For the most part we had a beautiful blue sky day with extensive views slightly marred in spots on the ridge by a strong, cool wind. Indeed the wind contributed to an "incident" which could have been expensive for the coordinator at lunch - of which more later. Fortunately for quite a bit of the trip we were on the east side of the ridge or the east side of the false summit which kept the wind reasonable.

I originally posted South Kidd for this trip which I had to cancel as the Galatea creek trail is closed as I was made aware of by Francisco. Thanks Francisco.

We left the trailhead just after 9:00 am and were soon climbing through mild bush to the ridge. Once on the ridge we got a view of our objective and the false summit which is bypassed on it's highest bench.

Rest stop after gaining the ridge and seeing our objective (click for full size)

The terrain on the false summit looks a little intimidating initially but there is a fairly straightforward cairned and flagged route that get's you around the summit block. The final summit block is reported as fifth class so we did not bag it.


Arnold Descending below false summit

Once around the false summit we could see the final ridge and nice views along the ridge to the west.


Looking at final ridge to East Peak of Burns (Mount Rae in background)

Looking SE to false summit traversed around on ascent of East peak of Mount Burns

The ridge involved a bit of routefinding to keep the scrambling moderate. I was fortunate that the group are all experienced Rockies scramblers and were a big help with the route finding. At one spot I missed where we needed to go fairly steeply back up to the ridge after traversing around a buttress in the ridge. This was, I think, the hardest bit of scrambling (SC6) on the trip and when my companions found it we also found it flagged with blue tape.


David on crux descent portion from East peak of Mount Burns

I think the first of the group were on the summit around 1:30 pm but, after a summit shot, we ducked down a bit more into the lee to get out of the worst of the wind for lunch.

Bill, Arnold, Jack, David and Manfred on summit East peak Mount Burns

After eating lunch, with my pack off, I stood up and climbed a little to look at the view to the west. I think a wind gust must have caught enough of the pack to send it rolling down the east slope. Fortunately Jack raced after it and gathered up bits that had fallen out and it did stop in time (about 30-40m) for Jack to rescue it. The slope steepened after the point it stopped and I think it could have gone a 1000m .....phew, glad it stopped!

After lunch we returned more or less the way we came with a few rest stops and botanical breaks.

Cushion Townsendia (Townsendia condensata).

Once back in the trees we did find a bit better route through the bush than the way we came up. Damian recorded 8.75 hours, 12.25 km, net gain of 1005m, total gain of 1270m.

Thanks to Bill,David,Arnold,Manfred,Damian and Jack for good company and help route finding from John. Special thanks to Jack for rescuing my pack and gear and Bill for some photos.

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