Doug Lutz scrambling an unnamed Peak northwest of Allstones Lake in David Thompson Country
I am an April Fool!... A fool maybe, but being a stubborn and persistent one sometimes pays dividends!
I wouldn't have deliberately chased this route if Eric Coulthard hadn't put a bug in my ear about it several years ago. It is a long ways back in the bush without any easy access. A winter trip to an unnamed peak with no beta isn't a sure bet, and the attempt I made with a group on the previous Sunday ended up with me throwing in the towel in defeat. However, with a snowshoe track beaten into the trees to get me most of the way to the mountain, I was drawn in like a fly to $h1t.
The weather forecast predicted -5 C for when I started, however, it was +5 C when I arrived to the trailhead (dang chinook!). This meant that my anticipated easy snowshoeing would be more arduous than I wanted... oh well.
On this attempt, I decided that visiting Allstones Ridge would add additional elevation gain that I didn't need (I had been to Allstones Ridge now twice), so I decided to try to skirt around Allstones Lake and not gain the extra elevation (even through that meant additional trail breaking). Additionally, I wanted to try to "straighten out" the track from the previous attempt, where it seems that our group found ourselves on a blaze-marked trail that probably headed in to Fossil Lake... that would also cause me extra trailbreaking. Both of these alterations of my previous attempt did not seem to save me any time (or effort).
When I did finally get to drop into the Tershishner Creek bed, and continue up the creek bed, the sun was just rising... and I started out from the parking lot at about 1:30 AM! I followed the Tershishner Creek upstream crossing back and forth several times until I found a drainage that led up to the right that looked promising. Keep in mind that I had pretty much zippo for beta on this route other than a name, a terrain map, and a line drawn in my Basecamp app.
The photos will reveal an interesting "weakness" that I mucked around trying to find a way up for almost 2 hours, eventually ending in defeat. When I re-oriented on another ascent line possibility, I discovered a "ledge" on a south face of a cliff that seemed promising... and it was! In the snow conditions that I had, it was likely the only feasible route to get me on the ridge. There is possibly another line coming all the way around the east cliff face and connecting with the ridge, but likely only feasible when dry.
The upper ridge was challenging from a route finding perspective, offering a number of pinnacle features that I had to navigate over - generally though, when I stayed on the spine of the ridge, I found a way through it all.
On descent, I took a line that offered more scree (for a faster descent). I knew that if I had returned via my ascent line along the ridge, it would be slow going.
In all, this was a 3100 metre cumulative gain route that took me 24.5 hrs to go car to car. The redeeming part of this adventure is that with little beta to help me, I found a way to the summit, and it appeared that no one had left any sign of being there in the past. The cairn I built and register I left might be left untouched for some time :D.
I hope you enjoy the photos - there are a couple of interesting perspectives in the set of photos from the summit! Thanks Katie Heaven, Darren Heaven, Stephanie Salerno, and Dan Zeidler for breaking trail on the previous Sunday with me! Also, thanks to Eric Coulthard for the idea and name!
Негізгі бет Үй жануарлары мен аңдар Tershishner Peak - Apr 1, 2024 - Kiska/Wilson PLUZ, David Thompson Country, Alberta - Doug Lutz
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