Mount Cockscomb and "Ficomb Peak"

Cockscomb Mountain and “Ficomb Peak” – June 28, 2008

Mountain height: 2776 m – Cockscomb
2769 m – GR895751
2745 m – Ficomb Peak

Elevation gain: 1372 m to Cockscomb + approx. 1000 m for additional summits and descent

Ascent time: 4:45 to Cockscomb Mountain
3:00 from Cockscomb to Ficomb Peak

Descent time: 3:45

Solo scramble.

Cockscomb Mountain seemed like a good way to ease into another summer of scrambling – not too long, but not too short. Out of the two route descriptions I could find (Bob Spirko’s via Ranger Creek and Rick Collier’s via the drainage south of Ranger Creek), I chose Collier’s because it appeared to be shorter. Unfortunately, I missed the ascent drainage described by Mr. Collier and ended up taking a longer route to the summit that required a decent elevation loss. There was little actual scrambling throughout the ascent.

Surprisingly, I found the summit view to be rather anti-climatic. However, it was a perfect weather day and I took a 45 minute nap at the top, before starting the return trip.

Along the way, I decided to try ascending the next highpoint south on the ridge. This involved some decent hands-on scrambling and route-finding challenges and was very worthwhile. From this summit (GR895751), the map I was using revealed Mount Fifi to be only 1.4 km away and so I turned east and downclimbed to the col below. The ridge to Fifi was definitely the highlight of the day – lots of hands-on scrambling, great rock scenery, and a few exhilarating, exposed situations. I was very happy to arrive at the cairned summit, though at the late hour of 7 pm. It was a little odd, however, checking my GPS to reveal that I was more than 100 vertical metres higher than Mount Fifi’s described height, even though the GR coordinates matched exactly. Hmmm…..

For descent, I was more or less forced to look for a faster and easier way down. I didn’t think I had the physical stamina to regain all the elevation required to make it back to the descent slope. There appeared to be an easier route following another drainage directly below the summit. This route started off very well and was scenic to boot! My luck ran out when the drainage narrowed and suddenly dropped off. Side-sloping steep terrain above the canyon got me past this first obstacle, but the next required an elevation gain to circumvent and the one after that even more elevation gain. In short, I had to gain almost 400 total vertical metres to escape the confines of the drainage. Needless to say, after more than 2 km of elevation gain and almost 13 hours of hiking and scrambling I was exhausted. So much for easing into the scrambling season!

Epilogue: checking the NRC map, later that day, revealed that Mount Fifi was incorrectly identified on the map I was using and I had, in fact, reached the unnamed peak immediately southwest of Fifi and southeast of Cockscomb – hence the new name “Ficomb Peak”.