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Volcanic Ridge?

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:43 pm
by esrice
Has anyone climbed or descended the summit of Volcanic Ridge from the northeast lately (e.g., via Volcanic Pass)? I'll post a full TR soon, but I am curious about this route because it did not seem easily passable without actual Class 4+ climbing.

We climbed to the summit from the saddle to the east, above Minaret Lake, and tried to descend via the northeast ridge, which Secor indicates is Class 2 from Volcanic Pass and Roper suggests is doable by descending "until it becomes feasible to descend a steep slope that levels off in the valley containing the Minaret Mine." We quickly reached a gap in the ridge with sheer vertical walls on both sides, and the continuation of the ridge on the other side looked pretty sketchy too. Definitely not class 2. But, given the unlikelihood of both Secor and Roper being wrong, we are wondering whether we made a gross navigational error (seems unlikely as there was no other NE ridge descending from the peak), or whether the route has changed due to a chunk of the ridge falling down (also seems unlikely). Or something else?

Of course, in hindsight, a GPS marker and/or picture of the dead-end we reached would be helpful, but alas, didn't think of it at the time. If anyone could satisfy our curiosity about how we went wrong that would be lovely :)

Re: Volcanic Ridge?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:48 pm
by amghaderi
Just to be clear were you trying to descent towards Cabin Lake / Shadow creek, or down towards Minaret Mine?