Drywood Outlier exploration
April 19,
2019
Roundtrip
time: 2:50
Solo scramble.
Drywood – the mountain that keeps giving and giving and
giving!
With potential 70-100 km/h winds and bad weather rolling
in by early afternoon, this east facing route seemed like a good idea. I had
reached the summit of the outlier earlier this year, but very much wanted to
explore the seemingly colourful east and southeast sides of the peak, now that the slopes were essentially snow-free.
Sparing everyone my usual pedantic rantings about how super
cool and colourful every single rock and twisted dead tree I encountered was,
I’ll just leave it at that – every single rock and twisted dead tree I encountered was
super cool and colourful!
After scouring the windless east face for a couple of
hours, I made my way towards the south side of the peak. Turning one corner,
the conditions went from completely windless to total “wind insanity”! I continued on for a while but getting
knocked off my feet a couple of times was definitely a sign that this ascent
was over. By now the stellar weather had started to change to the west and so I was
quite content to find a passage down to the gas road below and enjoy a wind
assisted hike back to the start.
On a less windy day, I will certainly return to check out
the parts I missed.
Some others reasons why Drywood is so giving:
West
summit of Drywood Mountain, Drywood Mountain attempt - June 25, 2005
Drywood
Mountain - July 2, 2005
Drywood Mountain II - July 8, 2009
Drywood Mountain III - November 5, 2011
Drywood Mountain attempt (Northeast Ridge) - May 28, 2017
Drywood Mountain V (Northeast Ridge) - August 20, 2018
Drywood Outlier - March 10, 2019
Drywood Mountain (left), Drywood outlier (middle) and the northeast ridge of Drywood (right)
Closer look at the east and southeast sides of the outlier
I followed this drainage up to the rock face
Approaching the rock face
The snow in the drainage was still hard-packed and easy to walk on - but not for much longer
Lots of very lightly coloured rocks on this side
I went up and around the rock band at the right
...this one
A dead tree that is still standing upright - unusual for this area.
Terrific rock folding
Here comes the super cool and colourful rock
...and the twisted dead trees
Chuckled when I unexpectedly arrived at the ascent route I used on March 10
Looking south to The Muffin (left) and The Croissant
Not-so-upright trees
Nice scramble route up the left side of this colourful rock
More big blocks of lightly coloured, lichen-covered sweet rock!
The scramble route
My second favourite dead tree of the trip
Approaching my favourite
That's why it's my favourite
Traversed these slopes to get to the southeast side
Looking back and up towards the ridge that leads to the summit
End of the line. This gully granted access to the summit ridge, but the wind was mocking me vehemently at this point!
Great terrain on descent, as clouds build up to the east
The last vestiges of winter? Unlikely!
Bad weather coming in from the west
Would have loved to have seen this rock with the Sun shining on it
.....this too
Parting look at the outlier in deterioating weather conditions
The End
