Pincher Ridge Centre IV

Pretty cool Sunset the previous night

The southwest summit of Pincher Ridge

Looking up the route. Surprisingly, there is no bushwhacking.

Not much water in the ascent drainage

I guess you could call that bushwhacking, but it's totally avoidable

Staying near the drainage grants the best scenery, but makes for a slower ascent

The route goes from left to right here

A little exploration on the other side

Cool colours

Cool colours again

No choice but to go right here

Again, not much water. A late October ascent in 2018 had a better flow and surreal views.

Still, water running down red argillite always wins!

I'm always tempted to attempt a route straight up the middle here, but have yet to try

There is enough water, however, to create a small rainbow

One of nature's most beautiful illusions!

Still tempted

But staying below the rock band has its scenic advantages

Much of the length of Drywood Mountain enters the view. The true summit is at the far left, some call the middle summit Redwood Peak, and the southwest summit (the highest point of the massif) sits at the right.

More benefits of staying below the ridge

And again

All the lichen resides on this side too

On the ridge. Following it up the right side leads to the summit of Pincher Ridge. I traversed left, into the drainage.

In the drainage

Pincher Centre appears. Lots of side-sloping to get to the col.

It's a colourful traverse and the terrain underfoot is quite tolerable

Windsor Mountain and Castle Peak make appearances

There are a few very pleasant red argillite surprises along the way

On the ridge that connects the true summit to Pincher Centre

Victoria Peak towers over the north outlier of Pincher Ridge

Great overall pano from the southwest to the north

Add a touch of red rock to the view to the north

The Centre Peak looks a little fierce from afar but has only a few moves of moderate scrambling (and even those ones are avoidable if you go to the right near the top)

The trip gets increasingly scenic from here and turning around to see the improving view is mandatory

I decided to explore the left of the ridge

The true summit of Pincher Ridge and a swath of larches - late September/early October ascents can be phenomenal

Approaching the summit block

Close-up

Heading to the left side of the summit block and looking for weaknesses to get up - there's one

Drywood Mountain - that one makes for a great trip year-round

Heading up that weakness

More interesting terrain above

Brief return to the ridge before I went left again

Nice greenery

And nice rock

That's one straight line at the top!

Relieved to find a few splashes of yellow lichen

More rock

Looking back to the true summit

Heading up another weakness to the summit

On the ridge and the summit is minutes away

Summit view to the southwest is nice

And the one to the northwest is very nice

But both pale in comparison to the view to north and east

And even that one pales in comparison to the same view, but from the end of the ridge

Victoria again. Note the layer of smoke.

The field of larches at the col

Smoke or no smoke this is one of my favourite views in the world

Same as above with Pincher Ridge at the right

The red argillite on Pincher North is so eye-catching

Actually, there is nothing in this view that isn't eye-catching!

Descending

That's more like it for yellow lichen

And a random offshoot of some beautiful red thing

Add some orange

Back at the col

Still swooning over this view

Going straight down the middle here is also an option for descent and provides excellent scenery (but some bushwhacking near the end)

Round 2 of the rock scenery while traversing. This time I'll aim lower to get below the cool rock band that lines the south side of the mountain.