South Ridge

Route Description

From the parking spot, start heading west up the primitive road. The logging road mentioned by MoapaPk dead-ends in the middle of nowhere. Instead, continue slightly further up the road. At some point, you will leave the primitive road and head for this drainage. There is another logging road around here. We crossed it coming down, but did not follow it to see where it intersected the primitive road. However, whether or not you find the logging road isn’t all that important. We built two cairns where this logging road intersected the drainage mentioned above. I had the GPS coordinates for this intersection, but lost them before I wrote this report.

Once you reach the drainage, start climbing up it. The drainage is choked with avalanche debris, but it still wasn’t that bad. It was easier for us to be in it than trying to climb through the brush next to it. Continue up the drainage as it climbs up the slope. At about 10,000’, the drainage makes a distinct turn to the right, and the route steepens. Your goal is to get to this point just below a steep slope. The drainage ends in a bowl here below some steep cliffs.

Once at the base of the steep slope, you must climb up it to reach a small saddle. The route is steep and slippery. No ropes are required, but it’s a steep slope. I was nearing my limit on this one. Once you get to the small saddle, you will be on top of a narrow, steep ridge with bristlecone pines. Start climbing west up the ridge. You will soon encounter a 30’ high cliff. You might be able to bypass this cliff if you traverse around it or climb up to the ridge using a different route, but we didn’t see anything easy. The traverse around it looked steep and uncertain. We decided to climb straight up the crack in the middle of the cliff. This is probably a Class 4 move, and it was exposed to some extent. A fall here and you could be in serious trouble. However, it’s not that difficult. A rope here would be a good idea, but not required.

Once above the cliff, continue climbing up the steep ridge. Your goal is to get to the ridge crest at this point. Just before you get to this point, you will encounter some steep, sloping rock slabs with loose rock on them. The last 50’ before the top is tricky, but shouldn’t stop anyone. Once you get to the ridge, the toughest part of the climb is over. Now you’ll clearly see the summit and the remaining portion of the route.

Descend down a relatively easy slope to a saddle just south of Point 11,080’. You’ll have to descend even further down to the left to traverse below some cliffs on the west side of this point. Traverse below the other saddle just north of Point 11,080’ to get to the base of Currant Mountain itself. From here, there are a few different options. You could make a direct ascent of the south face. You could skirt the left edge of the rock butrress, and head up a scree gully. Or you could angle up and to the left to hit the west ridgeline. We decided to climb straight up a scree gully on the left edge of the rock buttress. The gully was fairly steep, but wasn’t that tough. Climb up the gully, then up some sloping rock slabs just below the summit. You’ll have to cross an airy, somewhat exposed ridge to reach the true summit.

External Link

Gerry Roach Trip Report

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