"Racehorse Peak"
August 7, 2014
Mountain
heights: approximately 2672 m for both summits
Elevation gain:
1030 m
Ascent time:
2:10
Traverse
to Northeast summit: 1:00
Descent
time from Northeast summit: long! (nasty
downclimbing and tricky route-finding on the southeast ridge)
Solo scramble.
The idea
for this mountain came from the Southern Scramblers, although I’m afraid the
details of their ascent are a fuzzy memory to me now.
Racehorse Peak (named as such because it lies
immediately north of Racehorse Pass) is the southern tip of a huge massif of
mostly unnamed peaks. The exceptions are Mount Domke and the highest point of
the massif, Mount Erris, near the north end.
There are many routes up Racehorse Peak, but I chose the simple
south ridge. An enjoyable hike (bike would have been much better) to a point just
before Racehorse Pass, preceded an easy and surprisingly pleasant hike/scramble
to the summit. I say “surprisingly” because the ridge appeared to be a mass of
hideous rubble and scree, common to mountains in this area. Such may have been the case, but the footing was
descent through most of the ascent and there were even a couple of scrambling
sections on good rock.
As expected the summit view was pretty decent, given
the significant height of the mountain, relative to its neighbours. Only a fairly thick
layer of haze detracted from it. Of particular
interest, however, was another peak, a short distance away to the northeast of similar
height. Of course, it was immediately "game on" for that objective and so after a
short break I started towards it.
The first section was relatively easy, but soon the
ridge became steep and narrow to the point where a rappel rope would be
necessary to continue. Fortunately, after backtracking for a few metres I was
able to find a route around this section. Unfortunately, this bypass required
difficult, exposed scrambling on down-sloping, loose terrain – everyone’s
favourite!
After that little treat, easier terrain led to the northeast summit and a very similar summit view. Along the way,
I was surprised
to see some figures at the summit of Racehorse Peak – an obscure,
unknown peak receiving 2 separate ascents on a weekday – very unusual
for
the Canadian Rockies. Really, I should call this mountain “Surprise Peak”,
instead of “Racehorse Peak”, because several years later I would be pleasantly surprised
to find out this the other ascent party was none other than Dave McMurray, two
of his sons and a friend of theirs. Dave was unknown to me at the time, but
after finding his fantastic website, chock-a-block with interesting and new
ascents in southern Alberta, I make it a point to make contact with him. He
very generously shared with me a ton of information and photos for my
snowshoeing books. Thanks Dave!
For descent, the southeast ridge was worth a look at
and yet again it started off very well, but soon turned into a “frightening”
affair, due to exposure and loose rock. At this point I bailed onto the scree
slopes between the southeast ridge and the south ridge. After losing some
elevation I was able to return to the southeast ridge and finish the descent
via a super cool gully sandwiched between two ridges of rock.
Awesome day on a “surprisingly” cool mountain!
The hike in. Mount Ward at the left. The distant peak near the right is Mount Racehorse
Mount Racehorse (distant far left) and the south ridge and southeast ridge of Racehorse Peak
The southeast ridge looked to be very interesting
Approaching the south ridge and looking back at the southeast ridge
Mount Racehorse
Looking at the southeast ridge from the south ridge. It's not as easy as it looks
Some of the rock of the south ridge
More typical terrain
At the summit looking north an the next major unnamed peak of the Mount Erris massif
Looking northeast to the other summit
Typical terrain of the traverse to the northeast summit
The section that was clearly not downclimable
And another
Looking back at the difficult part of the traverse. I had descend the
steep slopes near the left and then traverse back to the ridge
The Seven Sister and Crowsnest Mountain (left) in the smoky haze
Summit view looking south from the northeast summit
Looking back along the traverse
Dave is just visible right of the centre and his sons and their friend are barely visible at the summit of Racehorse
View to the north again
Heading down the southeast ridge
Typical terrain near the ridge that avoids the "scary" stuff on the ridge
Couldn't downclimb the rock band at the top so went around it and then returned to the ridge
Looking back up to the summit of Racehorse Peak and the traverse
Easier terrain leads to the gully
The gully
The cool descent gully is near the left side