Exshaw Ridge and “Morrowshaw Peak(unnamed at GR271671) February 23, 2008

Mountain height:           2510 m
Total elevation gain:     approx. 1400 m
Ascent time:                  7:00
Descent time:                4:30

Scrambling with Mark.

Though Victoria Ridge in the Castle area will probably stand for a long time as my favourite ridgewalk, Exshaw Ridge is certainly no slouch either and for now takes second place behind Victoria.

We returned to Exshaw Ridge a week after completing the section of the ridge described in Daffern’s guidebook. The purpose of the trip was to continue along the ridge, possibly to an unnamed peak slightly northwest of Morrowmount. Getting to the ridge was significantly easier than the previous week’s trip. We simply followed our old descent tracks that were still prominent in the snow. It took us 1.5 hours to reach the ridge instead of 3.5.

The ridgewalk that ensued was again remarkably pleasant – a perfect combination of hiking, a few sections of scrambling and terrific scenery and views throughout. After arriving at a couple of significant highpoints, the route to the highest summit became visible and it looked to be straightforward. That was not the case, as shortly we arrived at a near vertical rockband that could not be downclimbed. A route around the rockband would have required a huge elevation loss and so we rappelled down the block, leaving the rope in place for the return trip. One short, but exposed section of ridge followed and then it was just a walk to the first of two summits separated by a couple of hundred metres.

We were both quite surprised at how the weather held, even though snow was forecast. Though far from perfect, it was a great deal better than what we expected. After taking a pretty decent summit view, we headed east to a slightly higher summit, several hundred metres away. Neither summit had a cairn, so we made a small one at the higher summit.

For descent, we decided to retrace our route back, as opposed to descending immediately to Exshaw Creek and then following it out. The potential for several kilometres of deep post-holing was too great in the creek. Speed was going to be a key issue as the ascent had taken 7 hours and we had only 3.5 of daylight left.

The only tricky part of the return trip was getting up the rockband we rappelled. We couldn’t top-belay because the rope was lying over rock at the edge and would not move smoothly. Therefore, Mark had to “Batman” up the rope – not half as easy as Batman makes it look. My job was much easier, as Mark was pretty much able to pull me up. 

After that, the decent was easy, but very tiring, having covered a pretty significant horizontal and vertical distance. A long, but excellent trip.      

 

Some scrambling terrain to reach the ridge

 

Hiking along Exshaw Ridge, with Hassel Castle to the left and Bigger Goat to the right

 

Mount Lougheed

 

Looking south; Skogan, McGillivray, Kidd, Collembola, Pigeon, and Lougheed are visible

 

The colourful hues of Morrowmount 

 

The double summit of Morrowshaw Peak, just right of centre

 

One of several highpoints along the ridge

 

Mark on snowy terrain

 

The next major highpoint and the summit to the right

 

Typical terrain on the ridge

 

Snow makes getting up some of the rockbands easier

 

Mark ascends a slab, with Fable behind

 

Getting closer

 

Looking back along the ridge; Hassel Castle to the left

 

Mark scrambles down a short band

 

A partial panorama at one of the highpoints; left to right: Morrowshaw, Morrowmount and Hassel Castle

 

Rappelling the band

 

Mark downclimbs another rockband

 

This little outcrop sort of resembled Tusk Peak

 

The double summit; the peak on the right is slightly higher

 

Mark at another highpoint

 

Mark ascends the final few metres to the first peak; the length of Exshaw Ridge is visible

 

Approaching the first summit

 

At the first summit, looking north

 

Same as above looking southeast

 

Mark at the summit

 

A higher unnamed summit to the north

 

Heading to the true summit

 

At the top

 

Heading home

 

Mark "Batman's" up the rope

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