September 8th, 2024. Rogers Pass, BC.
Round Trip: 10 Hours, 40 Minutes, Elevation Gain: 1644m
Moderate/Difficult Scramble via North Ridge route.
Mount Sifton had been on my radar since moving to Golden, an ideal peak being a scrambler given the dry approach from Hermit Meadows and boasting multiple scrambling routes. We blasted in and out as a day trip, teaming up with Logan with recent beta from Scotty who trail ran the SE Ridge and down the North Ridge. With Scotty’s fresh beta, and with a recently purchased copy of the Rogers Pass Alpine Guide (2012) by David P. Jones, we set out for the ambitious day trip.
Like most routes in Rogers Pass starting from the Trans Canada Highway, the approach to Hermit Meadows lived up to its reputation as being notoriously steep. Thank goodness we only had light day packs, my hat goes off to those who lug up camping and climbing equipment there! We set out at 7:15am under partially hazy skies and despite it being the second week of September, it was still quite hot-muggy out that morning.
We went into the day unsure which of the two routes we wanted to take. The SE ridge is technically rated as 4th class scrambling and while offers good rock quality the route is considerably more exposed than the 3rd class rated North Ridge. Bri and Logan had looked up the route online and found a video showcasing the crux of the SE ridge which caused mixed confidence levels. The North Ridge was longer, and according to Scotty’s beta had lesser rock quality over mossy ledges, but offered minimal difficulties (his words, not mine).
We decided at Hermit Meadows to take the North Ridge, in hopes of minimizing any exposure offered on the SE Ridge, even if it meant a longer day. This resulted in a longer foot approach from Hermit Meadows to the Sifton-Rogers col. A footpath wanders up from the campground and soon fades out into a boulder field moraine, though plenty of cairns mark the way. We reached the col around 10:20am and took a break before donning helmets and ascending the col slightly to the looker’s left.
At the col, we angled slightly to the looker’s left scree bashing up very loose rotten rock towards a slab wall feature. At the base of this wall, we angled to the looker’s right as it appeared somewhat travelled here. That turned out to be a mistake, as a few minutes later along the ridge crest we got skunked with a very exposed downclimb section that forced us to turn back towards the col. We very nearly called it a day at that point, and upon returning towards the col, decided to downclimb near the slab feature and begin side hilling across the south side of the ridge crest. Through here we spotted our first cairns and regained the ridge a short ways later. The rock quality was surprisingly garbage for Rogers Pass standards and more similar to what we’re used to in the Rockies, but this detour proved the right move.
Our traverse of the ridge soon had us scrambling over and under the ridge crest’s north side across a series of ledges. Numerous route options exist through here, and it was these north side ledges that we encountered the most number of cairns. Alternatively the ridge crest itself appeared feasible to traverse directly, we however wanted to avoid the scenario from earlier of being faced with an expected down climb, so stuck to these north side ledges.
Most of what we encountered here was predominately moderate scrambling fitting the 3rd class rating. Eventually a shark fin shaped feature in the ridgeline came into few and from afar appeared crazy steep. This feature however proved to be nothing more than a continuation of what we had already encountered, and was easily traversed along the same northside ledges. If anything, from this fin feature to the top left edge of the glacier proved to be the easiest section of our day. Including our earlier mentioned detour, it took us an hour to traverse from the Sifton-Rogers col to just pass this fin feature.
Once on the other side of the shark fin, we had our first prolonged break since starting the ridge. This marked just over halfway to the summit, although it appeared close at hand the summit was nearly another hour ahead. Scrambling remained easy to moderate in technical rating as we started gaining more vertical next (climber’s left) to the north face glacier via block-like boulders.
The crux for us was just above the glacier where Logan scrambled up a couple steeper cube-like rock faces with small but firm holds. We later downclimbed these and while they are exposed, the exposure is brief and the scrambling is more moderate than it first appeared. However, for the way up Bri and I instead went to the looker’s right scrambling up a small rotten gully where I slipped and kicked out the main foothold essentially eliminating this as a downclimb option for the way back. Past this point the only other hands-on bit was circumnavigating a lingering snow patch which made for a tight squeeze along a few moderate scrambling moves.
From the snow patch it was still another half hour to the summit, though once past the aforementioned crux area it was considerably easier scrambling up the final reaches of the ridge. To our surprise, Mount Sifton is topped with twin summits separated by roughly 5 minutes of moderate scrambling. Logan and I each went across at different times, curious to see which was higher as it was difficult to determine with the naked eye. Although our watches listed different heights, both watches seemed to agree that the first summit was the higher by 4 metres. We thoroughly took in the views for half an hour before readying ourselves for the downclimb.
Threatening clouds began approaching, so we started heading down around 1:30pm with some sense of urgency. It still took an hour to retrace our steps back to the shark fin given the level of route finding. At first we stayed along the ridge crest and later returned to the same northside ledges used on ascent. The wind briefly picked up adding to our urgency to escape higher terrain though thankfully the severe weather held off. We returned along the ridge, dropping bac into the same moraine shy of the Sifton-Rogers Col. After a longer break in the moraine, we continued the hike back to Hermit Meadows eventually picking up the footpath used earlier in the day. With the skies clearing, we passed the campground around 4:45pm and resumed a moderate pace back to the car where cold post-hike beers awaited us.
Overall Mount Sifton’s North Ridge proved to be a mostly moderate scramble though required a surprising amount of route finding to navigate, enough so that I’ve assigned a mixed rating of moderate/difficult. Also worth noting is the amount of foreshortening experienced early along the ridge; the summit proved to be much further along than it appeared. To those who have already done Mount Cheops or the Abbott-Afton traverse, this will make for a great outing.
Steep Sheep 