Mount Riordan

March 21, 2019

2104m

Pecticton / Keremeos, BC

Mt. Riordan is a wooded, insignificant bump immediately attached to the Apex Mountain Ski Resort about 40 km southwest of Pecticton. This peak has a very unattractive profile but is apparently popular among the locals thank to the easiness in access. A multi-use trail goes all the way to the summit. This was on the 3rd day of this spring break’s peak-bagging vacation after completing Beaconsfield Mountain and Apex Mountain earlier in the day. The snow had gone isothermal by mid-morning that any form of off-trail travel was practically impossible. I wasn’t sure whether or not I would do Mt. Riordan and waited until the very last minute to make that spontaneous decision, after seeing some snowmobile traffic on what seemed like just a “trail” on my Gaia GPS app.

Ascent route for Beaconsfield, Apex and Riordan. GPX DL

I essentially just plodded on the snowmobile tracks all the way up except for the last 50 meters where I joined mass hordes’ foot path “highway”. There are several important junctions and it seemed like most hikers had gone up from the Nordic center on the north/east side. The true summit had little to see and to soak in the (very limited) views one needs to walk around a couple viewpoints. I checked all possible viewpoints just to be sure I indeed got everything that I could see from this little hill. The most memorable part of Mt. Riordan’s ascent was two freakin’ large dogs barking and running at me once I returned to the true summit from a viewpoint. The dogs were uber aggressive and seemed totally out of control from their owner, but thankfully they didn’t bite.

As much as the snowmobile trail goes.

The terrain didn’t open up until near the very top

Looking back at Mt. Brent area

Partial summit panorama from Mt. Riordan. Click to view large size.

Looking over the top of Nickel Plate Mtn. towards peaks in Manning Park

In the foreground is Nickel Plate Lake

Wondering around the summit area. The very top of Mt. Riordan isn’t flat

Looking back at Beaconsfield Mtn. and the ski resort on it

On one of the viewpoints I found a large cairn. This isn’t the highest point though.

Me on the summit of Mt. Riordan

Another photo of me on the summit of Mt. Riordan

On the descent I opted to boot-pack on the snowmobile tracks instead of snowshoeing. This was easier on the knees but the downside was some moderate degree of post-holing on a couple flatter zones. I made at least 50 deep holes but whatever. Once I got back to the main road the rest of was an easy plod back to the parking lot.

It was not even noon but given the isothermal snow and the high/high/high avalanche hazard of the day I figured an ascent of Green Mountain wouldn’t be a wise idea, so I reluctantly drove back to the town of Penticton and killed the rest of the day by doing some tourism stuffs.