Who has climbed Horseshoe Peak?

[MountainMan]

I'm looking for beta on Horseshoe Peak. I would like to do it in a day and am wondering if there are any class 2/3/4 routes on it? I prefer not to bring rope for a one day ascent. Thanks in advance for your [serious] response.

[MountainMan]

BTT

[Cpt.Caveman]

Is that across on Ripsaw Ridge? I have not done it .

[MountainMan]

Yeah, it's the summit just west of Buckner on Ripsaw Ridge. I was up there this past weekend but didn't know it was even a named peak so I didn't think to look at routes. Now that I know it's a peak [top 100], I'm interested in climbing it.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Good luck. Sounds looks like bad rock

 

[klenke]

In no way is Horseshoe Peak an actual peak by definition. It is only a peak by name. It is sad that those who invented the original Top 100 list (Bulger) chose to include this ridge high point as a Top 100 peak. It's prominence is only 80 feet (80 feet for God sakes!).

 

My theory is that the first persons (Bulger, et al?) to be doing the Top 100 who were climbing Buckner decided to do Horseshoe while on their way back to the trailhead. They then liked their climb of Horsehoe "Peak" so much that they put it on the Top 100 list.

 

I don't have much problem otherwise with the Top 100 list. I guess every list has to have it's bullshit members.

[MountainMan]

I completely agree Klenke. I think it's BS that Horseshoe "Peak" is on the original list, but since it is I've got to get it.

 

Oh, and Boston [Chosston] shouldn't be on there either for the Choss factor.

 

Thanks for the pic Caveman.

 

[ 07-11-2002, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: MountainMan ]

[klenke]

Boston Peak is certainly loose but not the loosest Top 100 peak I've ever been up. Most of the peaks I've been up in the Pasayten are pretty cruddy. Besides, I kind of like the way it always gets a bad rap AND is in the Top 100. After all, it is higher than Forbidden and Eldorado.

 

I had a lot of fun climbing Boston solo. Went up the usual east side and then rappeled two rappels down the southeast side then returned over Sahale Peak. I remember all the gaper newbie climbers on Sahale watching me from that summit wondering what or who the hell was over there on that seemingly unclimbable piece of crap next door. I remember as I downclimbed past them talking with a friend who waited for me how these newbies were talking about me amongst themselves like I was some sort of climbing god. Very funny and yet gratifying at the same time.

[MountainMan]

I climbed the east side last weekend for my first trip to the summit. It's an ugly mountain and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. What top 100s are worse in the Pasayten? I've climbed a few (Robinson Mountain, Big Craggy, West Craggy, Azurite) and they weren't too bad. I'm going back in for Monument, Lake Mountain, Blackcap, and then Jack Mountain later on this summer. Are they choss piles too? I couldn't imagine anything worse than Boston when it comes to loose and chossy. One of my dad's buddies died on Boston Peak some years back as a result of the loose rock.

[Dale]

We did Horseshoe in two days, from lower Horseshoe Basin, and bivied in the upper basin. If you go over Sahale Arm and drop down into upper Horseshoe Basin (descent considered treacherous by some), maybe you could do it in a long day.

 

There is some class 3 scrambling and a short (50 foot) 5.0 pitch. We used a scramble rope and rapped off. Those who do it unroped complain that the first long step off the summit is awkward. It didn't look that bad to me.

 

From the bottom of the S slope of Buckner, ascend left up a small, open basin that hugs Ripsaw Ridge. Just S of a vertical pinnacle just S of Buckner ("Fire" something, I believe), scramble up to the ridge and down the west side, about 50-100 feet, to a big ledge system. Go south, very roughly 100-200 feet and follow the ledge back up to a notch in the ridge. Horseshoe is the small pinnacle on the south side of that notch. Climb obvious ledge on the east side of the ridge. If rappeling, we used a 20'long sling to wrap large slab. May be sling/rope segments in place.

 

You guys are right that Horseshoe does not have 400 feet of clearance from Buckner, and it is not worth the trouble it takes to get there, but it is on the 'traditional' list. There are some others on the list that are questionnable, too.

 

If going up from lower Horseshoe Basin, to upper: There is a route that, amazingly, avoids almost all the brush but it may be hard to follow. About 100' below the mouth of the mine, on the north side of the creek, scramble straight up a steep dirt/gravel alley between a small rock buttress on your right, and the brush on the left. If you see a steel cable along the alley, you are in the right place. Most of the way up, see a bare slab thru the brush on the left. Go to it, to its upper edge, then up thru brush roughly 20-50 feet, to open grassy ledge with small stream. From here, you can avoid any more brush. Flagging highly recommended from here, to find your way back.

[MountainMan]

Thanks for the beta Dale.