Summit Elevation (m): 3060
Trip Date: August 30 2024
Elevation Gain (m): 400 (from Red Pass)
Round Trip Time (hr): 3 (from Red Pass)
Round Trip Distance (km): 3.75
Reference Trip: Job Lake Excursions
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 3 – you fall, you break something.
Difficulty Notes: A very remote peak with a more complex SW ridge than the maps indicate.
Technical Rating: SC6; RE5
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
While planning a 4 to 5 day Job Lake backpacking trip via Coral and Job Creek, I noticed what looked like a no-brainer add-on peak for our 2nd full day of hiking. My first introduction to Ribbon Peak was Alan Law’s 2002 account of his, Alistair and Gail Des Moulins’ 9-day excursion to the same area. On the 4th day of a foul weather plagued trip Alistair and Alan bagged “an uncairned 3050m peak south east” of their Samson Lake camp. Alistair dubbed this mountain “South Horseshoe” but since then it’s been named “Ribbon” on several topo maps. Looking at satellite maps I could easily spot the class II line the first ascensionists had used from Samson Lake but there seemed to be another, even more direct way it could be done.
I decided that rather than wait to descend from Red Pass all the way to Samson Lake (~400 meters lower), why not simply ascend Ribbon Peak from the pass directly? I’m sure this is what Alistair originally planned, reading Alan’s account. Five hours, four grizzlies (!!) and three mountain passes after leaving our camp under Quixote’s south slopes, Sara and I crested 2850m Red Pass in gale force winds and prepared for a straightforward ascent of Ribbon Peak. We didn’t quite get what we prepped for.
The wind was brutal at Red Pass. I mean, brutal. Some of the strongest I’ve been in and strong enough to blow me off balance more than a few times as I struggled up rubble slopes just NE of the pass to a false summit. My original route line was plotted along the south side of a long ridge, side-hilling to under the summit and then up towards it. The issue with that plan, as we gazed up at reality was twofold. Firstly, the “scree” that I thought the satellites were showing was actually large rubble and very unstable. Secondly, and more critically, the ridge itself was much more jagged and undulating than either the snow-covered images from space or the Gaia topo map indicated. We decided to hit the ridge proper and see where that would take us.
The statistics from Red Pass were rather unimpressive at first glance. Since we were already at 2850m and the peak was just 200 meters higher and less than 2km distance, how hard could it be and how long could it possibly take? As we continued along the SW ridge we realized that this was going to be much more involved than we first thought. The summit was much further than it first appeared – I’d been looking an outlier for the past hour or so as we approached Red Pass. We slogged over the first false summit and started for the next one, thankfully the wind had died considerably at this point.
As we approached another high point on the ridge, I was surprised to see three alpine lakes tucked under Ribbon’s north face, clearly meltwater from a dying glacier clinging to the steep cliffs below. Less cool was the vision of the remainder of our route to a still very distant summit. At least 3 significant drop offs lay ahead, and there was zero guarantee that any, much less all, of them would go as scrambles. The first was easy enough. The second was harder but still easy.
As soon as we topped out on the third jagged drop off along the SW ridge of Ribbon I knew we were into more serious scrambling terrain. Sara dropped in over the nose on loose, exposed terrain with lots of holds but again – very loose and steep. I opted to descend a steep chimney instead. I prefer stemming to face climbing when presented the choice. Both of our routes worked but Sara’s was probably closer to SC7 and mine SC6. Thankfully this was the last obstacle but we still had to regain a bunch of elevation to the summit where a small cairn with no register awaited us.
The summit panorama from Ribbon was stunning, just as from Quixote the evening before. Clouds, blue sky, sparkling lakes, rushing streams and various colors of rock and soil made for a gorgeous summer mountain canvas. I was very happy we’d made the top despite taking much longer and doing much more work than expected to get there. We turned back, there was a lot left to do yet today!
Return to Red Pass was largely uneventful. Climbing up all the more complex terrain was obviously much easier than the blind descents had been.
The weather was still a bit moody, presenting great views over the alpine lakes below, including views of a distant Job and Leah Lake. The upper McDonald meadows looked sublime in afternoon lighting as we made the final descent back to Red Pass.
I have zero regrets about ascending Ribbon Peak from Red Pass, even though it would have been nice to have more beta on this moderately complex route beforehand. For a much easier ascent on scree and rubble with no downclimbs, take the same line as Alan and Alistair did via north and west slopes from Samson Lake.
