Corporal Mountain

July 20, 2020

2516m

Clendinning Area, BC

Corporal Mountain is one of the small summits that form the Ross Ridge guarding the Ross Arm of Clendinning Glacier on the east side. This group of peaks has seen very few ascents due to their remote location. Traditionally this peak has been climbed from Clendinning Glacier from the west but the better way to bag these peaks is by a traverse link-up. This was the 3rd day of our 10-day, 18-peak traverse across the Clendinning area among Alex, Vlad and myself. Earlier in this day we had ascended Mt. Boardman and Sergeant Mountain.

The section from Mt. Boardman to Blumlisalp Mountain.

Vlad opted out for this small peak but Alex and I insisted on bagging it. We had some difficulties to descend into Sergeant/Corporal col but once there the rest of the ascent of Corporal Mtn. via east ridge looked straightforward. We stayed initially on snow but soon realized it might be better to scramble on rock. The scrambling was mostly just class 2 and towards the very top we hopped back onto snow once the angle of the snow eased. We unfortunately couldn’t find a register but at least we got some cool perspective of Clendinning Glacier.

Alex descending into Sergeant/Corporal col

Me with Corporal Mountain ahead. Photo by Alex R.

Alex plodding up Corporal with Sergeant Mountain behind

Partial Summit Panorama from Corporal Mountain. Click to view large size.

The south side of Mt. Boardman with Assault Glacier

Mt. Tisiphone on Lillooet Icefield rises behind Havoc Glacier

A closer-up shot of Bottiger Peak

Mt. Doolittle with Mt. Clendinning barely shows up on the left

Pivotal Mountain with Clendinning Glacier

Mt. Tinniswood and Mt. Alberta poke behind Ross Ridge

A closer look at the icefall on Ross Arm of Clendinning Glacier

A closer look at Little Toba Peak

Alex and I on the summit of Corporal Mountain

There’s no short-cut to get back to where we ditched the backpacks and the only way was to reascend Sergeant Mountain. This involved about 150 m of elevation regain and certainly felt like a slog, but at least there’s a bit of steep snow and tricky scrambling to spice things up. Once back to the summit of Sergeant Mountain we had to find an alternative route down the east side as we didn’t bring a rope. We did find a route that avoided 4th class down-climbing but added a bit of exposed steep snow traverse. The lower face involved more exposed steep snow above a yawning bergschrund but soon we were back to the backpacks, and our next objective would be Mt. Whiting.