Rainy Ridge and Three Lakes Ridge

August 18, 2010

Mountain heights:
    Rainy:                                 2469 m
    Three Lakes:                      2492 m
Total elevation gain:                 approx. 1400 m
Ascent time to Rainy:               3:50
Traverse time to Three Lakes: 2:05
Descent time:                          2:50

Solo scramble.

A recent ascent of Mount Haig renewed my interest in Rainy Ridge. Brutally cold conditions and a section of difficult looking rock had repelled Mark and me in our November, 2008 attempt. The upside of that failure was that it turned us on to Middle Kootenay Mountain, on the other side on the pass. Middle Kootenay still holds its position as my favourite winter trip to date, although Forum Peak of this year is definitely right up there.

I chose the same route as our previous attempt, via the northwest ridge. After the usual bike and hike approach, described by Robert Kershaw in Exploring the Castle, I left Middle Kootenay Pass up the wide and colourful ridge. Arriving at the section of dark rock that marked our previous turn around point, I couldn’t help think, “That doesn’t look too hard”, and it wasn’t – moderate scrambling at most – just had to take away the snow and -30^o wind chill, I guess.

A few minutes later I reached the first major highpoint of Rainy to the total surprise of a group of twenty or so high school students sitting atop the peak. They were on a three day backpacking trip and camped at the Middle Pass Lakes. They were also extremely friendly and all wished me luck on the remainder of my trip (young people are so cool - what a shame they eventually turn into us!).

Continuing on, I lost elevation to a low col and then proceeded easily up the ridge. The aspect of the ascent I enjoyed the most was the fact that there were plenty of opportunities to engage in hands-on scrambling, without becoming over-committed. Easy scree slopes to the right of the ridge were always available. I was also remained of how much I prefer the loose, rotten, horizontal rock of the southern Canadian Rockies to the loose, rotten, downsloping rock of the northern part.

The remainder of the ascent up the red peak went without a hiccup. Views towards the lakes were fantastic and a source of enjoyment throughout the entire trip. The summit panorama was also very impressive and I took a long break to soak it all in and contemplate my next move.

Obviously, as the title of the report outright states, my next move was to traverse southwest to the summit of Three Lakes Ridge. The route looked fairly obvious, save for a couple of potential cliff-bands interrupting the ridge. All started well and it appeared I would be down at the col in no time. Then came the cliff-bands. The first two were easily downclimbed and circumvented, respectively. However, numbers 3 and 4 weren’t about to acquiesce so quickly. In fact they didn’t acquiesce at all and insisted I go around. This was not an easy process, requiring careful route-finding on exposed terrain and a big elevation loss. Of course, I could have just backed up and lost the elevation on less demanding terrain, but that would be like admitting I was wrong!

At the col, I was able to pick up the pace again and easily ascend the east ridge. That was until I arrived at an unexpected and very exposed downclimb in the narrowing ridge, only a few metres shy of the summit. Lacking the motivation (and maybe the intestinal fortitude) to try the step, I backed up a short ways and went around, arriving at the summit shortly after.

The summit view from Three Ridge was superior to that of Rainy Ridge simply because it included the entire form of gorgeous Rainy. While the mountain was bleached out by the Sun through most of the ascent, its true colours were revealed, the Sun (and me) now having moved to more favourable positions. One of the two Rainy Lakes was also visible to the southeast and it was a stunner!

About ten minutes into my summit stay I was shocked to see a figure approaching the summit. Johnny had come up from one of the lakes up, along an exposed ledge to gain the Rainy/Three Lakes col, and then right over the exposed downclimb I had avoided. I was very impressed by his efforts. We had a very pleasant chat and then he asked me what route I recommended for descent, not wanting to go down the exposed ledge he came up. I had planned to drop down the west side of the peak and then make my way back to Middle Kootenay Pass. However, there did exist a direct route back to the lakes via the slabby east face. From a distance the angle of the slabs looked too severe, but a closer inspection revealed them to be quite manageable. We agreed to take a look to see if he would feel comfortable on the east face. The fact that Johnny had already downclimbed the step I avoided led me to believe that he would have no problems. We downclimbed to the slabs and Johnny started down, stating that he felt quite comfortable on them.

Confident that Johnny would make it down with ease, I returned to the summit to consider other options. I did initially think that a traverse south to Scarpe might be worth looking into. Unfortunately, the two hour traverse to Three Lakes had eaten up way too much time and I settled for a quick jaunt over to the next highpoint south. From there the ridge towards Scarpe was oh so tempting, but that would mean a super long day and a headlamp descent – no thanks!

There were numerous options for the return trip, but I was starting to feel a little guilty about not accompanying Johnny all the way to the bottom. I therefore traversed back to the east face of Three Lakes and descended just north of the slabs Johnny had gone down. As expected the descent was easy and I didn’t found a corpse on or at the bottom of the slabs! Johnny was camped by the lakes, so I went to check he was there. I couldn’t find him, but his friends said he had made it back safely and was fishing at one of the other lakes. The added bonus to this little diversion was the lake itself. The largest of the three lakes was also a stunner, with as beautiful a back-drop as you can imagine – the multi-coloured/layered form of Rainy Ridge. The lake afforded views of Rainy that were unseen from all other vantage points of the trip so far. One particular exposed face was simply awesome, clearly revealing the history of the rock in striking layers.

I also ran into the group of students on the way out, receiving several “high-fives” for making both summits (Mark never gives me a “high-five”!!). The remainder of the return to Middle Kootenay Pass was also incredibly scenic, the slopes littered with dead, Sun-bleached trees, below red argillite and lichen-covered, gray igneous rock. And what better way to end the day than a speedy (although bumpy) downhill bike ride back to my car.

A thoroughly enjoyable day.

The pleasant environs of Middle Kootenay Pass

From the lower slope of Rainy Ridge: unnamed peaks to the left and Middle Kootenay Mountain in the centre and right

Same as above, with some beautiful red scree thrown in at the front and Mount Haig thrown in at the right

The Sun-bleached view of Rainy Ridge; the summit is not yet visible

One of the Middlepass Lakes and Three Lakes Ridge

Leaving the summit where I bumped into the students; a few of them are just visible

The rest of Rainy Ridge

The view really starts to open up

The summit view to the southwest; Scarpe Mountain is the second highpoint from the left;
strangely, the peak at the far left is higher than Scarpe and every other peak in the area (including Haig), yet it is unnamed