Dreadnought Peak West Ridge Approach

ccess will be via the Mamquam FSR from Squamish. The hike will consist of old logging roads, descending into a valley, crossing Watersprite Creek, bushwacking up to a steep ridge

A rocky summit on the south boundary of Garibadi Provincial Park, south of the Mamquam Icefield and at the head of Crawford Creek. Access is via a pleasant bushwhack from spur roads off Mamquam S Line. Approach as for Mamquam Mountain south side. From the 5200ft saddle, traverse above the creek beyond through open timber, into the valley NW of the summit. The valley opens up as it approaches the W ridge. Climb steep snow to the ridge, which swings around to the south face of the peak. Class 3 scrambling with some ice axe work. It has also been climbed directly from the south from the small lake at GR 076085. Approach from Mamquam R Line or spur on Mamquam S Line.
Name Notes: This name follows the Martin guitar theme of nearby Martin peak. The dreadnought shape of guitar body was the most important innovation pioneered by the C. F. Martin Company in the 1930's. They selected the name "Dreadnought" in the 1930's, based on the awesome dreadnought class battleships of World War 1. The basic concept of a dreadnought was to have so many big guns that it "dreaded nothing". They had so many large, long range guns that they didn't need to be heavily armoured, because it could blow anything else out of the water first.

In 1916, Martin came out with a new design of guitar body, much larger than previously made, and thus a louder base. They adopted the term "Dreadnought" to refer to this size of body. Other manufacturers followed and the dreadnought became the most common size of steel string guitar. Dreadnought sized guitars were very common in BC treeplanting camps of the Squamish Forest district.

Ramsay Dyer and I drove up R Line near Skookum Creek. Parking at the R/S Line junction we continued up R Line on foot to its northernmost point. Dropping down to cross Watersprite Creek, we then headed steeply up through a cutblock to gain the lower part of Dreadnought's West Ridge.

Once on the ridge proper it's an pleasant snowshoe with a few narrow sections to get to the west face. From here you can either do a rising traverse across the face or stick with the west ridge and then take the short south ridge to the summit.

On the return we dropped off the west ridge where it narrows and headed southwards down to Watersprite Lake.