Summit Elevation (m): 1783
Trip Date: Thursday, April 19, 2018
Elevation Gain (m): 460
Round Trip Time (hr): 2
Total Trip Distance (km): 4.5
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2 – you fall, you sprain your wrist
Difficulty Notes: Finding a parking spot in the hamlet of Exshaw where you won’t get towed might be the crux of this trip.
Technical Rating: OT3; YDS (Hiking)
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
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. There’s really not much else to say about Exshaw Mountain other than we enjoyed the limited views and the exercise. Be careful where you park! We parked between two “no parking” signs, but had permission from a guy in the municipal building who told me that on weekends and during the summer they have to limit parking near their building since it gets so crammed they can’t drive their trucks in or out of the shop.
We took a deviation from the trail on ascent and paid for it in knee to waist deep snow near the summit, but there were no defined tracks on the regular route either so we were destined for that bit of work no matter the route. We even managed to find some scrambling up a small cliff band. The lower 200 vertical meters was fun on dry rock but after that it was a slog through a LOT more snow than the view from down below implied! Scrambling anything that isn’t easy front-range is going to be messy for a while thanks to the copious amounts of snow this year.
