Summit Elevation (m): 3205
Trip Date: August 31 2024
Elevation Gain (m): ~1100 (from Job Lake)
Round Trip Time (hr): ~6 (from Job Lake)
Round Trip Distance (km): ~11 (from Job Lake)
Reference Trip: Job Lake Excursions
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2/3 – you fall, you sprain something, unless you leap off the summit ridge for some reason. Then you’re quite dead.
Difficulty Notes: A very remote peak with some moderate exposure right at the summit – pretty easy and straightforward if dry.
Technical Rating: SC5; RE5
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
I was excited to finally be tackling the main objective of our Job Lake excursion on our 3rd full day in the Job / Cline PLUZ. After descending the Samson Lake headwall and traversing to the lower SE rubble slopes of Obstruction Mountain high above Job Lake, we were finally ready to give my proposed route a try. I only knew about two published reports on Obstruction Mountain – both of them from the south and both of them rated at 4th-class. I was a little surprised by this difficulty when I looked at the satellite maps and spotted what I strongly felt was a much easier line from the same approach.
In July 1992, Alistair Des Moulins, Richard Jull, Jon Merritt ascended SW slopes of Obstruction and mentioned a “very exposed” section between a cairned false summit and uncairned summit that they rated 4th-class. In 2014 Warren and Jenise Finlay ascended a harder line from the south, ascending 4th and low-5th-class terrain to gain SW slopes to the summit ridge. Alistair didn’t detail just how his group accessed the SW slopes below the summit but I strongly suspected it was via the same route I’d spotted and was planning to try. Rather than ascend a boulder-strewn valley directly south of the objective and ascend obvious cliffs to the rubble slope above, I was hoping to sneak through the extreme south end of those cliffs and simply hike to the SW face on a wide rubble ledge above the cliffs.
Our luck with the traverse from the Samson Lake headwall continued to hold as we ascended rubble slopes to the NW leading up into a hanging alpine valley south of our objective. Views back over Job Lake were stunning in early morning stillness.
We topped out in another gorgeous alpine valley – the highlight of this trip was all the beautiful valleys we got to hike through. At first Sara wasn’t sure if she wanted to try my route – I think she wanted something a little more direct and potentially challenging. As we hiked further she agreed to try it with me and we continued to traverse under dramatic cliffs of an unnamed peak that sits between Prediction Peak and Samson Lake. And that’s when Sara spotted her 5th grizzly of the trip! Amazingly, we saw yet another bear that reacted the same way every other one had so far. It looked and then ran. Wow! We couldn’t believe our luck at seeing another one of these majestic creatures. It felt like a good omen.
Shortly after meeting the grizzly we had to lose elevation to a small lake under the line of cliffs that I hoped to break through at their south end. Everything looked good so far, we could spot what looked like an easy line up through the bands to the broad rubble slopes above.
The closer we got to my sneaky line, the easier it looked. We started up on rubble and slabs and enjoyed the easy terrain until popping out above another unnamed lake with clear views all the way along a broad rubble and slab ramp leading to Obstruction’s distant SW face.
The next few hours were spent hiking and easy scrambling above huge cliffs extending all the way under Obstruction Mountain’s SW face. Views of Prediction Mountain’s sheer east face and over Job Lake to Ribbon and Horseshoe Mountain kept us entertained as we enjoyed a perfect late summer day in the alpine.
Looking at the cliffs over the boulder field that Warren and Janise had climbed left us pretty impressed that they managed to find a “scramble” line through them. They did NOT look easy or straightforward at all. Everything we could see looked 5th-class. We slowly made our way along the rubble and slab bench before traversing up and over an easy ridge abutting the huge SW rubble face of our peak.
After a short descent from the abutting ridge we found ourselves on the giant SW rubble face. At this point I was joking to Sara that so far on the trip every “easy” peak had been much harder than predicted, so it made sense that Obstruction would be much easier! Although the face was technically very easy, it wasn’t exactly “easy” to ascend. The scree got so loose at one point that Sara was kicking steps as if she was on snow. We looked for patches of snow, larger rocks and slab wherever we could.
3.5 hours after setting out from just above Job Lake, we finally found ourselves on the NW summit ridge. A large cairn greeted us at the lower, false summit and an immense east face dropped precipitously under our noses as we traversed the so-called “4th-class” terrain to the true summit a short distance away. I’ll be honest. Neither of us felt like this was anywhere near 4th-class. Maybe 3rd. There wasn’t much exposure and you’d almost have to try to slip for that to happen. With snow or ice things would feel much dicier here. No matter. The views were what we came for and they did NOT disappoint from this 3205 meter giant.
I counted at least two dozen 11,000ers from the summit and even managed to get two bars of LTE! After an update to the family that all was going well and snapping way too many photos, it was time to head back down. Despite an easy ascent it felt amazing to finally have stood on this remote peak. As with most ascents on this trip, despite a straightforward route, it took us much longer than usual to cover the elevation and distances involved. I think this was due to tired bodies and perfect weather and conditions. There was simply no need to be in a rush – it felt awesome.
After a very quick descent of the SW face it was time for plodding again. All remained easy but time was ticking away as we finalized our decision not to chase after a possible FA of Prediction Mountain. I’m 99% sure that an ascent would have been technically very easy from the unnamed tarn along our route but we had a long way to hike yet and wouldn’t be at our packs until mid-afternoon as it was. There is only so much you can do with 5 days and an almost 50-year old body. 😉
We picked our way easily down the south end of the ramp and followed a goat track back down into the sublime hanging valley where we’d spotted the grizzly earlier in the day. The sun was hot on our necks as we enjoyed light packs before reuniting with our overnight gear below.
I can’t say enough good things about our ascent of Obstruction Mountain. After years and years of thinking about it, obsessing about it and planning it, we got perfect weather and conditions. There is almost no way to guarantee such a great set of circumstance on a large, remote peak, much less a route that was easy and straightforward. When it takes a minimum of 2 to 3 full days of backpacking and hiking just to access a peak, you never know what you’re going to get once you finally set steps on it. We got perfection, it’s as simple as that. As I always say – I’ve taken the bad luck on many other challenges, so I’ll happily take the good luck on this one!
