This one took me 6 hours car-to-car, but I was pushing it because I had a firm turnaround time. It’d be more fun if you took a bit longer.
The Nugara scramble book outlines this one well, I’d recommend reading that if you can. A few things to highlight:
- The scrambling is 4th class and a helmet would be a good choice. It would be prudent to have for gaining the loose scree slope, it would be unpleasant to be below another party here.
- The tarns were empty this time of the year, don’t count on them for water.
- When deciding between the two routes on the final ascent, the tradeoff is: The ridge has better rock quality once up top at the expense of an exposed 4th class scramble.
- I chose to climb the ridge, the last move felt a little airy, and descended below the ridge to avoid the down-climb. Both choices feel correct in retrospect.
Looking down at Ribbon Peak.
The ascent ridge. The ridge is mostly easy walking on slab. The spine can be gained for higher quality rock, or bypassed to the right.
Looking down at the mostly-empty Sparrowhawk Tarns.
