Yarrow East Ridge

This weekend we had a look at the east ridge of yarrow. We had hoped to see some other climbers on the fabulous looking Spread Eagle Coluoir, but things haven't been freezing enough at night to solidify the new snow.

Yarrow lies just north of the park. Just south of the town of Twin Butte is Spread Eagle Road. Take this due west until the road ends. At the T-intersection, turn south to a grassy parking lot. There is a trail along the road access that cuts through accross the hill side.


The first half of the ridge is a straight forward walk up a lightly grassed talus slope. Above a narrow ridge line leads to a challenging looking headwall.


The rock is fairly fractured. However it seems to be reliable enough for decnt protection


As you approch the headwall pillar, we choose to move left to get a better look at the route ahead


There is a little bit of scrambling to get good view of the upper ridge.


The ridge above looked feasible, but only up to a point. WIth snow conditions, weather, and uncertainty about some blank sections up higher, we decided to call it a day.



The ridge looks like a decent summer climb. With the slippery new snow that fell, some of the slabs and faces higher up would prove interesting. While certainly not a great alpine route, the East Ridge of Yarrow does off a change of pace for people who are tired of non-technical scrambles. Descent of the south west face or traverse over Spread Eagle looks to be straight forward.