Recondite Peak


 

Trip Details
Mountain Range: 
Rockies
Mountain Subrange: 
Clearwater Ranges
Attained Summit?: 
Yes
Trip Date: 
Friday, August 16, 2013 to Sunday, August 18, 2013
Summit Elevation (m): 
3,356
Summit Elevation (ft): 
11,011
Elevation Gain (m): 
3500
Round Trip Time: 
52.00
Total Distance (km): 
80.00
Quick 'n Easy Rating: 
Class 5 : you fall, you are dead
Difficulty Notes: 

Very remote with tons of 4th class exposed scrambling before the upper rappel. Don't underestimate the effort required!

GPS Route: 
Download GPX File (right-click, save-as)
Related Content
Guidebook / Reference: 
The 11,000ers of the Canadian Rockies
Interesting Facts: 

Named in 1927. The mountain was hidden away and more difficult to access than other mountains. Official name. First ascended in 1927 by Howard Palmer, guided by Ernest Feuz. (from peakfinder.com) 

Photo Album: 
Photo Album (verndewit.com)
External Trip Reports: 
Bill Corbett
Kevin Barton
Tags: 
Siffleur Wilderness
11000er
Dolomite Pass
Dolomite Creek
Helen Creek
Favorite
Backpacking
Bivy
Map
Map Link: 
Google Maps
Trip Report
After years of dreaming what it would be like to climb Recondite, I finally managed to organize and trip with some great guys from Edmonton. Eric C, Ben N and Steven S all agreed to attempt the slog with me and we arranged for a 3 day trip, leaving the Helen Creek parking area on Friday, August 16 and hopefully returning on Sunday, August 18. (I warned my wife that it could be Monday before we made it back, depending on conditions.) Recondite is kind of like Lunette Peak in that only a few people make it enough of a priority to bother with hunting her summit. Judging by the register entries since the 1970's second ascent party, there's been maybe 1 ascent per year on average with more people ascending since the 11,000er book came out in 2004. The only people who's names are in the summit registers of peaks like Lunette or Recondite are either nutso peak baggers or chasing the infamous 11000ers list - no matter what they may say otherwise.

 

!!Attention!! explor8ion.com is being updated and trip reports migrated to a new site while this one is still operational. The new version of this trip report can be found at https://verndewit.com/2013/08/17/recondite-peak/ and contains more photos in a modern format. For more information on this move and possible future changes please click here.

 

Comments

Luke (not verified) - Mon, 04/04/2016 - 12:20

Apparently you can cut about 10km off the approach in exchange for 200m extra gain by going over a col on observation peak. Common shortcut to get to lake Isabella

vdewit - Tue, 04/05/2016 - 13:01

Hey Luke - that sounds great. Would that 'col' actually be Conical Peak? That would be a lot more than only 200m extra gain and we considered it, but it was climbing an extra mountain on both approach and depproach so we didn't think it would be worth it.

Luke (not verified) - Sun, 04/10/2016 - 20:47

51°43'50.95" N 116°27'35.94" W I have not taken this route myself but was told by one of the parks safety guys who apparently goes into isabella lake warden cabin once and a while that cutting over observation peak saves significant time. This route i have marked here is the best looking option I could find.(it actually only saves 8km) Again not 100% sure if this would be better as it is steeper and off trail, If I do take this approach this summer I will let you know how it goes. BTW really love the site lots of great reports and photos, keep it up.

vdewit - Tue, 04/12/2016 - 08:30

Right on! Always good to have this sort of beta. Let me know how it goes if you try this route. It's a beautiful area and I'll be heading in there again some day so would be great to shave off some KMs. :)

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