Ripsaw Ridge

Date: 07/03/2021
Partners: Kristi Henes, Jeremy Miller, Heather Ryan (photos by all)
Trialhead: Piney River Ranch
Summits: Peak C, C-Prime, Peak D, Peak E, Peak F, Peak G
Trailhead to Waterfall Camp: 3 Miles - 600ft - 1hr
Camp to Peak C to Peak G and back to the Piney River Ranch : 11 Miles - 6150ft - 15.75hrs
GPX

Peak C 14ers.com Page
C-Prime 14ers.com Page
Peak D 14ers.com Page
Peak E 14ers.com Page
Peak F 14ers.com Page
Peak G 14ers.com Page

Our plan was to traverse Ripsaw Ridge from Peak C to Peak G with the option of continuing to Peak H over Black BM if conditions allowed. The weather would need to be perfect given that most of the day would be spent up high on technical terrain (class 3/4 and a wee bit of low 5).

We began hiking at 4:00am from our camp at the cascading waterfalls about 3 miles in from Piney River Ranch. We hiked a steep trail through wet brush to the meadow below Knee Knocker Pass then ascended a short gully which gave us access to Tarn Basin below Peak C's SW couloir also known as CC Rider.

CC Rider was somewhat loose and had some soft snow midway up. Ice axes were handy but not mandatory and we did not use micro spikes or crampons.

We exited CC Rider roughly 300ft below the top of the coulie and summitted Peak C on class 2+ / easy class 3 terrain.

From the summit of Peak C we had incredible views of Mount Powell to the north and our day's work on Ripsaw Ridge to the south. We chatted, snacked and took in the views before embarking on the journey that would cover 5 additional summits.

We spent most of the day on class 3/4 terrain with touches of low 5 here and there. We stayed the ridge as much as we could with the general rule of dropping to the south/west as needed.

We did not find summit registers except on Peak E which was placed on August 7th 1948. We were a little disappointed that there was no pen, and we were unable to sign. However, it was cool to be able to touch a relic of Gore history.

The most fun and sustained terrain was between Peak E and Peak G. For the most part we stayed the ridge and summitted these peaks directly.

By the time we reached Peak F weather was coming in and we knew we needed to pick up the pace. We did not want to be on this terrain with wet rock let alone electricity.

As we reached Peak G we started to hear thunder and decided to descend as quickly as possible. We would not continue to Peak H or backtrack to the F-G saddle (both of which had much easier descent options). We descended just north of G's summit.

The descent was challenging and often felt like we were climbing down a waterfall as it started to rain. By the time we reached the basin below I was thinking the descent was the physical crux of the day.

From the scree filled basin the bushwhack to the Piney River Trail was tedious but not too bad by Gore Range standards.

When we reached the trail, I jokingly asked if the trail would have more deadfall than the bush. I guess the question wasn't so funny because it was true. The seemingly endless trail back to camp often disappeared, was littered with deadfall and passed through marshes. Maybe it would have felt better with fresh legs.

After packing up camp we headed back to our vehicles at Piney River Ranch where we shared beers, George Clooney Tequilla and enjoyed the sunset together. What a great day!

Thanks to Brandon Chalk and Brent Herring for beta on this route.

Map Note: Looking at our track in CalTopo it appears that we did not reach the south summit of Peak G. However, we in fact did reach the south summit as there were no points to the south that were as high as we were standing. In addition, although the south summit is labeled 'Peak G' in CalTopo, the elevation of the north summit is higher. Seems to be a map error.