Summit Elevation (m): 3120
Trip Date: August 30 2024
Elevation Gain (m): 700 (from Samson Lake)
Round Trip Time (hr): 3.5 (from Samson Lake)
Round Trip Distance (km): 6
Reference Trip: Job Lake Excursions
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 4 – you fall, you break something or die.
Difficulty Notes: A very remote peak with a more complex SW ridge than the maps indicate.
Technical Rating: SC7; RE5
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
After taking much longer than anticipated on Ribbon Peak, not to mention much more elevation and complexities than expected on its SW ridge, I wasn’t sure I would be in the mood for the 2nd planned ascent for the day. Originally, while planning our Job Lake trip, I’d planned an ascent of Horseshoe Mountain, or Sam Rogers Peak, from a camp on Samson Lake. As Sara and I descended from Red Pass and hiked through the sublime alpine valley leading to both Leah and Samson lakes, I decided that with hours of daylight left I was, indeed, in the mood for another ascent before ending my day. Sara wasn’t convinced so we decided to split up – she would wander the McDonald meadows to the north while I would round Samson Lake and check out the peak rising above it.
After dumping most of my gear at the base of the drainage my planned route ascended, I started up a very narrow channel with rubble rising steeply on both sides. It was almost 17:00 hours and I gave myself no more than 2 hours to reach the summit – it was going to be pretty dark already by 20:30. The narrow drainage soon widened and I found myself north of Ribbon Peak’s SW ridge in a huge alpine bowl leading up to a high col between Ribbon and Horseshoe. The high col was still hundreds of vertical meters above me at this point and I slowly put one foot in front of the other, hoping some slabs visible through the rubble would assist a more pleasant ascent than just rubble.
As I ascended some buried slab amidst the rubble, I kept looking back at the gorgeous scene opening up behind me. Samson Lake featured the most prominently with late afternoon sun casting dramatic shadows across the Samson / Leah valley below. The NE face of Ribbon Peak’s outlier with its ancient glacier and 3 meltwater lakes also kept my camera warm. As I ascended quickly I was also warm, but wondering where exactly my “col” was and how misleading my Gaia topo map was for Sam Rogers Peak, considering it was way off on Ribbon earlier.
Soon I realized that my “col” was pretty high above the actual col. This was OK and within an hour of Samson Lake I was topping out on the south ridge of my peak. Once again, however, I could immediately sense that I was in for a little more than I bargained for to the summit. I knew this was likely after seeing part of this traverse from Ribbon Peak earlier in the day, but the ridge wasn’t entirely visible from there.
As on Ribbon Peak, there were several high points and false summits to a much-further-than-expected summit, not even visible yet. I sighed deeply, looked at my watch and tackled the terrain ahead. Views continued to be stunning in every direction with the sun slowly setting behind me. As the final two high points before the summit came into view I knew I’d be cutting things real close on my turnaround time. Dang it, the summit still looked FAR away!
And then, on the penultimate false summit I knew that I wasn’t going to summit Sam Rogers today. I ascended to the top and peered over the drop off and immediately backed off. It looked impossible, to be frank. Reminding me of the first notch on Mount Cline, steep, loose slopes led down to a detached tower of limestone with seemingly no way to scramble to a low col far below. Damn it. My luck had to run out eventually I supposed.
I didn’t have a lot of time to think. I was now about 40 minutes from my turnaround time and the summit was still another false summit away – with pretty significant height loss. Not to mention this impossible looking barrier right in front of me! I peeked down again. As readers will know, one of my favorite phrases for tackling unknown routes in the Rockies is that you never know, “until you get your nose in it”. I decided that the first 10 feet or so below my stance looked doable. I figured why not get myself into that and then see what the next 10 feet looked like? I started down.
On hindsight I have to admit that descending the tower on Sam Rogers was not the best decision of the year for me. Shadows were growing long. I was tired after 2000+ meters of height gain already that day. Any kind of accident would have guaranteed an overnight stay before Sara could call for help for me. But sometimes when a peak is “right there” and you have gotten fairly lucky lately with unknown routes on peaks, you get a little too confident. As I kept descending steep and impossibly loose terrain, I kept thinking that the next few feet looked doable, so I kept descending! A tricky little traverse with exposure about halfway down to the tower notch almost turned my back. Then, when I got to a notch in the tower I really thought my attempt was really over. It was overhanging on my left and even steeper on the right with no guarantee of an exit line from where I was standing. I started down anyway. Once again, I have to admit that I got super lucky! Although it was almost vertical, there were just enough holds that didn’t come out on me (!) to get down to the base of the tower and exit the nose of the false summit!
I didn’t have much time to reflect on the wisdom of my actions. With only about 20 minutes left, I dashed up the final false peak and almost vomited when I saw how much height loss lay ahead to the summit. The summit block also looked like it could cause issues. With no time to cry I ran down the false summit on steep rubble slopes, noting a large glacier and manmade structure of some kind on its far NW end. I quickly ascended the summit slopes and with relief noted that there was a pretty simple line up the blocky terrain just below the top. As I summitted I glanced at my watch. 3 minutes to spare. Nice.
Unsurprisingly, views from Sam Rogers were very satisfying. I didn’t have a lot of time to take them in, but with the sun setting to the west and long shadows over green valleys and colorful rock faces in every direction, I did manage to take a ton of photos. I was happy to note that Obstruction Mountain was almost completely dried off after receiving a rather large dump of snow a few days previous. The warm weather was doing its job. I was nervous about ascending the crux and debated, as I left the summit and started back up the false one, about descending a much easier line on rubble slopes to the headwall below Samson Lake. The issue with that plan, was that I would have to ascend to our camp at the lake, in growing darkness via an unknown route.
I decided to play things “safe” and follow my ascent route back to Samson Lake. The crux looked impossible even from below as I approached the tower. Obviously it was easier to ascend than a blind descent had been, but this was still serious terrain with plenty of huge, loose boulders and exposure. I was happy to top out and continue quickly over a few more high points before finally gazing down rubble slopes north of Ribbon Peak leading down to the lake below.
It was almost 20:30 as I packed up my gear by the lake and hiked to a nicely situated camp at the outflow of Samson Lake and the top of a steep headwall leading down toward Job Lake. I apologized to Sara for making her wait for my return until almost dark. She didn’t mind (which is why we are compatible hikers) but I still felt a little bad. I know what it’s like to sit in growing darkness hoping to heck that your trip partner is going to show up safe and sound, sooner than later. Once again, a 13-hour day was topped off with a silent supper in growing darkness in a beautiful, quiet, remote corner of the Canadian Rockies.
Although there is a far easier line to the summit of Horseshoe Mountain via SE ones from Lightning Lake (Tony and Gillean Daffern’s original ascent line in 1973), I didn’t mind taking a slightly harder one. Sure! I’d be talking a little different if the crux had turned me around, but sometimes completing a planned route with unknown challenges is more rewarding than taking the easiest line. In my case the easier line simply wasn’t part of the itinerary – getting to Lightning Lake is way off our hiking route. The views from Sam Rogers were some of the best of the trip and the only ones that clearly showed Samson, Leah and the steep headwall plunging to an unnamed lake above Job Lake.
