East Peak of Wendell
Trip Report
On Saturday April 12, 2008 I joined Wietse and Keith on a tramp up the east ridge of Yamnuska, down into the CMC valley and then up the southeast ridge of the East Peak of Wendell.
The forecast for the day was for highs around 20 degrees and sunny. This is the only reason we decided to go for this trudge instead of staying home and watching the Masters... ;-) Seriously though, this is not a trip for the easily bored or casual peak bagger. You'd be much better off bagging a different front-range peak if you are not serious about attaining lofty (ok this one's not even lofty...) heights.
While the CMC valley has some very interesting and beautiful scenery, so do most other hikes I've done in the Rockies. The hike up the east ridge of Yamnuska is kind of depressing because it's so worn out and dirty. Once over the ridge (make sure you make your way almost to the start of the scrambling section on Yam) you should turn to climber's right at the first big meadow on the north side of the ridge. I've tried to find this meadow for a while and we never went up the ridge towards the scramble route far enough. As a matter of fact, we were busy heading back down the ridge to the east because we thought we were off route, when we ran into 5 people, also heading into the CMC valley! They quickly assured us that we were in fact supposed to go further west along the ridge, so we gamely turned around and followed that group.
The group we met was planning on tackling the difficult route on EPOW as detailed in Andrew's book. Wietse and I both agreed that they would need some good luck on a difficult Nugara route with snow and ice on it! :-) (As it turns out the group did not make it to the summit.)
We had an enjoyable time scouting out the giant rocks next to the CMC wall. It's almost tempting to go back with rock shoes, those rocks have some fun little lines on them! I said almost worth it! That whole area back there probably deserves more rock climbing focus. It's difficult to get in there but once you're in, you're on your own for the most part. There look to be a lot of routes too.
We traversed around the base of the cliffs to the east side of the mountain and then proceeded on snow and rock to an interesting slabby section. This was a pretty cool little traverse up angled slabs along the base of a cliff. If you didn't know that there was a route through this section you'd be wondering why you were bothering trying it - thanks to the first people who bothered, you don't have to worry! The rest of the route was the best of the day both for views and for terrain, with some moderate exposure and some very pleasant ridge walking. The summit sported a great view and we spent quite some time watching the other group struggle towards the difficult section of the alternate ascent.
Eventually a couple of local scramblers joined us at the summit. Both Rob and Chris were familiar names from the RMBooks web board but I had never met them so that was cool. You can see Rob's trip report here.
The hike back was a bit long and quite nasty going back over the east ridge of Yamnuska, but the weather was gorgeous and the sky was clear so all-in-all this was a nice spring scramble and it felt quite good to get back into it again.
I was a bit early for the morning meeting place so I snapped this shot of the mountains from near the Cochrane / Hwy #1 turn off. Click to view original size.
Wietse and Keith head up the trail on a beautiful morning. It really felt like spring.
Yamnuska looks majestic - it's been a while since I've gone up that one.
You can make out the trail into the CMC valley. From left to right you can see Morrowmount and the main peak of Wendell Mountain with the East Peak of Wendell on the right.
Wietse and Keith with the imposing walls of the EPOW rising above them, reflecting the warm morning light.
Coming around the west end of the EPOW. The group ahead of us continued up this valley to the col between the main peak and the ridge coming of the EPOW.
There was just enough snow to make things a bit slippery.
The slabby section by the cliffs, just before getting up onto the final ridge to the summit. Good thing there wasn't more ice here or we may have regretted not bringing the crampons!
Keith contemplates the final section. This was the part that was by far the most enjoyable with clear skies, good views and warm temps.
You can just spot Wietse coming up the ridge. A nice panorama is starting to open up behind him.
The group summit shot.
The other group at 600mm zoom from the summit of EPOW. Think they look small here? Look at the next picture...
Can you see them? (Hint: bottom right corner - look for the person on the snow.)
Mount Fable peaks just over the left edge of Morrowmount in this unique view from the summit of the EPOW.
I think that's Mystique Towers in the upper left corner of this image (that's according to Rob Eastick). With that kind of name, I want to try scrambling that one.
Association Peak and End Mountain with the open prairie in the background.
The other party takes a break. I'm not sure that they made it much further than this.
Wietse and Keith descended a bit to the wide plateau just below the summit of EPOW to get out of the wind. I wanted to get some photos of the other group on the difficult traverse to the summit but they never did start their traverse while I was watching. Rob and Chris have caught up to us and are chatting with the boys before joining me on the summit.
Rob and Chris approaching the summit of EPOW. I'm actually a bit further north from the summit, checking out the nasty terrain that the other group had to negotiate. I sure wouldn't want to descend this way without a rope, but if dry it looked doable. It wasn't dry.
Summit panorama - click to view original size.
Enjoying a break on the way down EPOW.
The cliffs are melting!
Interesting path back down from Yamnuska's shoulder.
