"Cat's Ears" (GR382180) - North Summit in centre of photo. Mt. Jerram on left, Cat's Ear South on right. (Photo from July 27, 2025) |
Success on North Cat’s Ear! The “Cat’s Ears” are a striking double summit between Mount Jerram and “Mount Schlee” (GR 385168) at the head of Opal Creek. I have always assumed the unofficial name of Cat’s Ears was derived from the view of the south summit from the Piper Creek drainage, two very pointy highpoints. Back in July of 2024, Scott Berry and I summitted the higher southern summit (ear) and we attempted the northern ear in July this summer, but were chased off by a thunderstorm as we were about to the get the rope out. On Saturday September 13 Scott Berry and I reached the exposed summit of North Summit "Cat's Ears" (GR382180) via the West Face. We are assuming we followed the same line as the first ascent team (Frank Campbell and Don Forest, June 20, 1982). Our ascent is the second recorded ascent of this obscure summit.
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Clear day dawning on Mt. Jerram (left) and the Cat's Ears (right). |
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Heading into the upper reaches of Opal Creek. |
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Damp morning in Opal Creek, view to our objective. |
Our third trip in the last 14 months up Opal Creek to the high col between the two ears seemed quite familiar. From the scree of Opal Creek, moderate to difficult scrambling on slabs covered with loose dirt and rock leads to this high col. Two steep short slabs steps (about 5.6) need to be ascended to reach the col. Just below the col, a gully/chimney between the main summit block and a flake gives access to steep scree below the northern summit. About 120 metres of climbing in the gully (loose scree and a few steep 5.6 steps) reaches a scree bowl below the summit. The summit tower is the most northern high point. A short 5.5 slab climb low on the tower leads to the narrow summit ridge. No cairn or summit register were found. I had brought a new summit register tube and book to leave behind. After some summit smiles and high fives, Scott filled out the new register and I built a cairn. Beautiful sunset colours as we started the complicated descent. We did 5 rappels, using pitons or slung boulders as anchors, and arrived at the difficult slab downclimb in full darkness, yeah! Careful downclimbing and long hike out in the dark was good character building. Amazing day in the mountains with an amazing friend. After this summit, I have 32 of the 35 Opal Range summits.
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Off the soft grass onto the scree slog upwards. |
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Nearing the end of the scree slog. North Cat's Ear above. |
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Long section from top of scree to high col between the two summit towers. Lots of steep slabs with loose rock in between. Moderate to difficult scrambling with exposure to cliffs below. |
When I first developed the goal of my Opal 35 project back in 2011, there was very limited information for many of the peaks in the range. The old Green Book, "The Rocky Mountains of Canada - South" (Glen Boles, Robert Kruszyna and William Putnam) does not have any information on the Cat’s Ears, but first ascent accounts were published in the Canadian Alpine Journal (CAJ). David Jones' guidebook (2020) "Rockies South. The Climber's Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada: Volume 1" was years away from being published, and I provided much of the information for the Opal Range section to David. The CAJ write up's are the same descriptions as in the David Jones guidebook. The two short slab 5.6 sections we climbed were below the col, and the access to the long 120 metre gully/chimney was direct off the scree below the col.
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Route description from David Jones guidebook (2020) "Rockies South. The Climber's Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada: Volume 1" |
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The old “Green Book”. |
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Base of the second steep step below col. We pitched it with little protection, goes at about 5.6 R. |
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Exploring col area, chimney/gully system base is about 35 metres below col. |
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Peek a boo through col, Mount Tombstone across the valley. |
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View up gully. Tight and mostly loose with a few 5.6 steep steps. |
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Scott on a steep step in the gully while leading up pitch 2 of gully. |