Wasootch Ridge

(2,280 m, 7,480 ft)

Wanting revenge for what should have been a Wasootch summit on Sunday but instead turned into a Mount Baldy summit, I set out on a mission Wednesday morning. For this hike my trail family had greatly depleted to just one, my old friend from school, Georgia. This time when we arrived to the trailhead around 9am we were stoked to see that there was only one other car sharing the parking lot with us. Spirits high and stoked that we weren't sharing the trail with anyone we set a very decent pace until the summit. This probably goes down as one of my favourite hikes to date due to the beautiful experience of actually walking on a ridge. The initial climb to the ridge is fairly steep and you gain lots of elevation in a short amount of time until you get to the ridge. I feel like it's a common misconception that ridge walking is flat, trust me it is not. The grade of the trail was greatly reduced once we got on the ridge, however there was still lots of elevation to be had until the summit. From the trailhead the summit is around 7km one way so if you wish to go all the way to the top you should be ready for a 14-15km trip. Walking on the ridge actually feels very short even though that is where most of the hike takes place. I think one of the main reasons for this is because once you finish the initial climb and are out of the trees you are surrounded by 360° views that take your breath away. When I told Georgia that most people don't really go to the peak due to the scramble that is waiting for you when you try, she only grew more fond of the idea of pushing on to the summit. Once we reached the final false summit before the peak, blessed by weather and low winds, we decided to make the final push towards the summit and I am very glad that we did. Upon reaching the top you are surrounded by even more mountains. Looking south off of the peak a range of mountains comes into view that will make you forget about time for a second. Contrary to the mountain we were on they were still covered in snow meaning that they were much higher than we were on the peak of Wasootch Ridge. It almost felt as I imagine staring up at Everest from base camp would feel. It helps you to realize how vast the mountain range is and how many more hike there are to do. After we summited we decided to continue south and drop off the back side of Wasootch towards the creek bed far below. Although the climb down to the creek proved to be very difficult, once we reached the bottom it felt like we were in a whole new world. The creek had big rock walls coming up from each side and this is the point in the hike where it began to rain which just added to the surrealism of being in such a unique geographical location. The ridge above promised beautiful views of the mountains around however there was so much beauty that could be found in the creek bed. By the end of the hike we had done 14.4 km and 940 m of elevation. That makes it the second longest hike of the season for me behind Moose, however I found it to be more challenging. All in all it was a great way to spend a Wednesday afternoon.