Commonwealth Ridge


 

Trip Details
Mountain Range: 
Rockies
Mountain Subrange: 
Spray Mountains
Attained Summit?: 
Yes
Trip Date: 
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Summit Elevation (m): 
2,566
Summit Elevation (ft): 
8,419
Elevation Gain (m): 
790
Round Trip Time: 
5.00
Total Distance (km): 
7.20
Difficulty Notes: 

Moderate to difficult (avalanche) terrain to the true summit depending how much snow there is on route.

GPS Route: 
Download GPX File (right-click, save-as)
Related Content
Guidebook / Reference: 
Snowshoeing in the Canadian Rockies
Interesting Facts: 

Commonwealth Ridge is a prominent ridge east of Commonwealth Peak running north and along Hwy 742 (Spray Lakes Road).

Photo Album: 
Photo Album (verndewit.com)
Related Trips: 
Commonwealth Peak
Pig's Back
Smuts, Mount
Fist, The
Burstall, Mount
Burstall Pass
External Trip Reports: 
So Nakagawa
ClubTread
Tags: 
Kananaskis
Scramble
Nugara Snowshoe
Spray Lakes
Map
Map Link: 
Google Maps
Trip Report

Phil Richards and I decided that Commonwealth Ridge would make a nice first summit of 2016 - and we were right. We started in beautiful pre-dawn light from the Smuts Pass parking area along the Spray Lakes Road in cold temperatures of around -23 degrees. The cold was a bit of a bummer as we were expecting warmer temps - but we warmed up soon enough as we shoed towards the ridge on a highway of ski and snowshoe tracks.

 

!!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/2016/01/10/commonwealth-ridge/ and contains more photos in a modern format. For more information on this move and possible future changes please click here.

 

Comments

Karen Ung (not verified) - Sat, 05/28/2016 - 15:30

Thanks for the comprehensive writeup & gorgeous photos! Hoping the snow melts soon so I can hike this!

vdewit - Sun, 05/29/2016 - 15:52

Hey Karen - let me know how it goes without snow. :) I'm sure in some ways it'll be easier and in some ways harder. 

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