Back
HomeDevil's Head
| Back Home |
Devil's Head |
| Elevation 2800m (est.) Height Gain Time to Reach Summit Degree of Difficulty Scenery Date of Most-recent Ascent |
- Original
description courtesy After
crossing the ghost river 5 times you eventually you cross a stream coming in from Malemute
valley and then hit a small trail running North into Malemute valley which runs N-S on the
west side of DH. We camped at the end of this trail. Up at 4
AM, 30 minutes along valley floor and then up the left side of a small drainage (put a
small cairn on a big rock) on the East side of the valley and hit bits of trail. After the trees we left the descent
trail and angled to the left to a small ridge to avoid the scree. Top out on main
ridge which leads up to base of the walls on west ridge of DH. Trail led to low spot or weakness Up the
chimney which has a 10 ft 5.4 section which is part body jam with one hand and foot on the
right wall which is similar to moves on Kings Chimney /Yamnuska. The angle eases off and you intersect with
the high point of the West ridge. ( would be 1 to 1.5 rope lengths if you use it). The view of the main peak is stunning as the west
ridge drops 150 feet and degrades into 50 to 70 foot pinnacles which lead to the main
summit block which has a complicated face, vertical sides and is 300 feet higher. Take a good look at this because it looks
different with your face up against it. Note
the single 70 ft pinnacle to the right away from the main
ridge as you will go between it and the
others and on the face the chimney that leans right is the one you want for the lower
half. Scramble down on loose rubble to the
top of a buttress between the west ridge and the ridge you came up. There is
a chimney on each side of this buttress and we chose the left one because of a rappel
sling on a horn. We rapped down 30 m to base of the chimney which put us on a rubble
ledge at the base of the pinnacles. You need to climb this chimney to get back out
and it had some 5.3 to 5.4 moves in it and no protection. Move 200
ft across the rubble (and past the top of Kane’s steep narrow gully) to a gully the
leads up to the saddle between the isolated pinnacle and the main ridge. Over saddle
(cairn) and across ledges to a gully up to left that leads to base of two chimney systems.
Right hand one has partly overhanging chockstone at 10 foot but it is the one
because you can see a chained rappel station up on the right-hand wall above the
chockstone. We climbed left chimney for 10 - 15 ft and then traversed on face around
to above chockstone.(5.4 and no protection). Climb
up for 50 feet to where chimney splits. Left
chimney leads up to very exposed face climbing( old sling) but better to continue up right
one which Angle up
right 200 feet up to base of next wall which has options but we moved right along wall
past a small pinnacle and around for 100 feet to an easier spot on the wall. Face climb the wall 5.4 (crux) angling up left for
30 feet to a ledge. We marked this as it was hard to see where to start downclimbing
on the way down. Move right and up a loose
gully which goes left then right and up onto easier ground which is the summit ridge
(cairn). Walk 200m to the summit cairn and enjoy the view which includes the Calgary office buildings on the horizon. Register had two groups in 1998 but we were the first in 1999. Given the length of access and river crossings I am not surprised. Five and 1/2 hours up from camp without using rope except for rap along ridge. Four and 1/2 hours out to camp spot as had to carefully downclimb everything except the lower part of the chockstone chimney (short rap) and then climb up west ridge and rap off it. We looked down the steep gully but it looked really loose and we couldn’t be sure that it went all the way to the scree.
- Updated description courtesy I did Devil’s head again last weekend...Seems my 12 year old recollection conveniently forgot some difficulties! Devils Head (via Ghost River) I have climbed Devil’s Head twice now, in April ‘88 and June 2000. You can reach the peak from Waiparous area to the north or Ghost River to the south. I came from the south both times. You have to wade Ghost River, but regardless of how you approach this peak, the last 1000 feet up is via the same steep gully on the south side. On the second trip, from Ghost River we scrambled up steep rock to the left of the 3rd drainage past the iceclimb called “Good, Bad and Ugly”. There are 10 metre high gravel banks along the north side of Ghost River at this 3rd drainage. From a bend in the river at GR213869 we hiked uphill (over deadfall) to the highest trees, then scrambled about 75-100 metres of steepish rock and into more trees above. You can see this spot as you approach from the east as it looks like the only feasible way up. There are high cliffs further left and also right of the drainage. Once into trees again, we grovelled up to the right on a faint sheep trail rising along the base of a steep wall. Then you sidehill bash above the creek (now far below in a canyon) in forest north towards Devil’s Head. We did not gain much elevation here except to dodge downed trees. Further up valley past the canyon you will meet the creek again, and perhaps encounter one short rockband. We crossed the creek to get around it. Near treeline the drainage splits; we went left towards the southeast corner of the peak. Here are massive sculpted rock gargoyles, spires and hoodoos, some 30 or more metres high, arches and small caves. It’s a very spectacular reward for the toil thus far. Such formations are unlikely to exist elsewhere in the Rockies and are well worth seeing. From these rock spires at GR210888, head up left across ugly treadmill scree towards the only promising-looking weakness (a narrow gully) in the south side of the steep mountain face. Pinnacles are visible above it. There is a faint trail from the west at the base of this gully and a cairn on a small pinnacle just to the right (east) of it. Scramble or step-kick up this steep gully almost to the top, which ends at a cleft in a sheer wall. Traverse right (east), scrambling and climbing short walls and gullies (occasional cairns, trace of trail). The route still stays on the south side of the crest and at one point there are rappel chains in a narrow gully (not totally necessary). The crux is a steep 5 metre wall minutes below the summit. It can be climbed this by a corner to the right, but is easier to descend a few feet to the west. Scree leads to the top. Base of peak to top, 1 hr. Time from car: 6.5 hrs up; 13 hrs round trip total. Height gain 1220 metres. On descent to Ghost River, it is critical to find exactly where you came up the steep rock, so flagging it would be helpful. Our short rope to lower packs was useful in one place. The combined approach and ascent are actually more than just scrambling, and it isn’t one I’d include in my guidebook, Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. Good route-finding is necessary, but whether you approach from the north side or the south, you climb the same south-facing gully on the peak. I believe the north side dictates an overnight trip due to approach length. A high-clearance 4WD to cross the river would shorten the Ghost River approach a bit. Note: I have also reached the peak from up Malemute valley to the west (valley starts at GR199870), and I think the first time we descended via the west side of the drainage at GR203868. This one lies straight south of the ascent gully up the peak. This, too, was a long day trip.
- Original description courtesy I did it in 1988 from the south side. We drove as far as possible to about GR250864 then continued west to 202867 where a drainage comes down from the south side of Devil's Head. This is 3 drainages west of an ice climb called "The Good, Bad and the Ugly". You have to initially do some steep scrambling up a rock wall to the left of the actual drainage to get up. It was fairly high I recall, maybe 10-15 metres. Then we stayed to the left of and above the drainage for quite a way before it was easy to descend a little and go over to the right side of it. Follow beside it towards the peak. You come to open slopes leading to the peak, where there are big high wind eroded hoodoos, maybe 50-75 ft high, very spectacular. Continue towards the peak to a wide gully that separates a lower more westerly sub-peak from the main summit, and go up this gully (quite easy) 20 minutes or so up it. This is the only logical spot. Everything else is too steep. This gully goes up at GR205894. You come out on gentle slopes leading east to the summit, a few steps further. The crux is scrambling up the steep walls above Ghost valley. Coming down was tricky too. We actually went up from the far west end, which was too steep, and traversed all around to the south side to look, then heard others already up there. They then told us about descending to Ghost valley by this way (they'd come up it) so we followed this route and drainage back to the valley. We just made it by dark, and walked to the car in moonlight. (End of April 88)
- Original description courtesy One of my pet projects these days, is to try and tackle the Devil's Head. Last year, I had the good fortune of working with someone who is an avid scrambler and hiker and through our various conversations, I discovered that there is a way to get to the summit without the use of major climbing gear. Apparently, the only tough part is a 15 foot vertical wall that can be scaled using careful handholds and footholds. Last week, (using a dirt bike to get quickly to the mountains from Mockingbird Road to the east) I managed to find the cleft in the cliffs he had mentioned for the approach and followed a dry, rocky creek bed that led to the north side of the mountain. At one point, I arrived at the first opening in the cliff faces and noticed a well-trodden path leading up to a wonderful little cascading creek which I followed. After some consideration, I climbed up past the creek and ended up on the saddle directly to the east of the face of the Devil's Head. Looking towards it, I realized that things would become fairly difficult once I walked down the saddle to the actual cliff face, as it gets quite steep at that point. The goal here is to get to the western end which means going around the cliff face to get there. From where I stood it looked possible to do that by following a ridge to the north of where I was, although this still seemed quite steepish. What I did not do due to time constraints, was to follow the initial dry creek bed to its end a little ways further (about 1000 yards) and see if the next opening there would give me an easier route to the Devil Head's cliffs. According to the topo map, coming in from this way would get me to the west end without having to skirt around the northern face. I'm hoping that you might know something about this as the person I originally talked to is no longer around and the only way to find out is to go back and try this second option. In either case, this would only get me to the base of the actual bastion and from what I have seen up close, it still seems like an intimidating climb up the cliffs. I only wish I had been able to have a better look on the west side to see what I was up against. If you can contribute any information that might help me in this, it would be most appreciated as I've been longing to get to the top of this thing ever since I first saw it about 20 years ago from Calgary.
|
|
