Read’s Ridge and
Tower II
January 20, 2019
Mountain height: 2626
m
Elevation gain: 930 m
Roundtrip time: 4:20
Snowshoeing with Mark.
With the Los Angeles Rams making their first
conference final appearance since 2002, I definitely need to be back in the
city by 1 pm, to watch them take on the New Orleans Saints. As such, we left
relatively early and then ended up choosing Read’s Ridge and Tower as
objectives.
To our surprise, an excellent snowshoe trail
had been broken all the way to the summit of Read’s Ridge. The weather wasn’t
perfect, but good enough to yield wonderful and sometimes atmospheric views of
the Spray Lakes area. Snowshoes made ascending the steeper sections of
wind-hardened snow a breeze.
Disappointingly, the summit block of Mount
Sparrowhawk was shrouded in clouds when we reached the top. We stayed there for
a few minutes in hopes the clouds would lift, but they didn’t and the football
game was calling! The descent was fast and easy.
More importantly, how was the football game?
In short - unbelievable!!! Rams 26, Saints 23 in overtime. Unfortunately a terrible
non-call for pass interference tainted the victory, however, even with a 23-20
lead after the non-call, the Saints failed to stop the Rams from tying the game
with seconds left, thereby sending it into overtime. The Saints won the coin
toss, but Drew Brees threw an interception, the Saints defense then allowing
the Rams to gain enough yards to get into field goal range (barely!). “Greg The
Leg” Zuerlein proceeded to kick a 57 yard field goal to propel the Rams into
the Super Bowl (that man deserves a huge raise!).
What about the other conference final game
(Patriots vs. Chiefs)? In short, probably the best playoff game I’ve seen in 37
years of watching NFL football. 37-31 Pats – also in overtime! Hard to imagine
a better day of football (even with some of the controversy). Rams vs. Pats in
Super Bowl LIII – Super Bowl XXXVI rematch – yesss!!!!
Sunrise around Spray Lake
Easy travel just above treeline
A distant outlier of the Goat Range gets some alpenglow
Surprisingly little snow for mid-January
More cool lighting in early morning
The summer trail should not be this easy to discern, again in mid-January!
Approaching the summit of Read's Ridge, with the Tower looming above
On Read's Ridge
Checking out a potential route to reach the main ascent slopes of Mount Sparrowhawk
Mark heads down to the small col between the Ridge and the Tower
The slopes of Read's Tower are steeper than those to Read's Ridge, but still relatively easy to ascend
This section, with a terrific cornice, was one of the highlights of the Tower
Mark is careful to not get too close of the edge - it's a HUGE drop down the other side!
Snowshoes were perfect here for good traction
At the summit
Mount Sparrowhawk wants to make an appearance, but is not quite ready
The south side of BIG Sister
Summit view to
the west. I've seen this view and very similar ones about a dozen
times (Red Ridge, Little Lougheed, North Ridge of Buller, etc.), but
it's never ceases to amaze me - as Geroge Costanza from Seinfeld once
said, “Oh, it’s got caché, baby! It’s got caché up the yin-yang!”
Many interesting
highpoints between Sparrowhawk and Mount Bogart (the low looking peak
near the right shrouded in clouds) beg exploration
Clearer views to the north
The view to the south is filled with innumerable, fantastic peaks
Almost!
Right to left: Buller, Engadine, Lillian, as well as many others
The daunting east ridge of Old Goat Mountain
Mount Nestor also has a route up its east ridge rated at 5.5 (we took the easy scramble route but it took 5 attempts!)
Smoat Peak - 4 attempts on that one and we never did reach the actual summit
Descending a small section of the south ridge of the Tower
The wicked drop down the southeast side of the peak
Back at the cornice
Back at the col
Last look at Spray Lake from near the summit of Read's Ridge
Now the clouds clear from Sparrowhawk!
Colourful tree. Not a larch, but there were a few larches on the mountain that still had yellow needles on them!
The End
