Our route.. We'd gotten a bit off track in the forest on the ascent and ended up more on the front side of Nihahi. The common routes either come up the north ridge or circle further around the base and ascend to the col. From our location, we found a drainage and make our way above a couple cliff bands before re-joining the trail below Nihahi's summit. Once on the summit the ridge walk along compression ridge was quite enjoyable. About half way round there is a big rock fin that blocks the way. To get around it we carefully descended some steep loose terrain before making our way back up to the ridge line which would lead to the Compression ridge summit. Just before the summit the ridge became fun.. much narrower and more exposed!. At this point a smallish black cloud had gathered over the cirque and was starting to rumble. Conor felt his pole buzzing and the hairs on his hand were starting to stand on end. We ditched all of our equipment and moved away from it and waited for the cloud to move on. When it did, we continued on to some ribs that intersected the trail just before the summit. We tried to avoid a short down climb by traversing down and around the rib which was probably more trouble than it was worth as we ended up down climbing some sketchy terrain anyway. From there we made the summit of Compression ridge. Leaving the summit the trail led around another outcrop on the ridge that housed the first 'window' (hole in the rock) After passing by the window, we missed picking up on the trail, which should have regained the ridge.. It was starting to rain/hail again and it looked like another cloud was coming.. We decided to make our way down to the valley below and walked towards a gully that still had some snow in it. Once in the gully we were able to glissade and made some good time. Once the snow ran out, we hopped back onto the scree/rock and worked our way down towards the forest again, following the creek. Later dark clouds formed and the sky was rumbling with thunder for quite some time it was hard to see because of the trees. We felt like we were on the proper trail now. Soon, it opened up into a big field and we could see the sky.. Then it started to hail a bit, which turned to rain.. and for the next hour we walked out in the rain on spongy moss covered ground.. It was reasonably pleasant and not too cold. The clouds were moving on in the west and the sun came out and a rainbow formed.. Just as we got to the car, the rain stopped. It was so beautiful.
Conor crosses a small creek. Soon we'd be in more dense forrest trying to make our way to the base of the mountain. We missed and ended up climbing up a gulley on the East face to gain the summit ridge.
It was a beautiful morning.. we're pretty much off track here but had a sense of where to go. We kept finding game trails and were following them through the underbrush.
Our objective. While in the forrest, we climbed a small hill and from there we could see a way up the mountain. We hiked towards the snow gulley in the center of the frame.. According to the map, we should have been way right of the mountain, heading towards it's northern facing ridge.
We're starting our climb now.
The clearing left/center frame was where we started out towards this gulley.. the car is way back on the left somewhere.. The snow was pretty soft and not very supportive so we didn't spend a lot of time kick stepping
Another look back at our approach.
Starting to get a little bit of height now.
We put on helmets so we could scramble through some small cliffbands on the east face of Nihahi. The end of compression ridge is in the background.
The rockbands were fun easy scrambling.
After scrambling up the east face, we intersected the mapped trail. Finally, we're on track, making our way up to the summit of Nihahi.
We've come quite a ways so far.. still making our way up the ridge. Beautiful weather.
To get onto the cliff band we spotted a small weakness that we had to slip around.
We weren't sure the whole compression ridge would be snow free. From this viewpoint it looks like there might be a bit of snow on top.
Conor just below Nihahi's north summit.
Conor made the summit and I try to catch up to him.
Looking south along Nihahi's ridge.
From the north summit it's 10km's of ridge walking to the south end.. which I've climbed before. In the distance can see Glasgow, Cornwall, Outlaw and Banded, which I did last year as part of a four peak traverse.
Looking towards the south and the whole of Nihahi ridge.
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Just off the summit of Nihahi's north peak heading clockwise around compression ridge. We would end up descending one of the snowy gullies seen on the extreme right hand side of the photo many hours from now. The summit of compression ridge is the shadowed high point on the right framed against the sky.
In the last photo, the scene was quite busy and Conor was hard to spot.. I switch to a zoom lens and was able to make another shot. Conor reminded me that we have a long way to go and to hurry it up.. lol