There was nothing to do after finally standing on top of Two O’Clock Peak but start our long descent towards Two O’Clock Ridge and the highway, far below and far in the distance still at this point. We were feeling pretty positive as we started down the summit ridge towards the obvious east descent ridge. It looked pretty darn easy and not too far. We should have known better!
In his trip report, Eric mentions that he side-hilled on the east side of Two O’Clock Peak before reaching the far ridge and then backtracking back up to the summit on blocky terrain. He also mentions that it might work better to access the summit directly from the Landslide col. Mike and I were about to find out as we slowly and painfully worked our way down the huge (and freaking loose) boulders and rocks down from the summit of Landslide Peak. As I balanced my way delicately down to the Two O’Clock col, I was hyper-aware of the dangers of a boulder tipping over on either of my legs and doing some serious damage.
We had two choices from the summit of Bridge Peak. Turn back and descend via Ernest Ross or fully commit to our traverse and head southwest towards Landslide Peak. Guess which one we chose? Darn peakbaggers. Mike Mitchell and I figured beforehand already that the most complicated stretch of our planned traverse from Mount Ernest Ross to Two O’Clock Ridge was going to be the descent of the west face of Bridge Peak. We were correct on hindsight.
After leaving the summit of Ernest Ross it was time to traverse to the higher, and unofficially named, “Bridge Peak”. The sun was out and our views were fantastic as we worked our way down the west ridge of Ernest Ross towards a very distinctive colored band of rock and the much higher summit of Bridge Peak above us. The wind was cool, necessitating gloves and even a fleece jacket for me. Not quite the 24 degree weather we were expecting but the cool wind helped our energy levels throughout the day. As usual in the mountains, Bridge was further than it looked.
Summit Elevation (m): 2454Trip Date: Saturday, June 03 2017Elevation Gain (m): 1050Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 3 – you fall, you break your legDifficulty Notes: Moderate scrambling to the highest summit with limited exposure. Easy scrambling to the first summit. NOTE: This was done as part of a long traverse to Two O’Clock Ridge via Landslide Peak.Technical Rating: SC6; YDS (3rd)GPS Track: GaiaMap: Google Maps After a long and difficult trip that ended only a few days previous, I was a wee bit apprehensive […]
