Mount Erris

Mount Erris

July 7, 2017

Mountain height: 2820 m
Elevation gain:    1150 m
Ascent time:        4:25
Descent time:      2:35

Solo scramble.

Erris mountain was for me a sobering reminder that I am no longer 33 - my age when I completed my first mountain ascent.....or 38 or 43 or even 48 for that matter! Gone are the days when a months' absence from the mountains would be physically inconsequential.

This mountain, plain and simple, kicked my butt! I have struggled on a fair number of mountains over the years, but never in a way that I struggled up Erris: completely out of breath every minute or so and unable to continue without extended rests between. I honestly felt as though I had aged 20 years in the 1 month during which I was unable to make it out to the mountains.

Nevertheless, even with the “downer” introduction, here are some of the details of the trip. I was inspired to try Erris after reading Cornelius' excellent trip report from the previous summer. My goal was to follow his descent route (Rick Collier's ascent route) up Erris' east ridge. Unfortunately, this would prove to be more difficult for me than expected.

I started by following the wrong trail for 30 minutes. Another 30 minutes later I was back at my car looking for other trails. A wide, old logging road looked promising and it was for some time. However, I never did find the zig-zag of other logging roads, described by Mr. Collier, that led to the east ridge. Instead, I found a gruesome and lengthy bushwhack up steep forested slopes. Of course the logging roads were there somewhere, as Cornelius had made it from summit to car with only a short stint of bushwhacking - I was just unable to find the easier path.

Once out of the trees I hoped things would improve. They certainly did in regards to the scenery and the interest of the ascent route. But, as stated, I struggled physically the whole way up. In fact, on numerous occasions I considered turning around, simply because I was exhausted - on a less than strenuous ascent with perfect weather, that was an extremely bizarre situation to be in.

Two things kept me going: the hope that I would be able to find the easier descent route on return and the orange Fanta in my backpack that I would only consume at the summit!

After what seemed like a billion years of stopping and starting up the mountain I arrived at the summit. The view was excellent and the soda pop even better! Tornado Mountain and Gould Dome were the highlights of the view. Much of Cornelius' ascent route was visible and it looked pretty darn tricky - kudos to him for soloing up it.

Thank goodness the soda pop was so enjoyable because my descent wasn't. Once again I was unable to find the easiest path down and found myself bashing through thick bush - at least it was downhill this time!

I did eventually find a good logging road to follow and was back at the start shortly after.

Mount Erris is certainly a worthwhile trip - I guess it just wasn't my day!