Mount Yarrow

Mount Yarrow

July 10, 2011

Mountain height:    2379 m
Elevation gain:       approx. 780 m
Ascent time:           4:40
Descent time:        2:45

Solo scramble.

Yarrow was not the original objective, as I left my car. I fully intended to attempt the east summit of Cloudy Ridge, as described my Mike Potter, having failed to find a route up the ridge several years earlier. Shortly into the trip I ran into a very pleasant gentleman who told me about a terrific trail only a short distance from our present location. He informed me that the trail would make travel into the Yarrow Creek valley much easier. He was absolutely correct. Not only did it make travel easier, but it also exposed me to a couple of beautiful rocky hills on the east side of Mount Yarrow (this is the unofficial title of a southern outlier of Mount Roche, aka. Spread eagle Mountain {also unofficial!}, which is really the just east end of Spionkop Ridge). Cloudy Ridge was still an option, however, the more I saw of the striking form and impressive colours of Mount Yarrow, the more appealing an ascent of the mountain became.

By the time I had reached the bridge that one uses to avoid a ford of Yarrow Creek (an easy crossing, but getting my feet wet once a day in the shower is more than enough for me) I was sold on Mount Yarrow. The east ridge was an obvious “no go”, as Blair Piggot and Dave Stephens had completed an ascent via this route, rating it at 5.6, but the topo map depicted less steep terrain on the southwest side of the peak.

I followed the gas road to its termination, again impressed en route by the colours and variety of rock on Yarrow. After bashing through a deceivingly long section of fairly dense bush I found a dry, water-worn drainage and started up. The drainage was fantastic, somewhat reminiscent of the steppy Mount Drywood ascent drainage. It went up for a surprisingly long vertical distance.

Reaching the ridge, I found a large, mostly vertical band of rock guarding the upper slopes. Although there were several potential weaknesses in the band I ended traversing a fair distance below it, until an easy route was revealed. Above the band a scree slog led easily to the summit.

The summit view was a little disappointing due to cloud cover. Mark and I had experienced the same thing on Roche several years earlier. I didn’t stay long and then took a different route down, descending a drainage further west.

A decent, but not earth-shattering day.

The east summit of Cloudy Ridge. The west (true) summit is at the far right