After the 6.6 km bike ride and an easy ford of the Little Elbow River (yes, we once again brought our hip-waders – what’s the point of having them if you’re not going to use them?!), we started up slopes alongside the drainage. The entire ascent was really a no-brainer and required no routefinding. The higher we got, the more the scenery improved – massive vertical rock faces, striking pinnacles and interesting formations, a variety of rock colours, and of course the view across the river of Glasgow, Cornwall, and Banded Peak. As Kane mentions, small sections of water-worn bedrock provided a little relief from the scree and rubble.

Once we reached the ridge, the summit block was very close and a short slog up a rubble slope took us to the chimney. I ascended the almost vertical 5-7 m chimney first. It was short, but had a couple of trickier moves where a slip would have been very bad. At the top, were several pitons and rappel slings – as we would later discover, rappelling down the chimney would have been a little faster than the alternate descent down rubble slope to the north. Mark followed, but by then, the cold had completely numbed his hands, making the ascent far more difficult. For safety sake, I tossed a short rope down to him to help him up. At the top of the chimney, it was only a short walk to the summit and a pretty decent panorama. The vertical walls of Mount Romulus were very impressive, as was the view of Fisher Peak and many peaks of the Opal Range further south. Most interesting, however, was the scenery right on Mount Remus: we walked to the end of the mountain and a quick glance over the edge revealed a stunning drop, straight down, hundreds of metres – it was literally breathtaking! We continued on to a lower plateau, joined by a narrowish connecting ridge, where again there were fantastic views of the vertical walls of Remus’ summit block.

Looking back to the true summit, a dog suddenly appeared followed by a figure. We returned to the summit and introduced ourselves to Jack and Doggy (yes, that is in fact Jack’s dog’s name). Both were very friendly and Jack had many interesting trip reports to share with us. Upon checking the register, we were very surprised to discover we were only the second group to make the summit this year (at least, only the second group to sign the register) – very odd for an easily attained summit, with such interesting features and wonderful scenery.

Very quickly, the cold got the better of us and we started down the easier ascent route around the north side of the summit block. If we had about 15 metres of rope, rappelling down the chimney would have been the fastest way down, however, we didn’t and there was no way I was going to attempt to downclimb it. Upon gaining the ridge, we decided to use Kane’s alternate descent route, down a brown, shale slope and what a great ride it was. The shale was small enough to grant some fantastic scree-surfing and the slope was long enough to account for a good portion of the total elevation loss. Within no time, we were back at the banks of the river happily putting on our hip waders. Overall, a very enjoyable day on a terrific mountain and after a month hiatus, it was also very nice to have Mark back.