Climbing Mount Kidd from Ribbon Creek is an interesting variation from the standard route from Galatea Creek. I had done this trip twice previously, once in the mid-1980s and again in the early 1990s, so it had been a while. Sim, Brian and I met at the Ribbon Creek trailhead, and were on our way on our bikes up Ribbon Creek just after 8:00 am. We rode our bikes as far as is currently permitted, about 4 km or so, and continued on foot from there for another 3 km or so. At that point we headed into a large cirque on the north side of Mount Kidd. At the back of the cirque, the route curves around to climbers left. A long ascending traverse brings one to a gulley that leads to the northwest ridge of Mount Kidd. This gulley provides some nice scrambling as you climb higher. At the top of the gulley, the northwest ridge is followed to climbers right for a short distance, until this ridge connects to the standard route, which is then followed to the summit. We arrived at the summit at 2:00 pm, where unfortunately the view was seriously obscured by the smoke from all the fires in B.C. We returned the same way, and were back at the Ribbon Creek trailhead at 7:00 pm. Another option, if bikes were not used, would be to descend Mount Kidd via the standard route to Galatea Creek, and either leave a vehicle at the Galatea trailhead, or hike back to the Ribbon Creek trailhead using the Terrace trail.

Thanks very much to Sim and Brian for joining me Jack on this trip, which as far as I know, is not in any guidebooks or any websites (until now). One could not ask for better companions on such an adventure.

Total time: 11 hours

Total distance: 24 km

Total elevation gain: 1490 m

On the summit of Mount Kidd

Descending the gulley on the Ribbon Creek side of Mount Kidd

Our route up Mount Kidd from Ribbon Creek and back