Summit Elevation (m): 2240
Elevation Gain (m): 1700
Trip Time (hr): 10
Total Trip Distance (km): 18
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2 – you fall, you might sprain something
Difficulty Notes: Easy scrambling and hiking on loose scree with some route finding. Note: This peak and the stats above are part of the 5 peak Livingstone Traverse.
Technical Rating: OT3; YDS (Hiking)
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
After descending Hornecker we were staring at the steep south ascent slopes of Windy Peak. We grunted up the slope and were soon battling very strong wind (what did we expect right?!) to the 5th summit of the day. Windy Peak is just a hike, but we had great views of some cloud formations coming over the Rockies to the west and a little bit of wind wasn’t ruining our day any!
After a very short summit stay we descended the north side of Windy and after some bog ballet across both South and North Twin Creeks we were back at the cars. Yes, I wrote ‘car’ with an ‘s’. There was a note on my seat from JP. It explained that my lights were left on and they had to boost my car. They ran it for 20 minutes but apparently it wouldn’t start after they parked it again. I found the keys and tried starting it. Thankfully the car started no problem, so I think they weren’t pushing the clutch far enough in.
Imagine if they hadn’t boosted my car and drove it out for us though? Wietse’s car wouldn’t have made it all the way in, so we would’ve walked at least .5 km to my car at the end of the day only to find the battery dead. Then we would’ve had to either push my car out to Wietse’s car, or risk damaging Wietse’s car by driving it all the way in. All of this fooling around with cars would’ve cost us at least 1-2 hours! I’ve indicated to JP that I will carry 2 beers up any mountain of his choice for him and his wife!
I highly recommend this traverse as an early season warm up. I would recommend a truck or 4×4 for the access road to Coffin Mountain but if you’re lucky and it’s dry, any high clearance vehicle should make it.
