Summit Elevation (m): 2675
Trip Date: September 29, 2016
Elevation Gain (m): 1300
Round Trip Time (hr): 6.5
Total Trip Distance (km): 13
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 3 – you fall, you break something
Difficulty Notes: The hardest part was driving the initial stretch of road off Allison Creek Road towards Racehorse Pass. The mountain itself is easy scrambling unless you do the traverse to the higher NE summit, which is difficult scrambling. Note: We combined Racehorse Peak and Mount Racehorse for a two peak day.
Technical Rating: SC6; YDS (3rd)
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
After spending the previous two weeks in various stages of fall throughout the Rockies, I was almost ready to return to work on September 29, 2016 when Wietse texted me, asking if I wanted to bag a peak? Let’s see. Go back to work or bag a peak? Hmmm. That decision wasn’t really a decision so much as an instinct. As usual, the weather forecast over the Rockies was a bit of a mixed bag. After browsing outlooks for various areas, the Crowsnest Pass looked to be the most promising with summer-like temperatures and only a small chance of showers. Wietse agreed that a two peak day was in order, so we settled on Bob Spirko’s unofficial Mount Racehorse just south of Racehorse Pass, and the generally accepted (but still unofficial), Racehorse Peak located just north of the pass. Obviously both these summits share an approach which makes doing them together attractive.
Racehorse Peaks Route Map
The first challenge of the day was getting out of bed early. The second challenge was very narrowly avoiding a head-on collision while barreling at 110km/h down highway 22 south! We were driving along, chatting in the early morning light with very little traffic on the highway when I happened to see two semi trucks side-by-side heading towards us at full speed. Yes. Both of them – towards us!! Wietse later told me I was surprisingly calm as I pulled us half off the road before we casually flipped the offending semi driver a couple of WTF greetings. We continued driving for a few minutes before realizing just how close we’d come to taking a couple of dirt naps. I still have no idea what that truck driver was thinking. He was passing another semi, both of them going highway speeds and slightly uphill, while on a double yellow line that was a partially blind curve in the road! Wietse and I both fully expected to see the after effects of a horrific accident on our return that afternoon. All it would have taken was a van full of kids or a school bus and a major tragedy would have occurred on that lonely stretch of highway. Another reminder that mountains and Grizzlies aren’t the most dangerous thing we face each time we go out to the hills…
The third challenge of the day was driving off the Allison Creek Road and up the Racehorse FSR. Based on Sonny’s remark that he could have driven his CRV up this road, we figured my xTerra should have no problems. I’ve driven some gnarly (for me) backcountry roads before, most notably on our Alexandra trip where I almost drove too far. I don’t do enough off-roading to feel really comfortable with it though. Almost immediately after starting up the FSR I wondered why the heck I was driving this! There was some very delicate balancing along some very deep, wet ruts that would have stranded us, before finally the road became a bit more reasonable. At this point I could still turn the truck around and was very nervous about driving further, assuming the road probably got worse the higher we went. Rather than risk life and limb for a second time that day, I decided to turn around, drive back along the gnarly section and park along the FSR, about 1km in from the Allison Creek Road. After re-negotiating the deep rutted section (which was easier on return), I parked the truck and we started hiking up the road.
Naturally the road only improved to the pass. We could have easily driven all the way to Racehorse Pass considering we literally drove the worst section (!!) but oh well. The morning was beautiful and adding around 200-300 vertical meters wasn’t a huge deal. We met a Jeep coming down from the pass, which would have made for an interesting situation on some sections if we were still driving at this point (not enough room for two vehicles). In an interesting twist, our views looked to be obscured by smoke – I’m not sure from where, but we could smell smoke quite clearly. Mount Ward was obvious as we walked up to the pass.
From just east of Racehorse Pass we scoped out various ascent options. Dave McMurray (peaksandstreams) took a more scrambly route up a huge gully just to the east of the easier south ridge but we simply headed up to the south ridge and followed it to the summit.
There were no difficulties, easy scrambling at most. There was some exposure to our right, but we didn’t have to be anywhere near it if we didn’t want to be. The warm sun felt like summer – but there was some rain showers to the west.
The summit was higher than expected, but we immediately noticed that further to the northeast there was an obviously higher one.
Due to a lack of preparation, I hadn’t read Dave’s report ahead of the trip, and didn’t realize that the first cairned summit is indeed, Racehorse Peak. Bob doesn’t even mention a higher summit in his trip report, as he was struggling with wind and simply tagged the first summit and immediately descended again. We started second guessing ourselves about where the real summit was, and decided to try the NE ridge traverse – although it didn’t look easy! Looks didn’t lie. Due to a lack of preparation, we didn’t even have our helmets along and soon we were pushing against the boundaries of easy or even moderate scrambling.
When we got to what Dave calls “Pony Peak” along the ridge, we tried scouting out several different routes that involved downclimbing tricky slabs with loose scree before we’d have to regain the high point just to the NE. We poked and prodded several options along the south side of the NE ridge before finally giving up. On hindsight, the best option would be ascending the huge bowl directly to this higher summit. Dave says that “Pony Peak” is 6m higher than Racehorse Peak but I didn’t get that reading on my GPS, which never went higher than Racehorse Peak’s summit. The NE summit is definitely higher, but probably only a few meters at most and obviously unnamed. Interestingly, Andrew Nugara was on this higher summit when Dave was there. I’m not sure how he ascended, but likely via the large SE gully directly.
We returned to what turned out to be the correct summit and descended our ascent route. Near the bottom of the route we deviated slightly down the south face on scree before taking a break and looking up at our next peak – Mount Racehorse.
I can highly recommend Racehorse Peak as an easy scramble with great views and a short time commitment (other than the drive). Just watch out for semi trucks on hwy 22!!
