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explor8ion

Tag : RE5

Night Rider Peak

After a very long day the day before, we were up and at it again by 06:30 at our improvised camp along Job Creek on Sunday, the first day of September. I wasn’t sure I’d be feeling it this morning, but happily I most certainly was! We slowly got ready and abandoned camp, leaving the tents up to dry while we were gone. This would be our longest side trip at over 15 kms and an unknown route that we weren’t at all sure of. In the end, we couldn’t believe how easy the south ridge turned out to be, considering how it looked on the satellite maps. Views to Cloud Buster and Dark Storm over lush valleys and unnamed tarns were brilliant in the late summer sun and clear blue skies. Winds were light as we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

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First Range / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Obstruction Mountain

I can’t say enough good things about our ascent of Obstruction Mountain. After years and years of thinking about it, obsessing about it and planning it, we got perfect weather and conditions. There is almost no way to guarantee such a great set of circumstance on a large, remote peak, much less a route that was easy and straightforward. When it takes a minimum of 2 to 3 full days of backpacking and hiking just to access a peak, you never know what you’re going to get once you finally set steps on it. We got perfection, it’s as simple as that. As I always say – I’ve taken the bad luck on many other challenges, so I’ll happily take the good luck on this one!

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First Range / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Sam Rogers Peak (Horseshoe)

Although there is a far easier line to the summit of Horseshoe Mountain via SE ones from Lightning Lake (Tony and Gillean Daffern’s original ascent line in 1973), I didn’t mind taking a slightly harder one. Sure! I’d be talking a little different if the crux had turned me around, but sometimes completing a planned route with unknown challenges is more rewarding than taking the easiest line. In my case the easier line simply wasn’t part of the itinerary – getting to Lightning Lake is way off our hiking route. The views from Sam Rogers were some of the best of the trip and the only ones that clearly showed Samson, Leah and the steep headwall plunging to an unnamed lake above Job Lake.

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First Range / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Ribbon Peak (South Horseshoe)

I have zero regrets about ascending Ribbon Peak from Red Pass, even though it would have been nice to have more beta on this moderately complex route beforehand. For a much easier ascent on scree and rubble with no downclimbs, take the same line as Alan and Alistair did via north and west slopes from Samson Lake.

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First Range / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Quixote Peak

I highly recommend this lofty, well situated and scenic ascent for anyone in the upper Coral Creek area with some time and energy to spare. There is really no scrambling on this mountain, just a long, steep hike for some million dollar views.

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First Range / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Job Lake Excursions (Coral Creek, Job Pass)

Situated in between the White Goat Wilderness and the Upper Clearwater / Ram PLUZ the Job / Cline PLUZ reflects both of these remote wilderness landscapes. Just as in the Ram and Clearwater area, it takes a little extra endurance and perseverance to penetrate the prime areas. Just as in the White Goat Wilderness, it takes off trail adventuring and hardy legs to take in the wildest views. There are sublime, peaceful alpine meadows and brilliant, shimmering lakes and tarns tucked into almost every valley and canyon you pass. This is a landscape that belongs to powerful grizzlies, agile mountain goats and soaring eagles. You feel small as you cross its powerful streams dozens of times. Huge stone walls gaze sternly down on you as you shuffle underneath them. Clouds race overhead as waterfalls gush down sheer cliffs on all sides. Even wildfires are untamed here – allowed and even encouraged to burn unhindered when they flare. Despite the obvious presence of humankind, this is a land that you feel privileged to experience, not entitled to.

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Backpack / Camp / First Range / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Profound Peak (Simpson) & Mount Osgood

Despite tagging both summits, Profound and Osgood will not go down as my favorite ascents of 2023, simply due to my silly routefinding mistakes on both peaks. Some days are like that – I just wasn’t on top of my game for whatever reason.

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Clearwater Ranges / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 1

Mount Antevs (Anteus)

Mount Antevs was a lovely afternoon ascent with no pressure to go quick under a perfect late summer sky. I was expecting it to be the easiest peak of the weekend based on Rick’s assessment and it was.

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Clearwater Ranges / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 2

Abstruse Peak (Mount Perren)

Abstruse Peak is like many other big, remote peaks I’ve done this year. The ascent was almost anticlimactic compared to the getting to the base of it but the views and the remoteness more than make up for the simple route to its lofty summit. At only 47 meters shy of the magical 3353m mark it is the highest peak I’ve ascended in quite a while.

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Clearwater Ranges / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 0

In the Footsteps of Sergeant Kowalski (Laughing Bears Creek)

Laughing Bears Creek will always stand out in my mind as a quintessential Rockies backcountry adventure. I’ve been planning and dreaming of it for so many years, it had the potential to disappoint but instead it exceeded even my best ideas of what it might be. It will stand out as one of my favorite trips of all time and certainly a highlight of 2023.

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Backpack / Bike / Camp / Clearwater Ranges / Hike / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 1

Goodair, Mount (Snort, Roaring Ridge)

Standing on yet another remote peak with yet another likely 3rd ascent also felt pretty darn good. In a time where folks like Devan are doing routes that I can only dream of and tagging 10 peaks in 4 days (!!!!) to our 2 in 3, I realize that the era of 2nd, 3rd and 4th recorded ascents is very quickly ending. And I don’t mind – there always has to be an end to things. The next generation always brings new light and new challenges to old ideas, making what we did on Smoky and Goodair look like nothing more than a simple afternoon stroll in the park – which I guess it literally was in the end. Folks like Rick Collier, Glen Boles, William Putnam, John Martin, Jason Thompson, Graeme Pole, Tony and Gil Daffern and Alistair des Moulins and so many others got to enjoy the last of the 1st and 2nd recorded ascents of many of the Rockies front range peaks and folks like Phil and myself got to follow in their footsteps 20 years later. Now the ascents will start accumulating faster and faster with more beta, more lightweight gear, more fitness and more interest from a younger, more energetic and bolder generation of explorers. And I say to them, “enjoy and have at it”!

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Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 1

Smoky Mountain (Roaring Creek)

Smoky Mountain is likely one of the easiest peaks I’ve ascended in the area other than maybe Whimper Peak, which felt much bigger since we didn’t camp 350 meters below its summit the night before. What makes Smoky Mountain such a rare gem is simply the process of getting onto its easy south rubble ledge. In our case that involved a 48 kilometer, 11.5 hour approach with over 1200 meters of height gain with overnight packs. Once you’ve managed to work through that ‘little’ problem, there are no more difficulties other than a few hundred additional vertical meters and some loose rubble to get to the top. Easy peasy. 

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Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Trekking along McConnell & Roaring Creeks

This trip lived up to everything I thought it would be. A fantastic backcountry adventure in pristine landscapes, exploring some of the last remaining untouched and largely untraveled wilderness along massive Cambrian Cliffs of the Alberta Rockies along the source streams of two of Banff National Park’s major drainages – the Red Deer River (McConnell Creek) and the Clearwater River (Roaring Creek). Thanks as usual to Dr. Phil, the trip planning guru and to me the routefinding drill master dragging us up peaks along the way. As long as our bodies and life allows, I’m sure we’ll continue to stumble and bumble our way into new corners (for us) of the Rockies somewhere or another – as rare as those corners seem to be getting.

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Backpack / Bike / Clearwater Ranges / Hike / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Elch Peak (Stud, GR851-335)

Descending the braided horse trails down the Ya Ha Tinda meadows in late afternoon lighting brought back many pleasant memories from this special area of the front range Rockies. Every time I think I’m almost finished with it, the landscape drags me back out! I don’t mind. There are certainly worse places to return to and worse memories than these stored in my old noggin. As I followed a horse wagon back along an incredibly dusty Tinda road my thoughts turned to how much more popular this area is now than it was when I first started visiting it almost a decade ago in November 2014. It hasn’t gotten less beautiful as a result – thankfully – but finding a summit as quiet as Elch has certainly gotten harder. I highly recommend combining Elch and HH89 with a camp in upper Scalp Creek. The only downside of this idea is that you will not get to walk the shores of Forbidden Lake like I did, unless you do a much longer loop back along Forbidden and Skeleton Creek to exit.

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Bike / Clearwater Ranges / Scramble / Trip Report 1

“HH89” (Totem, GR831-380) Peak

The first thing I noticed while standing on the 2904m summit of the remote and rarely ascended Forbidden Peak was its loftier neighbor lying immediately to the SE. What was this larger unnamed peak and could I ascend it? For some reason the idea obsessed me and for the next week I did some research to find out more. Bivouac gives it a very technical and drab sounding moniker, “HH89” or it could be known by its coordinates, “GR831380”. It turns out someone else named it too, but I wouldn’t find that out until later. I thought the Bivouac name actually suited this peak just perfectly. It’s obscure and meaningless except to the half-dozen or so folks who might know about it.

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Bike / Clearwater Ranges / Scramble / Trip Report 4

Poltergeist Peak

What a day! Thanks to Jay and Sara for putting up with a “less-than-100-percent” me and thanks to Jay for toughing it out of a nasty little situation in the river. Many folks would have called it a day at that point, but that’s not the way JW is wired. This was a great suggestion for a dry(ish) winter ascent and I’m glad that I was part of it.

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Ghost Wilderness Area / Scramble / Trip Report 7

Forgotten Peak

Within just over 5 hours of starting our ascent we were back out of Fossil Creek towards the Pipestone River. I was hurting more than I should have been from a 33km, 2100m day. Although that isn’t a small day by any means, most of it was on trail and the off trail part was pretty darn easy and straightforward as far as these things go. I’ve had a lot of big trips lately so I think I was suffering from a form of burnout (mental and physical) and I just had an “off” day in the strong summer sun and heat. I did enjoy Forgotten Peak (my 900th summit if you must know) despite the slight setbacks. The views on route took me by surprise. For some reason I didn’t expect the north end of the Drummond massif to be quite so impressive.

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Drummond Group / Scramble / Trip Report 1

Aires Peak

Within 2 hours of leaving our overnight packs along the South Ram River Trail we were back at them, proving that Aires really is just an “add on” peak. On hindsight I’m glad that we ascended it – it was the one bright spot on an otherwise very challenging and dreary day. 

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Backpack / Bike / Camp / Nordegg / Ram River / Ram Range / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Cheshire & Dormouse Peak

A rare ascent of a little known, very remote peak named for the Alice in Wonderland theme of the area – Cheshire Peak. A gorgeous approach, sneaky difficult step and hiking at over 3000 meters with views of the most remote and hard to access east faces in Banff National Park make this a highlight day in the mountains in 2022 for me. Dormouse Peak felt like a pretty simple add-on after all that.

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Backpack / Bike / Camp / Nordegg / Ram River / Ram Range / Scramble / Trip Report 1

Dodo Peak

It’s a heckuva long way into the front ranges but once you get to the old Headwaters Patrol Cabin a horse track leads up the Dodo valley to easy south ascent slopes. Views from the lofty 3067m peak make the work worthwhile and will have you dreaming of many more adventures in this pristine area of the Alberta Rockies. The mysteries of “Ladder Falls” will have you wondering about going further up valley.

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Backpack / Bike / Camp / Nordegg / Ram River / Ram Range / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Oval Peak

Oval Peak was a quick and easy 5th summit from the north shoulder as Sara and I passed by it on route to the Brazeau River and the South Boundary Trail far below. Views of Afternoon Peak’s north face and over the meadows towards Mount McDonald, Frances and Lonely Peak make this peak a worthwhile objective if you’re in the area anyway. On its own it’s a pretty lengthy march to nowhere for a lowly summit.

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Cloister Mountains / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 1

McDonald, Mount

Mount McDonald is one of those peaks that once you find out about it, it grabs your attention. Or at least that’s what happened to me. I’m not even sure how or why, but I was perusing bivouac.com one day and came across Rick Collier’s photo trip report from a 2011 excursion into the area with David P. Jones. What caught my attention immediately wasn’t even the peak – it looked a little dreary and very easy. It was the large lake located south of the mountain that really got my explor8ion juices flowing and I immediately started dreaming of visiting this obviously special place at the headwaters of a pretty major drainage.

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Cloister Mountains / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Lonely Peak

Many folks would have no idea where Lonely Peak is. I certainly didn’t until I started researching remote peaks up the Job, Coral and McDonald Creek areas of the Alberta Rockies. When planning an ascent of Lonely Peak I only had a 2011 trip report from Rick Collier to go on. By the time Sara and I started up Lonely we’d been up and at it for 9 hours already, exiting the Afternoon plateau and valley, ascending Mount Frances and finding our way into the McDonald Creek valley. Despite being pretty keen peakbaggers, I’ll admit that I wasn’t totally feeling another ascent right away. This changed quickly of course, as it usually does for me!

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Cloister Mountains / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Frances, Mount (Francis)

Sara McLean and I spent a lovely Wednesday morning wandering down the Afternoon Plateau and exiting the high meadows under Afternoon Peak before finally hiking down “Afternoon Creek” and arriving at our planned ascent line to Mount Frances. I’d only seen a report from 2011 by Rick Collier when planning the trip but it didn’t sound difficult. By the time we found ourselves under this diminutive peak it was no longer looking so small and the forecast heat was clearly on – big time. Good thing we were planning to ascend a south facing gully on this one!

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Cloister Mountains / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 0

Wandering the White Goat Wilderness

In 2015 I was invited by Eric Coulthard to do a trip into an area I’d never been before – or even really heard of. He suggested we tag a couple of lofty summits in the White Goat Wilderness Area. I’d seen a few of the peaks in this area from nearby summits including Mount Stewart from Mount Coleman (the first trip I’d done with Eric way back in 2009) and Mount Willis which I’d spotted from Corona Ridge earlier in 2015. We had a fantastic trip and ever since I’ve been planning to go back.

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Backpack / Camp / Cloister Mountains / Hike / Rockies / Scramble / Trip Report 2