Mount Kidd

Mount McDougall – December 10, 2005

Mountain height:       2,726 m (8,941 ft)
Elevation gain:           approx. 1,200 m
Ascent time:              7:15
Descent time:            4:40

Scrambling and a little mountaineering with Mark.

These days all I long for is to return to the car before the sun has retreated below the horizon (and, if possible, on a smooth and wide trail). Between Dungarvan (2 hours), Glendowan (2), Head (4), Loomis (3.5), Weed (1.5), and now Mount McDougall (2.5), we have spent approximately 14 hours (6 out of the last 8 trips), hiking out by headlamp – not an issue when you’re on a pleasant trail, like the Loomis attempt, however, most of those 14 hours have involved hellish bushwhacking, route-finding, creek crossings, postholing in deep snow, or all of the above. Nevertheless, after two previous December attempts at Mount McDougall (2001 and 2004), we were rewarded with a very interesting and sometimes challenging ascent and the summit.

Although Kevin Barton, who completed the ascent earlier this year, gave me a great route description via the west ridge, we again chose the southwest ridge. Both of our previous attempts failed on this route and the ridge connecting Volcano Peak (a very unofficial name given to an outlier of the southwest ridge) to the summit of McDougall looked to provide much interest. The steep hike to the outlier was again time-consuming and tedious, but straightforward, with great views to the west. We then continued on, quickly surpassing the point where we turned around last December. We stayed on the ridge as much as possible, but occasionally took detours on the right side to avoid a couple of snow-covered and exposed sections. Progress was slow, but steady and after negotiating the most challenging section of the narrow ridge, we arrived at a low col, where the ascent route widened considerably. From here, we thought the summit to be “in the bag” and we would then be able to enjoy a leisurely descent – I guess the mountain thought differently.

While hiking up the beautifully corniced ridge, we suddenly arrived at a steep drop-off. Downclimbing it was out of the question and after an unsuccessful search for a weakness in the rockband, we had to the choice of to turning around and going home or rappelling down the step. With the elusive summit within striking distance, we chose the latter. This meant that we would have to take an alternate descent, as upclimbing the band was also not a feasible option. Luckily, Kevin had suggested an easier descent route and so, now at the late hour of 3 pm, we set up a rappel anchor and down we went. 5 minutes further up the ridge a similar situation occurred. This time the drop-off was very small, however, it dropped onto a huge cornice, overhanging the precipitous south face. I’m sure the cornice would have supported my meager body weight, but I wasn’t willing to bet my life on it – which is certainly the price I would have paid had I been wrong. Again we searched for a weakness lower down and found one, although the icy snow required crampons.

With the sun ready to sink behind a thick band of cloud to the west and then below the horizon, we quickly ascended to the lower south summit. An enjoyable, but hurried ridgewalk followed and we arrived at the summit at 3:30 pm. It was cold and windy at the summit, and clouds obscured much of the scenery to the west, but still the panorama was very good. The unnamed and slightly higher peak to the north ( Old Baldy Mountain ) looked especially inviting (but definitely not on this day!).

After an extraordinarily brief summit stay, we started down west-facing slopes, directly from the summit. At first, the icy terrain was easily descended (again, without crampons we would have been screwed!), but lower down, the grade steepened, requiring careful route-finding. We were relieved to make it down to the valley bottom and onto less steep ground. Unfortunately, though less steep, the snow-covered terrain on either side of McDougall Creek was terrible to descend and it took us almost a full 2 hours of postholing, side-sloping, bushwhacking, and a severe amount of tripping, falling and swearing, to arrive back at the point on Old Baldy Trail, where we had started the ascent.

We arrived back at the car at 8:10 pm, 5 minutes short of a 12 hour day. A strenuous and challenging, but fantastic trip.