Black Peak - Northeast Ridge, October 2003
With a new-found penchant for climbing northeast ridges, inspired by recent success on a climb of Mount Triumph's Northeast Ridge, Eric's suggestion to climb Black Peak was music to my ears. Once again, the good weather promised to hold. The opportunity of squeezing in another classic alpine rock climb, before the autumn rain comes was just too tempting to resist. Well okay, that's the same justification I used for the previous climb. Besides, my previous attempt at Black Peak's Northeast Ridge was thwarted last September due to an unexpected dusting of snow on the route (Scott, Ryan and I punted up the South Ridge instead).
Eric and I started up the Lake Ann Trail around 6:30am, after car-camping at the Rainy Pass Trailhead. We hiked for about two-and-a-half miles, ignoring a left fork (it descends to Lake Ann) to reach Heather Pass. Turning right, a path descends from the pass, skirts the right-edge of a talus slope and ends at cairns marking the talus-slope-traverse starting point. The talus traverse ends at a small meadow below Lewis Lake. Crossing a small stream, we followed a worn path around the right-side of the lake and continued upwards to reach Wing Lake. (more...)
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