Windrip Peak — explor8ion

The obscure peak chasing game is a fascinating one if you’re up for it. If you’re a keen reader of this blog you are probably surprised that I even bothered with Windrip only hours after nearly taking a dirt nap on Endless Chain Ridge. I don’t even know how I got out of my warm sleeping bag on this particular day, nevermind found the mental and physical energy to go for an even less known and totally unofficial objective than I’d been on the day before. In this case it was impossible to know exactly where the peak was, much less whether it was even a scramble, a hike or a full-on climb. But this is how it goes. A few hours of restless, but warm, sleep and somehow the explor8ion juices are back. It was a beautiful day and we were in position, so why not at least try it? What’s the worst that could happen? Uh oh. Probably shouldn’t have said that. 😀

Way back in the mists of time before my beard was turning grey and life was full of endless possibilities (haha) I came across this strangely named high point sitting above Poboktan Creek on bivouac.com. Windrip Peak had no beta and no description other than where it was approximately located (there were at least 3 candidates) and a height of around 2860m. I had no idea if there was a viable route but plotted a proposed line from the Poboktan Creek Trail and it sat in my Gaia routes and planning spreadsheet for years.

I have another source that describes a 3rd class ascent via the NE ridge by Dieter von Hennig, Gunther Hintringer, L. Robbins Wallace, Hans Gmoser on July 23, 1972 to an,

Unnamed 2860m peak consisting of at least three summits on a south-north axis located 6.6km northwest of Poboktan Mountain, GR802–139.

Based on the height and location this 1972 ascent almost had to be the same peak as “Windrip” but the coordinates were just different enough to be unsure. When planning the trip, Mike pointed out even more options nearby that had very similar heights on the topo maps. We ended up with something like the following - not really narrowing anything down beforehand. Like I opened this tale with, the obscure peakbagging game is not for the faint of heart.

I’ve updated Windrip’s location in bivouac so that it now sits on the highest point in this screenshot. It was originally one dot to the north and that was where I first ascended. It is higher than all the other summits marked.

We slept in thanks to the cool late summer air along Poboktan Creek. It didn’t quite freeze overnight but it was still an unpleasant job, struggling out of my warm down sleeping bag and into my soaking wet socks and runners from the day before. Remember folks, I do this shit for fun. 💩 (Hilariously and tragically, my day job is somehow even worse. 😆)

Mike had hours at camp the day before and reminded me that the highest summit might be nowhere near where we were planning to go. His GPS unit put the southernmost peak on the map above as the highest point in the immediate area. My poor brain couldn’t comprehend any of that nonsense so I promptly ignored it and slurped back my breakfast (black coffee) as loudly as possible to drown him out. ☕

Windrip is a reasonable day trip from the Poboktan Creek Trailhead. For various reasons Mike Mitchell and I started at the Poboktan Campground, approximately 7 kms up the creek.

I was feeling stiffer than usual as we left the empty camp (we were the only occupants) and started up the Poboktan Trail. We had to walk a km or so from camp before getting to our planned ascent drainage. Time passed quickly as we chatted and at 0900 we were at the designated stream leading up to the NE. We were hoping for a clear route up a mostly dry creekbed to an alpine bowl. Our wishes came partly true but mostly untrue. This is very common in the no-beta, random peakbagging silly stuff game that we (like to?) play.

Starting up our ascent drainage off the Poboktan Trail.

Ribs and slab make for a nice sidewalk beside the scenic falls in the creek.

Things started out on a high note. The creek was running high for this time of year but we could still keep dry(ish) feet as the cleanest line crossed it almost continuously. Just as I’d feared and just as the topo map hinted however, the gully slowly narrowed until it became a problem. First it was fine - we found a perfect series of ribs, ledges and rubble slopes on climber’s left of the creek as it cascaded through smooth rock in a series of little falls and lovely pools. Then it got less fine.

We avoided this small canyon easily on the left.

Much steeper than it appears - no obvious way up here.

Mike exclaimed that our luck might have run out as he gazed a few hundred meters ahead. The canyon walls squeezed into a crack in solid (smooth) stone cliffs only inches wide that held the rushing creek within. There was no way up or through here. Without beta, this is the sort of thing that can scuttle a trip before it even really starts, but this wasn’t our first rodeo at this explor8ion thing. Mike fearlessly tackled a nearby dirt death slope and I foolishly followed him up, even more foolishly thinking, “how bad can it be?”. You’d think I’d have learned from my lessons the day before but I’m going to claim exhaustion with a dash of old age brain here. 🤯

Again, much steeper than it appears, we are part way up the nightmare slope at this point.

If you’ve ever ascended one of these nightmare slopes in runners before, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you’ve focused on the word “dirt” and are wondering how bad it could possibly be. There is no alpine rating for such a nasty landscape feature but there probably should be. Other than a top rope around a tree or something, these slopes are completely unprotectable but if you slip anywhere on them (and there’s a damn fine chance you will), you’re taking a painful ride that could easily be your last one on planet earth. The best part is that you never realize this until you’re way too high up the damn thing and can’t go down or sideways. Literally the only way out is to expose yourself to even more shittiness above. I’m really selling this aren’t I?

A better view of the angle - there is no room for error here and plenty of opportunities to make one.

Somehow we both made it up that bit of nastiness and were delighted to find a mossy forest lining the top of it. Hoping we were now on a much better line, we continued traversing towards a still unseen alpine haven just ahead. As we broke into a lovely high valley SW of our objective we were happy to note that any snow that had fallen a few days previous likely wouldn’t be a showstopper. (Little did Mike know that it almost would be for him…) We could barely see the two most likely candidate peaks from here but we gamely followed my planned route on our GPS units through the rubble.

Much more reasonable slopes into the alpine bowl ahead.

A perfect bivy spot. The false summit at upper right here.

While Mike ascended a line closer to cliffs coming off a false summit to our right, I stayed on easier terrain at valley bottom and slowly made my way up boulders and loose rubble up the fall line to break a line of lower cliffs. Despite being slow, my line was easy and trust me, after the day before, I was in the mood for “easy”. As I slowly made my way in between two sets of lateral cliffs, one below and the other high above, there was still no way to know which was the higher summit above. I targeted the easiest looking one in keeping with my theme for the day. I was already half convinced that the impossible looking summit was likely the highest but ignored that thought for now.

I stayed on the fall line, Mike was up to my right somewhere here. You can just spot both the false and true summit at upper right now.

I will break through the lower lateral cliffs at right here before going left under the upper snow covered cliffs. Mike will play tag with a wolverine on those snow slopes. He will lose. Thankfully the peak at upper left is lower than either of the other two at right.

At some point I noticed that Mike was now on snow slopes to my right, in deep shade under soaring cliffs. I wasn’t sure why he chose that line - I was in the warm sun on dry rock, but apparently he was following a wolverine’s footprints up there. #badidea I kept going and before long I was traversing easy slopes to the first summit - the one bivouac marked as “Windrip”.

The two summits at upper center and left with just an easy rubble slope in between us.

A small cairn balanced on the highest point but there was no register. My views from here were stunning! No smoke and clear blue skies meant I could clearly see many of the distinctive Brazeau area peaks such as Brazeau, Coronet, Moriah, Rebakah, Copia, Isaac, Chocolate and Poboktan.

Views to Poboktan (L), the true summit and Coronet (R). Our approach valley at mid lower right here. And no Mike visible below. 🙁

Views over the Brazeau valley include Brazeau (L), Fortuna, Southesk, Moriah, Rebakah, Copia, Isaac, Chocolate and Poboktan (R).

Closer views to Moriah, Rebakah, Copia and Isaac Peak.

Dramatic views past Sunwapta Peak (R) to Mount Athabasca.

The Stutfields with Mount Columbia visible in between them. North Twin and Twins Tower to the right.

As I sat there, waiting for Mike who was strangely nowhere to be seen, I kept glancing to the south towards the intimidating peak that I’d assumed was likely the actual high point (because it’s never the easy one). From every angle it looked like a small tower with vertical cliffs blocking access to the top. But it really did seem like it might be higher than the summit I was standing on. Every other candidate was clearly lower, but not this one. And there was the small matter of the “3rd class” comment in my other source. I hadn’t been on anything harder than 2nd to this point. Dammit. I had no choice but to go check it out.

Traversing to the fierce looking higher peak.

Still no obvious line. I’ll traverse around the block at left.

I easily descended off the summit and looped around to a snowy ridge leading towards the tower. I still couldn’t see Mike and was officially starting to worry about him. He’d been right beside me earlier and I’d been so focused on getting up the rubble to the first summit, somehow we’d lost each other. But where the heck was he possibly lost?! There was only one giant rubble slope to get up. I decided to continue but would start descending soon to go hunting if he didn’t show up somewhere below me in the next few minutes. I turned my attention back to the small tower ahead. There was no route up my end but I noticed I could traverse on shale around the SE side of the rock wall. As soon as I was around it I knew I’d cracked it - literally. A nice moderate (easy) staircase led through the block to a scree summit above. YES!

My eyes and altimeter app both confirmed what I’d suspected all along. This peak was higher than the first one. Both are almost certainly under the 2810m height but who cares? There was something resembling a cairn but it wasn’t obvious so I built it up. Alas, no summit register (I was hoping for the 1970’s one if it was ever there). Alas, also no Mike yet! Views were obviously similar to the other peak, it only took me 15 minutes to traverse them.

Familiar views include the false summit at left.

Rebakah at left with Isaac at right. Note the tarn just visible between them.

Mount Fryatt shows up over the Endless Chain Ridge and the lake I’d been at only 24 hours earlier.

Catacombs Mountain is a beast of a peak that I’ve had the pleasure of tackling.

FINALLY Mike showed up. He was still a few hundred meters below me but he was walking at a fast pace and looked uninjured so I set up a comfy seat on the warm, windless summit and decided to chillax for a bit while waiting. As Mike gained the summit ridge I guided him around the block and asked him what the heck had delayed his progress so much.

He’s ALIVE!! But still far below me here.

Apparently the wolverine was trying to kill him by luring him up a snow slope that gradually got worse and worse until he was basically stuck in a very uncomfortable situation. Just as myself the day previous on Endless Chain, he couldn’t easily extract himself from the rock hard snow slopes and had to reach deep to finally work a way out of the situation he was in.

Mike tackles the easy break in the otherwise impenetrable summit tower.

Descent was relatively quick and easy despite all the annoying rubble. As we neared treeline again we decided to avoid the creek and descend forest to skiers right. This was a bit of a gamble but it looked mellow and we obviously weren’t interested in the horrid dirt hellscape from earlier in the day. Plus Mike was down to one pole thanks to the wolverine’s deadly snow slope trap that stole the other one. The forest was gorgeous and surprisingly open for Jasper. In no time we were back at the Poboktan Trail, it was the perfect way to end the day.

Mike descends under the summit on a brilliant late summer day.

A juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper enjoys a small tarn in the alpine.

Descending out of the alpine - we will deviate to the right above the creek.

A surprisingly open and pleasant forest descent route.

A lovely way to end the day along the Poboktan Creek Trail.

We parted ways at camp, I had the bike so I was going to be quicker on exit and we were driving in opposite directions afterwards. As I cycled the rough trail back to the trailhead I meditated how glad I was that I hadn’t given up on Windrip after a difficult experience the day before. Sometimes life is as simple as getting up and putting one foot in front of the other until you’re feeling better again. I’m just glad that I was lucky enough to find a warm, sunny, late summer day to prove that to myself again.