I applied the name of “Rocky Peak” to this northern end of the main Opal Range since it is the head waters of Rocky Creek, which is an official watercourse name. This high peak is just south of The Wedge/”MacKay Hills” highpoint, which is the extreme northern end of the Opal Range. Rocky Peak ends the range to the north, but is connected to the south to ‘Mount Denny’ (GR 338277). The summit of Rocky Peak is about 1 kilometre north of Mt. Denny (3000 m) and shared col between is approximately at 2800 metres; giving Rocky Peak a prominence of 115 metres from the col.
The only recorded ascent of this mountain is by me. My long time office friend (L. Kimber) and I (Kevin Barton) ascended the complex and broken West Face via a steep slab gully, then face climbing to the upper summit ridge, West Ridge, on July 2, 2014. We found no cairn or evidence of previous ascents. I built a cairn on the highpoint (northern tower) and left a makeshift summit register, which will probably be eaten by the numerous summit pikas.
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| Opal Ridge crest |
A hike up Opal Ridge provides the most direct approach, but does require about 850 metres of elevation up Opal Ridge, then a descend of 300 metres to Rocky Creek, and of course, the same on the return. This direct approach is about 3 kilometres from the parking area to the base of the west slopes of Rocky Peak. Reach the ridge crest in about 1.5 hours, descend easy east slopes to west slopes of Rocky Peak.
My original goal was to ascend the prominent West Rib on the west side of Rocky Peak, but my partner was concerned about the time required to pitch out this route, and still have time to make the summit. We had a great view of this cool rib as we climbed the easy Class 3 gully beside it. I would guess it mostly goes at 5.6, with the odd harder step, maybe up to 5.7 or 5.8. Looked like a fun route, maybe one day I can return to climb it.
The West Rib is an obvious landmark on the west side of Rocky Peak. We ascended the low angled gully beside it. Mostly an easy scree hike with the odd short slab section. Efficient and fast height gain up gully. Gully ends in a steep wall, we solo’ed from gully to top of West Rib; first on 30 metres of 5.6 slab, then about 40 metres of 5.5 slab to easy scree to top of rib. From top of rib about 150 metres of steep slab, but solid and great holds (Class 4) lead to the summit ridge. Follow summit ridge to summit, mostly 5.2 or 5.3 on loose ridge, if pitching about 5 rope lengths to summit tower.
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| My newly built summit cairn seen on descent. |
Our descend was down steep scree and slab sections of the South/South West Face. We did run into a steep section that we downclimbed. This section was about 70 metres of steep 5.7/5.8 that was difficult to protect. We did leave 3 pitons (2 pin anchor at the top), 1 piton about 15 metres below the 2 piton anchor. Left pitons since my partner did not have a hammer. Once below this wall, easy Class 3 to scree and back to Rocky Creek drainage. Return over Opal Ridge.