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Trip Report    

Mount Rexford/West Ridge

Summary of Mount Rexford, West Ridge Climb

  • Road suitable for all vehicles

August 23-25, 2014. Four of us reached the trailhead midday on Saturday. Three other burly trucks were in the pullout by the trail (trail now has a sign!). High clearance is definitely still required for this road. It’s a steep sustained climbers trail the whole way up, not for the faint of heart. There was one creek crossing about 2.5 miles in where it'd be good to grab water if you felt you didn't have enough. We camped at 6300 ft where there were still a few patches of snow to make water but you had to look for them, definitely would do this climb earlier in the season because most of the snow we were able to “harvest” had a lot of dirt in it. Being at the high camp meant we felt comfortable with a late start around 9:30 am. From camp its about a 15 min walk to the bottom of the ridge. 4th class scrambling on a few parts of the ridge to reach a heather -filled gully where you cut over to the second layer of the ridge where it flattens out shortly afterward. Once the ridge flattened out a bit we stayed to the right of the crest and went through the big boulder field to the base of the climb. Two pitches takes you to the flat top on the false summit where you then do a exposed walk around to the right to reach the last short pitch to the summit. Easy climbing except the one tricky move in the chimmney on the last pitch. Single rope rappels to base of climb then back through the boulder field to the heathery area where we did a double rope rappel down the obvious gulley. Gulley was rather wet but this rappel seemed safer and faster than downclimbing some of the 4th class exposed ridge scrambling we did early on. It began to rain during the double rope rappel which meant being extra careful traversing the boulder field on our way back to camp. Fortunately the rain cleared quickly and we were able to eat dinner outside our tent and watch the stars appear overhead. Slept in, broke camp then headed back down to civilization. Trekking poles recommended for steep approach and descent.

2020 Virtual Beta & Brews Presentation of the route.