Mount Norquay

June 2006

Elevation: 2500m  Gain: 1000m Difficulty level: Hard
Total trip time: 7 hours Ascent time: 2.5 hrs    Conditions: Summer

Parking area: Norquay Ski Resort

 

I was somewhat surprised by the length of this scramble. As it turns out, there was a rather long ridge at the top of what is visible from the ski hill. The views were average. Although smaller, neighbouring Mount Edith has more interesting views. However, the scrambling was quite fun with a mix of ridge walking (generally easy) and short climbs/down climbs (difficult). The holds were amazingly solid which gave a false sense of security :)

                           

ROUTE

Ascend to the right of the North American chair (closest chair to the parking lot). Slog up the mosquito infested double black diamond ski run (400m). 

 

    

View from the Lift Station

Avoid taking the gulley (as described in the Book of Scrambles). It gets harder higher up. If you take the left path (before the gulley), the path remains surprisingly good all the way up.  The many path branches can get confusing. Some lead to difficult climbs or traverses with aerial views. However, as long as you keep taking the left most branches in the path, the scramble remains a relaxing moderate scramble up until the ridge (kind of like Heart Mountain). On the other hand, if you lose the path, things can get sketchy real fast (...hello, descent route)

 
Once you access the ridge, the two peaks come into view:

We hit the east peak in 2.5 hrs (from the parking lot). The ridge itself wasn't particularly exposed, however, there were perhaps 1 or 2 downclimbs (see below left) and a couple of short climbs (just remember that anything you climbed, you have to downclimb on the way back). Because of the multiple downclimbs, this is a difficult scramble. However, at least in dry conditions, the incredibly solid rock was re-assuring.

Fairly typical downclimb: Nothing over 3m was encountered

Oddly enough, I found the family of goats blocking the path scarier than the ridge. I'd never heard of "When goats attack!!", but with 2 kids, who knows? As it turns out, the path-blocking-ridge-goat is identical to their salt-licking-road-blocking cousins. After yelling "Mmmm... goat curry" a couple of times they finally decided to move.

After reaching the East Peak, we set forth towards the west peak. Unfortunately, you have to lose around 400m and then climb back up again (and more) to reach the West Peak. Furthermore, you have to descend and traverse just prior to the saddle to avoid a sharp drop down. The route is obvious since there is now a well worn path. Follow the saddle until you come across a very steep gulley. Descend into the gulley and then cross over to the other side (around 10 painful, backsliding metres up). Despite a seemingly impassable rockface, there is a path to the right which will take you to the west ridge, which in turn leads to the west peak (~ 1 hr from east peak)

 

For some reason despite the huge number of people doing the East Peak, very few people continue on to the West Peak. Less than a third of the summit register was signed even after 10 years. I suspect its because the West Peak looks further away than it is. Also, there is a descent and re-ascent; and a seemingly impassible rockface. Technically, its probably no more difficult than the approach to the East Peak (assuming dry conditions of course)

I have to admit that returning was pita given that we had to descend and re-ascend yet again. If I had to do this again, I'd definitely take two cars and descend to the road via the west ridge.

 

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