Shunga-la-she

Shunga-la-she – October 15, 2005

Mountain height:       2,625 m (8,610 ft)
Elevation gain:           1,000 m
Ascent time:              5:05
Descent time:            2.20

Solo scramble.

This was supposed to be an easy, relaxing, and stress-free ascent – it was a resounding 0 and 3 on those criteria. However, in terms of scenery, interest, and hands-on scrambling, the ascent of Shunga-la-she definitely goes 3 and 0. I got the idea for the ascent from Bob and Dinah, who had reached the summit in November of 2001. Given a less than favourable review of their ascent route, I chose a different line, which crossed the Sheep River almost immediately and then went directly up the northeast ridge towards the summit.

Being too lazy to take my boots off, I ran across the river, which of course meant spending the remainder of the day with soaking wet feet. Some easy bush-whacking and then a steep scree slog and I was on the ridge. The scenery from there was terrific. Numerous, interesting rockbands straddled the ridge. Some were easily ascended head-on, others required significant detours to circumvent. Being alone, I was a little hesitant to tackle some of the serious rock-steps, especially the ones that were snowy or icy. The higher I got, the more challenging the terrain became and I was required to detour around many of the bands. Even some of the detours required scrambling up steep, sometimes snow-covered terrain, and I knew I would have to find an alternate descent route.

At first, the route-finding, up or around the rockbands was fun and enjoyable, however, the ridge and the detours kept going and going and I began to tire; a couple of steep and long scree slogs to regain the ridge didn’t help matters. Just as I thought I was about to reach the summit, I ran into a very exposed rock-step. The wind was howling, at this point, and after a feeble attempt to get up the step, I decided to look for an alternate route around the left side of the summit block. 45 minutes of searching and trying various routes, yielded no results and I returned to try the crux step again. It wasn’t as bad as I initially thought and within minutes, I was on the summit. The summit view included great views of the east faces of Mist, Storm and Rae, as well as Burns, Bluerock, and numerous unnamed peaks of the Highwood Range. Most impressive, however, was the daunting 800 metre, vertical face of Gibraltar Mountain – there’s something that I will never, ever, be doing!

Continuing on to the higher and unnamed summit to the west would have been nice, but I was simply too tired and started down the north ridge, hoping for the easier descent. Thankfully, I got one, though it was, at times, tedious. I followed a drainage between the two north ridges, eventually joining up with Sheep River Trail. As an added bonus, I hit the trail before the bridge, and therefore, didn’t have to run through the river again. A pretty terrific scramble with some great scenery and a mercifully easy descent route.

Shunga-la-she from near the parking lot; my ascent route went up to the first pinnacle, around its left side and then up the ridge to the summit (not visible here)