Storethusa Ridge and Little Arethusa

Storethusa Ridge and Little Arethusa – November 11, 2007

Mountain height:
    Storethusa Ridge:    2860 m
    Little Arethusa:         2740 m
Total elevation gain:     approx. 1000 m
Roundtrip time:             6:50

Scrambling with Mark.

What to do when you want to be back in Calgary to watch the Stamps and Roughriders battle it out on the grid-iron at 3 pm in the Western Conference semi-final? We sat in the car at the corner of Highways 1 and 40 South, toying with the ideas of Cougar Peak or Smoat Peak, when Mark pulled this trip out of his hat. We had seen this ridge between Mount Arethusa and Storm Mountain and several highpoints along it, way back in November of 2002 while ascending Arethusa. The first highpoint appeared to be an easy walk-up. From there, the plan would be to try to traverse further along the ridge towards Storm Mountain.

We were expecting a fairly cool day, but “cool” would turn out to be a significant understatement. Although the high temperature for the day was predicted as a balmy zero degrees Celsius, we encountered bone-chilling winds and temperatures that equaled some of our coldest days ever in the mountains. I thought we would never experience a comparable cold to that of our East End of Rundle ascent on March 8 of 2003. On that trip the air temperature at the parking lot was -32 degrees Celsius and the wind at the summit made it feel much, much colder. This trip was every bit as cold as that one and perhaps even colder when we were hiking into the wind.

As a result of the severe weather, we were only able to make the first highpoint of the trip. Fortunately, the winter scenery at that summit was fantastic. We traversed northeast along the ridge for a short distance, marveling at the vertiginous drop down the east face, and then returned to the summit. At this point, I was wearing a toque, a neck gaiter, my helmet and a balaclava over all three and still I could not take more than ten steps without having to turn my back to the wind. Even the tiniest bit of exposed skin felt instantly frozen.

We hurried back down to the col between Storethusa Ridge and Mount Arethusa and then to the cirque below. Since it was only noon, we decided to run up Little Arethusa. The ascent felt way more strenuous than it should have been, but was straightforward. The weather had collapsed at this point and we arrived at the summit to cloudy skies, in addition to the bitingly cold west wind - unfortunate, since the view would have been terrific. The descent was very fast and easy and took less than an hour.

We missed the first quarter of the football game and had to settle for a mere three quarters of shouting and swearing at the T.V., as the Stamps suffered their third straight loss in the Western Semi-final game. That bitter loss was sweetened slightly by the fact that the Rams won their first game of the season, ten weeks into it. 1-8; we’re Superbowl bound Baby!

Overall, a very interesting, viciously cold, and rewarding day.

Looking into Arethusa Cirque; our objectives were the peaks at the left and in the centre;
we made it only to the left one; Storm Mountain at the right