No Fall Zone: Cory Pass & Mt. Edith Scramble

Backcountry Lambrusco

Mt. Norquay Via Ferrata

Healy Pass 🌷🌻🪻

Bushwhack hits different at 8000’

Gratuitous photo dump warning. Bit more of an epic than we bargained on today. More rain last night made for a slow wake up and camp breakdown and as soon as it let up we hit a very schwacky connector trail that was like a frigid car wash. Dev rolled both ankles and they got really swollen and purple, told her I love a woman with curves but for some reason that didn’t seem to help? 🤔Kept the energy up with pop tarts and meat sticks until we hit the jaw-dropping Cory Pass. Like LOTR’s gates of Argonath but in real life and the clouds made it that much more dramatic. 

I should have learned my lesson by now about trusting gps tracks that have little to no heat map activity, but alas, I am but a feeble minded mountain lover. The punch up to Edith got increasingly more scramble-y and scree-y until the final summit outcropping which was just straight up rock climbing. Dropped packs and tried to navigate it in the cold and wet but had doubts about the downclimb and had to leave the last 50 feet of the northern peak unscaled. Plan was to traverse the middle and south peaks and then descend via the alt route from the col but shit just got more and more technical and sketchy. Had a couple pitches that were class 3-4 but add some moisture, loose rock, a 50lb pack, and potentially fatal consequences and that deserves at least one grade bump. Slow going down the col descent route having to take turns to avoid catching each other in all the rock fall we were triggering. Eventually the angle got too severe and we had to make the call that the down climb retreat, while terrifying, was probably a safer bet. Huge amount of love, gratitude, and appreciation to Devan Piniewski for how she handled the climb, the decision making, and most of all the me.

Back on well trafficked trail we ran into a pair of ill prepared teen girls who were not having a good time. One asked, “Are you guys scared? I’m so scared.” Couldn’t muster a white lie after our adventure but softened the flat “No” with some encouragement and trail beta on what was to come so they could make informed choices. All our scrambling burned a bunch of time and we ended up having to run the last 1.5 miles and ~2k feet of descent which had me cursing that damn empty Lambrusco bottle in my pack, but we caught our taxi to our bus to our liquor store to our campsite stroll. Now I’m here sitting in the sun, sipping rosé, full gear yard sale out to dry, and a six pack chilling in the river. This would be good on any day but it is particularly sweet right now

Top Sports

Sam Wallis

No Fall Zone: Cory Pass & Mt. Edith Scramble

21 Photos

1 Comment

Sign up to view more activities from Sam Wallis

No Fall Zone: Cory Pass & Mt. Edith Scramble

Backcountry Lambrusco

Mt. Norquay Via Ferrata

Healy Pass 🌷🌻🪻

Bushwhack hits different at 8000’

Want to see more?

The #1 app for runners and cyclists

Sign Up for Free. Track your progress and reach goals. Join 100 million active people on Strava.

See More from Sam