Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Aug 6 2011 - Mount Dungarvan (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Alan Wiley
Participants:		Frank Wesolovski, Daniel Fern, Don Arthur, Caitlin Hunt, Rick Thomas, Alan Wiley

Click for Album

Write Up:
Alan Wiley, Frank Wesolovski, Caitlin Caltabiano, Daniel Fern, Don Arthur and Richard Thomas met at Lost Horse Creek at 7:00 A.M.
The weather was clear and sunny with the usual "Waterton wind". The creek was low and we decided to walk the creek bottom
rather than spend 2 hours bush wacking on the north west side of Lost Horse Creek. The intended ascent route was the south ridge
of Dungarvan, leaving the creek bottom at the second drainage from the north. Walking along the creek bottom was easy, so easy, we
missed the second drainage and wound up bush wacking up the west ridge of the unnamed summit south east of Dungarvan. Upon
gaining the ridge top we realized we were on the wrong ridge. We made the decision to traverse to the col between the two peaks,
we ducked out of the wind behind a band of trees and discussed our plan. We elected to ascend the south east ridge of Dungarvan, then
depending on the time and energy of the group would decide to traverse to Cloudy Ridge or descend the south ridge of
Dungarvan. The SE ridge had plenty of class 3 and 4 cliff bands to ascend, upon reaching the summit block we traversed to the west side
of the block to a narrow class 4 chimney, that resembled a cave at the entrance. Once through the chimney we scrambled to the summit
Start to summit required 5 hours and the group decided they wanted to traverse the connecting ridges to Cloudy Ridge. The traverse to
Cloudy Ridge crossed 2 intermediate summits enroute following game trails and more class 2 and 3 cliff bands. By 5:00 P.M. we reached
the summit of Cloudy Ridge. The descent involved side hilling the SE ridge of the peak adjacent to Cloudy on the SE. Once below the scree
we walked the grassy nose of the ridge to Red Rock Creek. We brought wading shoes for the Lost Horse Creek ascent route and wound
up using them, thanks to Frank, on the descent down Red Rock Creek. Wading through the cool water of Red Rock Creek after roaming
the ridges felt pretty good. The hike out felt more like a canyon in Utah than a ridge walk in the Rockies.

Thanks to a great group, with a great attitude we covered 15 miles and approximately 5000 vertical feet in just under 12 hours, arriving at
the parking lots at Red Rock Canyon just before 7:00 P.M. Frank and Rick hitch hiked a ride back to our vehicles at Lost Horse
Creek and retrieved the rest of the group for a well deserved cold Root Beer at Coppermine Creek.

Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Tim Anderson at twamontana@gmail.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.