"Sheep Meadow Mtn." (GR217985), "Sheep's Claw" (GR228973) - Scramble

Cool trip and I had the chance to meet up with a great scrambler who loves going off the beaten track. Cornelius and I exchanged emails about 2 years ago after I had found his website and gave him compliments on his impressive list of scrambles. At that time, I was recovering from some tendon injuries, and then he was off travelling the world, we didn’t connect until this Fall. “Sheep Meadow Mountain” was not on my radar at all, but Cornelius was keen to try it out since he had done several peaks in the area. Any trips I do to the Ghost or Waiparous area historically involved ice climbing, and I haven’t scrambled many peaks in the area. Black Rock Mountain was one of my first ever summits, my ninth, in May of 1993 Jock Rutherford and I scrambled to the summit and slept in the old fire lookout building. Until this recent trip, Black Rock was my only summit in the nearby vicinity.  Great reason to explore this area some more.

Cornelius had scrambled the nearby “Ghost Peak”, or as Vern Dewit referred to as “Kink Peak” (from Bivouac.com reference), back in spring of 2016. Cornelius knew the drive in and the approach well from this previously trip, and was kind enough to drive, so it was super simple trip for me. The gravel/dirt road to Fallentimber Creek was in great shape because of the active logging in the area and we had a simple drive to the parking area. The slog to the Ghost(Kink)/Sheep Meadow col was, at first, low snow level and easy, but soon we were post holing up a storm.  The deepish snow definitely slowed our pace and sucked up some energy.  

Left Sheep Meadow Mountain and on the right, "Ghost" (Kink) Peak

.

Approach via Fallentimber Creek to Ghost/Sheep Meadow
Mtn. col, then we traversed south east, then to main summit of Sheep Meadow.
South to Sheep's Claw, and north on western slopes.

Hiking the cut line, a few patches of ice.

Deep snow and slogging towards Ghost Peak's rugged east face.

"Sheep Meadow Mtn." (GR217985) centre, "Sheep's Claw" (GR228973) far left 

Nearing the col, we decided not to gain the col, but instead angle traverse south east, above tree line, towards ‘Sheep’s Claw’. As we slogged along through some pretty deep snow, we changed plans, headed directly up the east slopes of Sheep Meadow, to gain a low spot on the ridge, where we hiked to the summit. First summit of the day, very windy, and extreme wind chill.  Cornelius had brought a glass jar and some paper to leave as a register, it was actually difficult to write because of the cold and the high velocity winds. After our new cairn and register were in place, we headed directly south on the summit ridge. 

Starting our raising traverse above tree line.  View north to the col
and Ghost(Kink) Peak.

Cornelius with ridge of Sheep Meadow Mountain above,
from the eastern slopes below. We gained the low point left of this block.

 "Sheep's Claw" (GR228973) far left, Black Rock Mountain right of centre.

Cornelius on the summit of Sheep Meadow Mtn.
Cornelius brought a glass jar and some paper for a summit register.

Soon we encountered a steep drop off and some cool tall pinnacles that were beyond scrambling. We back tracked a bit, then descended a fun steep snow filled gully, the exit near the bottom of the gully required a few tricky moves on dry rock to escape to easier terrain, then to scree slopes below. Once on the easy western slopes, we had a better look at the next objective.  The final summit block of ‘Sheep’s Claw’ had steep rock walls, looked like it would be a bit more challenging.  Mostly wind blown, there was a lack of deep snow, so travel was fast to the col, then up the northern slopes of Sheep’s Claw. 

Traverse south from summit of Sheep Meadow,
deep notches and cliffs forced us down to the western slopes.

Heading south from Sheep Meadow summit, along the ridge, found a wind ravaged
Canadian flag. 

Above the Sheep Meadow/Sheep's Claw col view north
to Sheep Meadow and Ghost Peak.

We saw the eastern wall was too difficult to scramble, so we traversed west a bit below a cool rock buttress, then up easy snow/scree to a very cool rock wall below the summit (turned out to be a false summit).  We both scrambled this steep wall, which was very loose and probably 5.2 climbing. Once on our exposed rock fin, we realized the summit was just a bit more south. Some careful downclimbing on very loose rock, then a fun snow traverse to the final summit slopes.

Cornelius climbing the loose, but fun steep rock step to the lower summit of
"Sheep's Claw".

View from lower false summit to the higher summit of "Sheep's Claw"

From summit of "Sheep's Claw" north to Sheep Meadow Mtn. and Ghost Peak.

Cornelius enjoy the 'calm' conditions on Sheep's Claw.

View to Devil's Head. 
Climbed Devil's Head with Jason Wilcox in December 2007 via the waterfall ice routes, "Beowulf" and "Devil's Punchbowl" and the standard West Ridge route to the summit.

Cornelius leaving the summit of Sheep's Claw.

The wind subsided a bit while on our second summit and we got to enjoy the views. I added a few stones to the existing small cairn. The existing summit cairn didn’t have a register.  Soon we headed back to the col and started a traverse along the western slopes of Sheep Meadows Mountain, with a goal of reaching the col shared with Ghost(Kink), hopefully without too much elevation loss. The scree field was mix of no snow and boot top deep snow. As we neared the col, a couple of deep valleys/gullies did cut into the slope and we traversed high to avoid the drop in elevation. We gained the col, considered briefly the scramble to the summit of Ghost Peak.  Cornelius had climbed Ghost before, but in white out conditions, and I was keen to ascend it, but given the amount of snow and lateness of the day, we chose to head back to the car.  In the end, the best choice, as we did much of the return hike in the dark and the trip was about 12 hours car to car. Super fun shoulder season scramble, great day out.

View south across the western flank of Sheep Meadow and the summit of Sheep's Claw.

Nearing the col with Ghost Peak, summit of Ghost above.

Last view of our two summits as we head into the trees of Fallentimber Creek..