Warspite Ridge

March 27, 2010

Mountain height:         2582 m
Elevation gain:              m
Ascent time:                4:15
Descent time:              2:15

Snowshoeing and a little mountaineering with Mark.

This outlier of Mount Warspite was recommended to us a friend and has been a trip we’ve wanted to complete for several years, having visited the Warspite Cirque on numerous occasions.

Getting up to Warspite Cirque was not without its winter/spring difficulties. The snow was tremendously deep throughout and quite unsupportive. We tried to travel through the trees, but that turned into a post-holing nightmare and so we just went straight up the avalanche slope into the cirque (good thing it didn’t avalanche!)

The less than stellar weather was cause for some grumbling on my part, but even with hazy skies the view towards Mount Warspite was awesome. We continued south until a potential route to the ridge revealed itself. It appeared to be steep in a few places, but straightforward. From the valley bottom the highpoint looked to sit at the top of this slope.

Halfway up the ascent slope, we traded our snowshoes for crampons and ice axes – much better! Upon reaching the ridge we were surprised to find that the summit was not where we had thought to was going to be. Higher points lay to the south and so we traversed the interesting ridge towards them. The summit was not too far away and required a few steps of careful scrambling to reach. There was just enough room for both of us to sit down at the top and enjoy a wonderful summit panorama. The Opal Range was its usual stunning self, as was the aesthetic form of Mount Warspite, looming above us.

The other view from the summit view that we were both thrilled to see was a potentially very easy and straightforward alternate descent route, via the next gully south of our ascent route. This turned out to be a dream alternate descent, as we effortlessly plunge-stepped (actually plunge-snowshoed) down to the cirque in a fraction of the time the ascent took. The remainder of the descent was also easy and enjoyable.

A wonderful day on a very cool outlier. Thanks "friend"!

Entering Warspite Cirque