Putnik, Mount
Trip Report
Jon and I woke up around 0600 on Friday morning and set off for Mount Putnik. I had done a lot of thinking on the route and had come to the conclusion that if we got lucky we should be able to bag the summit from the Three Isle Lake campground without losing too much, if any, elevation. As it turns out, we got lucky.
The correct way to bag Mount Putnik from Three Isle is to head for the bear poles and keep going straight for treeline on the lower ridge of Three Isle Mountain (unofficial name of mountain right above camp to the north). Once you get above treeline you should simply traverse around to the slopes on the east side. Keep traversing without losing or gaining too much height and you will come to a sort of land bridge near the head of the valley separating Three Isle Mountain and Mount Putnik. Go over this land bridge and you will be on the west side of Mount Putnik. It may actually be possible to go straight up through the cliff band at this point but we didn't have the energy to try any unsuccessful summit attempts - we wanted the summit!
We followed the rubble slope all the way around Mount Putnik towards the South and then around to the southeast. On the way we ran into a big group of goats and tried our hardest to stay clear of them. The big billy kept staring us down and I know Jon was getting a bit nervous... ;-) The key to our route is to not lose or gain too much height while traversing. This will 'save' you over 300 meters of height loss down the Three Isle Lakes trail you would have to lose in order to go up the avalanche slopes. Of course if you're coming from the Kananaskis Lakes you'll want to go up the avalanche slopes on the south side instead.
Once on the south slopes of Putnik we found ourselves struggling up a very steep rubble slope in between the cliff bands on our left and a steep gully lined with cliffs on our right. At the top of this rubble slope we crossed over to climber's right and the summit ridge. The ridge was moderately exposed but nothing too bad and soon we were at the summit - very tired but happy that we made it! Once we read the summit register we were even happier because we were the first to summit this little peak in 4 years! As a matter of fact there were only 8 recorded summits in the past 19 years. It was a pretty cool feeling. I think I'll be ascending more obscure peaks in the future, somehow they're more rewarding. Alan Kane and Kris Thorenstein were one of the 8 parties which was interesting.
We spent a few minutes on the summit just enjoying the morning breezes and munching on our last granola bars. Too soon it was time to go, as we still had to hike down and then 16km back to the cars. The slope was so loose that on the way down we started numerous small rockslides.
 We saw lots of goats on this one. (Jon Pic) |
 Lots and lots and lots of rubble on this mountain! |
 Jon is gasping for breath. The land bridge between the middle and east ridge is apparant above and on climber's right. |
 Jon on the final ridge to the summit of Mount Putnik. |
 Very rarely ascended. The first page of the register. |
 Third page of the register. No ascents for 4 years! |
 Mount Worthington as seen from the summit of Mount Putnik. Mouseover for a view of the route. |
 Mount King George and Mounts Worthington and McHarg from the summit of Mount Putnik. |
 Jon and Vern on the summit of Mount Putnik. |
 Jon descends Mount Putnik. Mount Joffre rises in the background. |
 Jon enjoys more loose rubble. (Ok, he's not really enjoying it.) |
 Jon looks at the traverse of Three Isle Mountain that we need to do to get back to the campground (outlined in red). |