I will let Kevin Papke tell this story. His posts from the RMB Outdoor Forum
It was windy.
Crawling over one gate, then turning right and crawling through not one but two barb wire fences, we headed west on a cow trail towards our obvious objective.
It was windy.
Initially the spring stroll was just that, an easy stroll. Into the wind.
It was really windy.
Heading up the SE slopes things seemed pretty certain, until we topped out on the ridge. Bill and Dave were ahead of me and from my first glimpse it seemed as though they were taking a nap.
It was even more windy now.
Another step forward when a great gust of wind almost picked me up and after a struggle, slammed me back to the ground.
It was fricken WINDY!!!
Not once but twice! I have never experienced anything like it before .
Had the other two decided to head down, I couldn’t blame them.
We struggled on as if we were under fire in the trenches.
Darting from rock out crop to out crop we were able to find safe passage along the east side of the ridge (it was still violently windy!) and in another 1/2 hour we made the summit.
According to the register we were the first group on top this year. 3 hours up.
30 minutes on top, lying on our belly’s, and keeping very low, we ate, took photos and took in the sights before heading down.
Dave even took us down a gully packed with snow. He made it down in a few minutes, It took myself a little more time to trust the slide (only real ice near the bottom).
The hike out was nice with the wind at our backs, and the drive home turned into a bit of a recon. There seems so much to do in that country, its very western with an air of the 1970’s to it.
Center Peak and Thunder Mountain both appear as nice spring/fall objectives.
Vern, I thought I saw you across the valley.
We drove south on 22, crossed the oldman river and kept on South for a few more km to the “chapel road” exit???
Meandered west past ranches, then worked our way south and came to a stop just a few 100m past a small compressor stn. The road continues but is locked from there.
Another way of finding the startup point is to follow the “For Sale” signs as there is a house up for sale near by.
Vern was ascending Robertson and Tallon peaks just to the south the same day but slightly later. His Pics Tallon Pics # 8 and # 40 show the ridge /peak we were on.
My impression was that was as windy as I have ever encountered. I had to lay flat and hold onto rocks to stop from rolling during the gusts. I looked up at one point and saw all these 1-2 foot chunks of styrofoam snow flying past as the wind gusts ripped the tops off the snow banks. Overall, it was a good hiking trip for March since the avi hazard is screwing up most ski trips.
Pictures at Livingstone South
