As Phil and I drove home from our successful scramble up Mount Berland in Kootenay National Park on Saturday, May 11, my thoughts turned to the following day.
As Phil and I drove home from our successful scramble up Mount Berland in Kootenay National Park on Saturday, May 11, my thoughts turned to the following day.
As the weekend approached, Phil Richards and I were getting a wee bit desperate to find a peak that didn’t involve obvious avalanche hazards or post-holing hell.
On March 23, Phil Richards and I hiked up a snowy Sheep Creek and scrambled Winchester Ridge. From the ridge we enjoyed spectacular views over the Dormer River towards Dormer Mountain and started to plan what kind of adventure would get us to its summit.
I’ve heard of the Observation Sub Peaks for many years as a pretty tame but highly recommended ski objective along the Icefields Parkway near Bow Summit and Bow Lake in Banff National Park.
Even before Cornelius Rott forged a route to the summit of Winchester Ridge, it was on my radar. This has happened with a number of relatively obscure peaks over the past 3 or 4 years as Cornelius is attracted to the same types of objectives as Phil and I and usually manages to nab them before we do.
Hanneke had a rare opportunity to join me for a hike on Sunday, May 6th 2018 so I figured I should take advantage of that. I was determined not to make her wade through the knee deep snow drifts that I kept ending up in over the past few weeks and decided that surely Stony Ridge in the Highwood area of Kananaskis would be dry by now? Yeah…The past few weeks have seen me drive past Black Diamond and Longview a few times, including a solo jaunt up Three Cairns, Hell’s Ridge and Mount Mann.
June 14th, 2008 found me wanting to bag a peak pretty badly! The spring of 2008 has not been a very friendly one for scramblers and hikers. It’s been wet, and cold and nasty. After much deliberation, Wietse and I decided that we would head down to Waterton for the day, attempting the Lost / Anderson / Bauerman triplicate.
On May 30, 2008 I joined Kevin Papke on the ‘mighty’ Limestone Peak in Kananaskis Country. So far the year 2008 has been pretty slow for me and mountains. Most of this is due to a priority shift on my part and the copious amounts of snow on the weather’s part. I tried getting up Limestone a few weeks ago but turned back because of the snow.
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.
On June 02 2007 Wietse and I headed to the mountains to attempt a peak from Kane’s scrambles book. Unfortunately for us, there was way too much snow in all the areas that we wished to scramble so we were forced to come up with alternate plans for the day.
On Friday, May 11 2007 Jason Wilcox kicked giant steps up Mount Lawson’s steep eastern slopes while Wietse and I followed him.
After being inspired by both Andrew Nugara’s and Rob Eastick’s recent ascents of this relatively obscure and out-of-the-way peak, Wietse and I decided to give it a shot on a beautiful April Friday.
On March 24, 2007 Wietse and I returned to the Livingstone Range to bag some more peaks. Our objectives this time were Hailstone Butte and Sentinel Peak.
On Saturday, June 17 2006, Wietse Bijlsma and I attempted a traverse of Helena Ridge, Stuart Knob, Castle North and Television Peak.
On Friday, June 02 2006, Wietse and I hiked to the summit of Mount Bourgeau in Banff National Park.
Raf, Jason and I headed down to Waterton National Park on May 06, 2006 to tackle the infamous “Bears Hump” scramble route up Mount Crandell.
As I inch closer and closer to that magical 100th summit of my illustrious (!!) scrambling career that started with Ha Ling peak about 6 years ago, I am realizing how unique each and every one of those peaks has been – and at the same time how similar they start to get!
On Saturday, March 25 2006 I headed down to K-country to do a front range scramble. One mountain that I’ve wanted to do for a while already was Mount Lorette.
In early 2005 the emails and phone calls started circulating among our canoeing group again. When the dust finally settled we agreed that another trip through Woodland Caribou Provincial Park (WCPP) was in order.
There are two reasons why Kane rated Mount Engadine as a difficult scramble. One is the nature of the ridge itself. Long sections of ‘no-fall’ zones coupled with loose rock and tricky down climbs make this a much more difficult climb than even other difficult scrambles such as Lady McDonald.
Summit Elevation (m): 2462 Trip Date: Friday, April 15, 2005 Round Trip Time (hr): unknown Elevation Gain (m): 920 Total Trip Distance (km): 8 Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2 – you fall, you sprain something Difficulty Notes: Easy scrambling on a good trail. The hardest part might be driving to the trailhead. GPS Track: Download GPX File Technical Rating: OT4; YDS (Hiking) Map: Google Maps I’ve wanted to scramble Black Rock Mountain for a long time. It just has a […]
Summit Elevation (m): 2435 Trip Date: Sunday, April 10, 2005 Round Trip Time (hr): unknown Elevation Gain (m): 1050 Total Trip Distance (km): 7 Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2/3 – you fall, you sprain or break something Difficulty Notes: Moderate scrambling on the Kane route in dry conditions. GPS Track: Download GPX File Technical Rating: SC6; YDS (3rd) Map: Google Maps Third time lucky! Finally I managed to summit Sentry Mountain after two previously unsuccessful attempts. On hindsight this is […]
What a day! With the weather reports predicting a perfect scrambling day on Saturday, Sonny and I hooked up to do the north peak of Mount Kidd.
The day started out predictably with Dad’s attraction to bizarre adventures. Just as we were pulling onto the road destined for Wallace Lake we noticed a strange noise from the left rear of the truck.
I was determined to bag a peak this weekend after three weekends of nothing. The problem was that there was a ton of snow in the hills so I knew that I would be climbing something that I’d done before.
