甜蜜足迹: Wildhorse Ridge

TRIP 310

Saturday, 12/08/2018, Wildhorse Ridge – Ya Ha Tinda Rd, Clearwater County, Near Sundre, AB

· Round Trip 6.3km (loop); Elevation: 2265m; Elevation Gain: 720m; Time: RT – 6:15hrs (9:45 - 16:00), ascent - 2:45hrs, descent - 2:40hrs; easy to difficult scramble depending on route: difficult with moderate exposure if tackle the gendarmes and craggy bumps along the ridge head-on; easy to moderate with minimal exposure if avoid them

References:

https://www.spectacularmountains.com/canada/ya-ha-tinda/wildhorse-ridge/

http://www.explor8ion.com/scramble/wildhorse.html

http://sonnybou.ca/ssbou2017/wildhorseridge.html

http://anugara.net/wildhorse.html

Drive

From Calgary, drive north on Hwy 22 towards Sundre, turn left/west onto Hwy 27 on a T junction for 20.5 km (note: while passing town Sundre, Hwy 27 becomes Hwy 584) , then turn left onto Range Rd 63 towards Coal Camp. Drive south and west on the road along Red Deer Rive for about 45.4 km, turn left onto Forestry Trunk Rd/Hwy 40 N for about 2.8 km to the bridge intersection, go straight onto Ya Ha Tinda Rd for about 10.9 km, while the bridge leads to another section of Forestry Trunk Rd/Hwy 40 N towards Calgary, park on the left side of the road. Driving time would be around 2:30 hours.

Hike

The connected ridge to the south of Maze Peak in Yaha Tinda area is unofficially named as Wildhorse Ridge which is an interesting scramble with many route choices that rated from easy to difficult.

Immediately from the road side parking, we hiked north across a meadow up the hillside full of standing and fallen burnt timber to climber’s left of a narrow canyon like gully. This slope is steep initially but eased when higher up. We easily navigated through the dead logs on the ground and got to the first high point. After admiring the fantastic panorama of the surrounding from this high point, we carefully walked on some hard snow patch down to the gendarmes blocking the way to the col. This was the first crux of the day, though we thought it was the only one at the time. Other than descended left/north and traversed on snow-covered steep slope to avoid all of them, we, instead, skirted the first one on the right side, squeezed us through the second one on a narrow ledge on the left side of a steep wall, and then tackled the remainder head on. The scramble was quite hard and exposed, but also fun enough to be a highlight of our ascent. After that, it was a quick easy scramble to the summit of Wildhorse Ridge.

The summit was extremely windy, so we didn’t linger long. Instead, we headed down the SE ridge for about 100 metres and found a windless spot on the left/east side of the ridge to take our lunch break.
After 50 minutes break, we continued our descent southeastward along the ridge to a point that connects a rib extending towards southwest and parallels our ascent route. We stopped here thinking whether we should climb up these craggy bumps or circumvent them. I didn’t expect any route finding since I thought it is a straight-forward scramble with no approach, no bushwhacking, and no route finding according to my online research. Apparently it wasn’t for our situation. Finally, Gua scrambled up the first intimidating looking bumps to investigate the route behind it while I chose to skirt it on the steep slope to its right. After spending some time to look around, we eventually decided to descend the steep slope to the base to circumvent the bumps. In hindsight, we should just have traversed down the steep slope at right/west well before the first bump to get around all of them. But spending time for routes that we are comfortable with is always worth it though.

Upon regaining the ridge, it was an easy ridge walk down until the very end of the rib. Here, it also needed a bit route finding and involved some moderate to difficult downclimb off the rib to a scree slope. The scree-run quickly brought us down to a rocky terrain and then a deadfall-strewn slope leads all the way down.

This little peak surprised us in the way of the difficulty of the scrambles and the multiple terrains it owns. We should always fully respect all kinds of mountains, creeks, rivers, valleys and the like, or in brief: the nature.

My Track

Immediately from the road side parking, we hiked north across a meadow

Mt Minos across Red Deer River

Going up the hillside full of standing and fallen burnt timber to climber’s left of a narrow canyon like gully

The narrow canyon like gully

Looking east towards the summit from the first high point

Looking SE to the planned descent ridge

Dormer Mtn beyond Mt Minos at right

Looking west from the first high point

Red Deer River winds towards Ya Ha Tinda Ranch

Carefully walking on some hard snow patch down to a downclimb before the gendarmes

Downclimbing

The gendarmes ahead blocking the way to the col, which could be avoided by descending left/north and traversing on snow-covered steep slope

Instead, we skirted the first one on the right side

Heading to the notch between the 1st and 2nd gendarmes

Squeezing through the second gendarme on a narrow ledge on the left side of a steep wall

As hard as doing rock climbing

Looking back

Tackling the remainder gendarmes head on

Fun hands-on experience

Looking back, note the steep slope on right

The narrow section with exposure on both side

Climbing down the narrow section

The last bit

Looking back at the gendarmes from the col

Hiking up from the col

Some easy scrambles on dry slabs

The wind became stronger and stronger just before the summit

The summit of Wildhorse Ridge

Looking east where the mountain meets the prairie

Looking SE along the descent ridge

View SW to Mt Minos with Dormer Mtn beyond at right

View west with Dormer Mtn(L), Barrier Mtn(C) and Wapiti Mtn(R) in the b/g

Looking west-northwest to Labyrinth Mtn(C,F) with (l-r) Barrier Mtn(L), Wapiti Mtn(CR), Tomahawk Mtn, Wellsite Mtn, and Forbidden Peak beyond

View NW from the summit of Wildhorse Ridge

View north to Maze Peak(CL) and Eagle Mtn(C) with Hat Mtn at distant left and Limestone Mtn at distant right

A pano from north to east to southeast

A pano from SW to W to N

Hat Mtn(L,B), Maze Peak(C,F), Eagle Mtn(CR,F) and Limestone Mtn(R,B) to the north-northwest

Zooming in on Panther(L,B) and Dormer(CR) Mountains

A close shot of Mt Barrier

A closer Look at Labyrinth Mtn(C,F) with Wapiti Mtn(C) and Tomahawk Mtn(CR) in the b/g

Looking northwest along Red Deer River deep into Ya Ha Tinda Ranch with (l-r) Tomahawk Mtn, Wellsite Mtn, and Forbidden Peak beyond

Hat Mtn to the NW

Maze Peak(L), Eagle Mtn(C) and Limestone Mtn(R,B) again to the north

A closeup of Limestone Mtn

Looking back to the summit from the ridge above the spot we sheltered from the wind

Continuing our descent southeastward along the ridge. Red line is our approximate route while green line is the route i think will avoid all bumps

"Cleave" a rock with his pole

Looking back to that beautiful blue

Descending along the ridge

A logging area to the east

Looking back along the ridge

Looking down to our ascent ridge

A narrow section ahead

Narrow but easy

We should have traversed down this steep slope to avoid all craggy bumps ahead

Instead, Gua scrambled up the first intimidating looking bumps to investigate the route behind it while I chose to skirt it on the steep slope to its right