• June 28, 2003
• Mountain height: 3,097 m (10,158 feet)
• Approximate height reached: 2,900 m (9,512 feet)
• Elevation gain: approx. 1000 m
• Ascent time: 4:55
• Descent time: 5 hours

Scrambling with Mark.

A day of thrills, chills, and two unfortunate casualties

Not to panic - the casualties were my sunglasses and pocket-knife. We had been told that it was possible to scramble up Mount Birdwood and wanted to see for ourselves. After about 5 hours and hiking and fun scrambling we found out that our information was incorrect, however, you can ascend a good portion of the north ridge, with magnificent scenery and views throughout.  

In beautiful, sunny weather conditions, the hike to Smuts Pass was wonderful and the view at the pass was outstanding - stunning Mount Smuts and Birdwood, the two Birdwood Lakes, and Engadine, Chester, and company to name a few sights.

The hike up to the ridge was easy and the already magnificent scenery improved with each step. As we made out way along, the ridge became increasingly more narrow and exposed, required a great deal of trial and error route-finding. We continued on, far surpassing what I thought was possible. In general, the scrambling was fun and fairly challenging. Eventually, spectacular, snow-covered Mount Sir Douglas came into view. We continued on until we reached a cairn that marked the scrambling summit. The true summit, about 200 vertical meters up, was guarded by extremely steep walls of rock and would have been a difficult, technical climb.

Throughout the trip the weather was spectacular and we enjoyed some of the best scenery to date. An outstanding day, that we'll definitely call a victory, even though we didn't summit.

    
Heading towards Smuts Pass and Mount Birdwood; the slope of the mountain is deceivingly gentle from this angle, as the following photos will attest

     
From just above Smuts Pass, heading towards Mount Birdwood; Mount Sir Douglas is in the background, to the right

    
Mark, with the infamous Mount Smuts in the background

    
"The end of the line" for us. Our ascent came to an abrupt halt when we were confronted with these steep walls. Unless we unexpectedly came across a helicopter, with the keys left in the ignition, we weren't going to be making any more progress

    
Another view of this shapely peak, again with Sir Douglas to the right  

     
On descent; Birdwood is such a beautiful mountain - it was very difficult to keep our cameras in their cases