"The Prow" (GR206970) traverse to "Ghost Peak" (GR203003) - Scramble

'Ghost Peak' from near the col

Had a great day out with the intrepid scrambler, Cornelius Rott.  Cornelius is a strong and keen scrambler, we did our first trip back on October 18, 2019, with an interesting day on the obscure “Sheep Meadow Mountain” and it’s nearby outlier, which we called “Sheep’s Claw”. Our recent trip, June 26, 2020, was to the same area. Back in October we were hopeful to ascend both Sheep Meadow Mountain and “Ghost Peak”, but breaking trail in deep snow and with the ascent of Sheep’s Claw, we ran out of energy and daylight to ascend Ghost Peak. Cornelius was previously keen to attempt a long ridgewalk from the summit high point of “The Prow” to Ghost Peak. We had hoped for a larger objective on this trip, but unstable weather and lingering snow, we did this high level ridgewalk. Check out Cornelius’ excellent website.

Area map.
Our approach up Fallentimber Creek in red
Traverse route in orange

The morning of our trip, the weather forecast went from sunny and hot, to windy, showers and cold. As we drove out, we went for our plan B (plan C based on ideal conditions ;-). Cornelius skillfully drove us to the bridge on Fallentimber Creek in the Hunter’s Valley area. From the parking spot there is a clear view to Ghost Peak and Sheep Meadow Mountain. The first 2 km or so of the approach is through a wet boggy area, hard to keep the feet dry, but beyond this, the trail (mostly an old seismic road), is clear and open to the col between Ghost and Sheep Meadow.

View to Ghost Peak from logging road near parking spot.

Sheep Meadow Mountain (l) and Ghost Peak (r)

Cornelius and his cool van at the parking spot

View to Ghost Peak on the approach trail.

Nearing Sheep Meadow/Ghost Peak col.

Ghost Peak ridge at col with very cool rock formations.

Sheep Mountain Mountain, two high points on the right.
Sheep's Craw on the far left.

Once at the col, we had a clear view to our ascent slope, and the summit point above The Prow. We easily picked a line down the creek, then a short distance north west into the larger north branch of Waiparous Creek and base of the broad ascent slope. We started up the slope, mostly an easy plod on a variety of small to medium sized scree, some loose, some not, until we reached a short rock band. Easy hands on scrambling through 2 or 3 steps, then nice compacted small scree to our first high point.

View southwest from col.
Our ascent route is on the broad grey buttress, just left of centre.

From col view to Ghost Peak

From col view to Sheep Meadow Mountain

Cornelius finding us a route.

As we ascend, view back to Sheep Meadow Mountain 

Climbing through first rock band.

Above rock bands, nearing scree walk to top.

View to Sheep's Claw and its cool little outlier on the right.
Sheep's Fang?

Pano of most of our traverse as we near our first highpoint.

From the first highpoint, we needed to head southeast to reach the highest summit above The Prow. The Prow is an unofficial name for a steep wall that separates the north and main branches of Waiparous Creek. I would assume this name mainly applies to this beautiful feature lower in the valley, not the highpoint? Cornelius built a cairn and left a register on this highpoint. Back to our first highpoint and continued our journey clockwise, west, then north, then eventually east. The weather was very unstable and rain threatened much of the time and more and more clouds developed and rolled in. 

Cornelius on our first high point of the day.
He built the little cairn.

A small cairn existed on the high point above The Prow.
Cornelius left this register in a plastic container and he enlarged the cairn.

From the summit of The Prow looking back to the
Ghost Peak/Sheep Meadow Mountain col.

Black Rock Mountain looking quite black with the
worsening weather.

After two significant elevation gains and drops, we were on the highpoint just east of “Waiparous Peak” (GR171975). This higher summit looked so close, probably only an extra hour or so to add on this peak onto the circuit we did, but Cornelius had ascended Waiparous when he climbed Mt. Davidson back in September 2019. He was not keen for the extra effort, and weather was getting worse, so onwards to Ghost Peak.

Cornelius heading out on our traverse.
Just above and slightly right of Cornelius is Mt. Davidson
with Waiparous Peak on the far right.

Nearing highpoint just east of Waiparous Peak

Waiparous Peak from the highpoint.
Maybe one hour return to the summit?

Soon after this highpoint we dropped to the low point of the traverse, on the way we got a look at one of the more interesting features on the loop. Between the low point and Ghost Peak there is a cool castle top shaped bump on the ridge walk. Fun hands on scrambling to the reach the top of this feature, then a solid plod to the summit of Ghost Peak with a few ups and downs and on and off clouds.

Castle top

Nearing castle top

Top of castle top, another cairn made.

Finally on the summit of Ghost Peak. Weather deteriorated with our first real rain as we descended. A bit of interesting route finding and we made it to the col. Return from the col back to the parking spot was just an easy walk. Great day out to stretch the legs, I really needed this to help my COVID fitness recovery. Cornelius is quite tech savvy and based on his GPS we did a total of 27.6 km, a total gain of 1870 metres and were 12.5 hours for car to car.  Good fun. 

Heading to Ghost Peak

Summit of Ghost Peak

Summit posers

Descending Ghost Peak

Back over the col, on the east, descending into the forest.
Cool clouds low down on Ghost Peak.

Cornelius trying to see if his van is still there.

Slabby McSlabface - 5.6, 114m (4 pitches)

First climb after the pandemic of COVID-19; I will not get into details on that, but happy to have kept my job and my family is all healthy.  Did a short after work climb on the relatively new route of "Slabby McSlabface", a route just set in September of 2018 by Ian Greant and Grant Parkin. This route is basically beside the Baldy Crag, just in a small drainage to the south. Fun, casual four pitch route, all bolted, with easy approach and descent. As we climbed the route, a second party arrived, but there is a second route, just to the right, the two share the same first pitch, we didn't know that. Apparently it has a crux of 5.7.  We wanted to climb it after our climb of Slabby McSlabface, but the two were ridiculously slow on their descent, so after waiting 30 minutes, we rapped out. 

A topo with route approach beta is available here: https://www.tabvar.org/node/287 
I would say the route grading is accurate and modern in its rating.  Pitch 1 is short, with the crux section where the canyon narrows near the top, fun easy slab. A short walk on scree takes you to the start of the real climbing of pitch 2. This pitch is easy, but fun, as is the third pitch. Pitch 4 is the money, fun 5.6 slab with good hands to get over a couple of steepish steps. Easy anchor position makes rappel easy and breezy, good route for after work spring/summer days, recommended. 

Gearing up at base of route

First pitch (5.6) the route enters a tight canyon then up into a broader bay/basin.

OSWB leading first pitch
(photo by Laurie K.)

View from first anchor.

LK on second of first pitch.

Laurie at second station, easy slab pitch beneath tree.
(P2 - 5.3, 30M)

Looking up pitch 2

Looking down to second anchor, part way up pitch 3.

Looking up pitch 3 from station.
(Photo by Laurie K.)

From station 3, looking up pitch 4.

Other party on other route. 

View to route crux on pitch 4.

LK heading into the crux.

LK cruxing (styling) 

OSWB rapping pitch 4
(Photo by Laurie K.)

LK rapping pitch 4

Both route in this photo, other route on right side of slab.

LK rapping pitch 1.

Step Right Up - WI3, 25m

View to "Step Right Up" on the approach. 

Back on March 8, got out for a fun and causal day of ice climbing with my old buddy Raff. I haven't been on trip with Raff for a long time, it was long overdue. We ended up on "Step Right Up".  Fun little route, I didn't even know this route existed until the day before we headed there. 

For WI3, it was quite funky, but fun, and probably a bit dangerous. The upper mid section of the route was a super thin ice sheet, maybe 2 inches thick, with the rock wall about 1 metre behind it, no protection in this section, only led this section of the route once. The left side was more solid and a fun lead.  

Overall a good day out, I lead up 3 or 4 times, did some top roping and then we were curious about the terrain above, so we hiked up the cool narrow creek for a bit, but the snow got as deep as waist deep, so we changed our minds.  Super fun day out with Raff. 

This middle upper section was a thin egg shell. 

Heading home