Mount Richards

Mount Richards – September 3, 2006

Mountain height:           2416 m
Total elevation gain:      approx. 1500 m
Ascent time:                  9:30
Descent time:                4:20

Scrambling with Mark.

What a beast!! Neither Mark nor I expected this diminutive little peak to pack such a punch. We wanted to gain the northeast ridge as soon as possible and see how much we could scramble. An eighty minute hike to Bertha Lake and a slog up scree slopes and we were on the ridge, approximately 2.35 km from the summit (in a straight line, that is). The fun then started and what a ride it was.

We spent the next several hours doing a significant amount of route-finding and steep and exposed scrambling. Though it would have been easier to stay far below the ridge, the views from and the interesting scrambling right on the ridge were terrific and so we kept going back up each time we had to lose elevation to circumvent a particularly steep step. This was fun, but extremely time-consuming and after 2 hours of scrambling, we had only made about 200 metres progress towards the summit. Nevertheless, with Bertha Lake on one side and Upper Waterton Lake on the other, the ridge was definitely the best place to be for fantastic views.

Eventually, the ridge dropped down to a col and then reared up in a beautiful fin of red argillite. This is where we had to make a decision to try to scramble the ridge or bypass the difficulties on the east side of the mountain. It was not a difficult decision. The ridge appeared to be very steep in some sections, with huge drop-offs at certain points. More than likely this would have involved a good deal of technical climbing that we simply didn’t have the time or inclination to do. As suggested by Dave Stephens on his ascent of Richards, we followed a good scree trail around the east side of the mountain - not at all a disappointing route, as the red rock was absolutely terrific.

Reaching the east ridge, we then slogged our way up easy slopes to what we were hoping was the summit, but turned out to be a false summit. Not only that, but the true summit was guarded by very steep walls and could not be reached without a lot of technical gear. Now at the seven hour mark of the trip, it felt like we would never get to the summit. The only route visible, required another significant elevation loss and side sloping over to the southeast ridge. We did so and then started up that ridge, which was not a pushover by any means. Both physically and mentally tired, we finally reached the summit, 9.5 after leaving the car.

The summit view was magnificent and included a wonderful view of Mount Cleveland. We had spotted several potential descent routes on the way up, but all would require additional elevation gains. At that specific moment, the easiest way down was all we wanted. Again, we followed Dave’s lead and went straight down the south slopes to the Boundary Trail. Once there, the hike back to the car was long (and most of it done by headlamp), but on two easy trails. A challenging, but incredibly visually and mentally rewarding trip.