Rockies

Since it was a gorgeous day and it only took me approximately 2 hours to bag my first summit of the day, I figured I might as well wander up a couple more summits before heading back to the concrete jungle. I chose to leave the snowshoes in the truck for this hike, and proceeded up the road in very pleasantly warm sunshine.

There's not much to say about Death's Head, other than it's name is very dramatic compared to it's reality. I wanted to spend Earth Day (April 22, 2018) hiking in warm sunshine rather than flirting with the escalating spring avalanche cycle on skis, so that's exactly what I did!

You know it's been a long winter when Phil and I go up a treed bump with no summit views after work in April. To be fair it was 13 degrees outside as we parked near the municipal building in the small hamlet of Exshaw. Kids were roaming the streets playing their after school games and the sounds of birds chirping over top of happy kids, playing in the warm afternoon sunshine was very pleasant.

It had been a while since Phil and I had gotten up to anything and when plans for a big backcountry ski day in the Rockies fell apart thanks to an unpredictable weather forecast, we started looking at hiking / scrambling alternatives. We settled on the oddly monikered "Anklebiter Ridge".

After skiing to the summit of Mount Field the day before, I was ready to enjoy another perfect winter day on skis before returning back to the drudgery of another work week in the concrete jungle. Since I haven't been out much on the snow sticks this winter, I was certainly feeling a bit stiff the evening before! Despite Daylight Savings Time screwing with my internal clock, I managed to stagger out of bed and point my truck in the right direction on Sunday morning.

Finally on March 10 of 2018 I managed to ski a peak that's been on my hit-list for many years. 13 years ago, I'd scrambled Mount Field in Yoho National Park from a weird approach (Stanley Mitchell Hut) with the infamous Dave Stephens. Since then a lot of my mountain friends had skied the peak and highly recommended it to me.

I was getting a bit antsy after spending too much time in the concrete jungle for the past few weeks and decided, against my better judgment, to join Phil on a dubious snowshoe ascent of the mighty Kent Ridge, South Peak on Sunday, January 21, 2018.

Quartz Hill has been on my radar ever since I first skied the Sunshine Meadows way back in 2007 with a large group trip up Twin Cairns. Well, almost exactly a decade later and I was back for my first real attempt. I briefly considered scrambling up the ridge while backpacking along the NE face of it on my way towards Howard Douglas Lake and Citadel Pass back in the fall of 2016.

After a great ascent of Kink Peak, we found ourselves looking up at the ~250 vertical meter ascent to Fallen Peak, trying to pick the best line. We decided to stick right on the ridge as long as possible since it was almost snow-free. This plan worked even better than expected.

I wasn't totally feeling it when Dr. Phil contacted me regarding a possible scramble for the Remembrance Day weekend, 2017. The weather looked pretty good for a front range peak and even promised light winds for once, so eventually he wore me down with his incessant texting and I agreed to slog up something just to make him happy.

After grunting my way up Serendipity Peak, I didn't linger long in the fierce winds at the summit but turned my attention quickly towards a distant looking Patterson's Peak. (Don't confuse Patterson's Peak with Mount Patterson in Banff, which I've skied and is much more involved.)

Saturday, October 28 was shaping up to be very pleasant. Serendipity with a traverse to Patterson's Peak has been on my radar for many years and seemed like a perfect late season trip. I tried recruiting my usual trip partners but in the end this ended up being a solo venture. I didn't mind. It was a fitting way to end my scrambling season and I was in the mood for some solitude.

With the upcoming Thanksgiving long weekend and some unexpected days off work beforehand, I was looking to take advantage of a pretty nice wx with a scramble or two before the snow starts to pile up in earnest around the Rockies. Lucky for me, I received an invite from Cornelius and Trevor inviting me for a jaunt up the relatively obscure front range mountain, "Castle Rock".

When Phil and I set out to scramble Pipestone Mountain, near the Red Deer Lakes and Drummond Icefield on the eastern edge of the Skoki area in Banff National Park, we had no idea how confusing finding and naming the darn summit would be!  In the end we had to settle on a rather odd arrangement that I'm sure will not satisfy everyone but made sense to us. 

After approaching and ascending Cyclone Mountain the day before, Phil and I woke up to a frosty but clear morning on Friday, September 29 2017. Our destinations for this glorious fall day were Pipestone Mountain and Merlin Lake. These two things are not very close together, in case you were wondering. 

Over the years, Dr. Phil Richards and I had been eyeing up a couple of easy ascents, rising over the Red Deer Lakes in the Skoki backcountry of Banff National Park and on the western edge of the Drummond Icefield. In late September 2017, it was time to finally go check them out a bit closer.

On Wednesday, September 27 2017 I was joined by Trevor Boyce for an easy hike and traverse of Odlum Ridge, deep in Kananaskis Country just east of the Continental Divide and south of Highwood Pass. Our plan was to take advantage of the great weather with views of larches and aesthetic mountains in the background. We were not disappointed! 

After a delightful easy / moderate scramble up Mount Howard Douglas, it was time to add a second peak to my day. Why? Don't ask. I guess I'm still a peakbagger at heart because there's really no reason to grind up Eagle Mountain other than to claim another summit. In my case I also got better views.

As I started my annual week off in late September 2017, I didn't know what I was in the mood for. The weather wasn't fabulous, but it wasn't horrible either. Of course, being September, I wanted larches to be part of the landscape.

After a long outing the week before to the Egypt Lakes area and a somewhat gloomy weather forecast, I decided to play it safe on Saturday, September 23 2017 with a nice fall hike on the western edge of the Lake O'Hara region in Yoho National Park. Wietse decided to join me on this venture.