Cinquefoil part deux
Cinquefoil Mtn Stats.
22 June 2006
I headed back to this mountain with Taras as a daytrip from Edmonton. It was a nice, hot day - almost the longest day of the year in fact.
We left the car, followed the trail, skirted the lake, gained the ridge and stashed a litre of water for our return. Pretty uninteresting.
Uninteresting, until we came to a bottle neck and encountered 2 dozen Bighorns with 5 lambs on their way down the mountain. For a while we stood our ground, expecting these able bodied climbers to take a detour around us. They, however decided to stand their ground as well. After realizing that Taras and I were the guests in the Bighorn's home we began moving off the ridge to the east - onto increasingly steeper ground.
A wonderful tactic these animals use is to step up the intimidation when they see an opponent back down. For every step we moved off, the males would take two or three towards us. A few more moves and they were getting too close for comfort. This is when the ice ax and the bear spray came out.
It took a while for most of the adults and yearlings to move past us while the males kept the lambs higher on the ridge. About thirty minutes later all of the sheep had gone and the lambs had seemingly vanished with their guardians. We later saw them lower on the ridge.
Taras with the step behind him. The true summit is not visible yet.
Having enough of that business with the sheep, Taras and I continued towards the step before the ridgewalk to the summit.
This time, instead of taking the ramp I took last time, I took the rock rib on the right side of the ramp. Then halfway up the step, switched sides to the rock rib that forms the left side of the ramp.
Last year's route up in green, this year's route in red.
I found this to be fun climbing as opposed to trudging up the loose rubble. This rubble seemed smaller last year, but was just as loose.
A short while later we found ourselves on the summit and enjoyed a perfect, near windless stay.
I'm not really sure why I'm looking so miserable here. It really was nice.
What lies beyond Cinquefoil summit.
22 June 2006
I headed back to this mountain with Taras as a daytrip from Edmonton. It was a nice, hot day - almost the longest day of the year in fact.
We left the car, followed the trail, skirted the lake, gained the ridge and stashed a litre of water for our return. Pretty uninteresting.
Uninteresting, until we came to a bottle neck and encountered 2 dozen Bighorns with 5 lambs on their way down the mountain. For a while we stood our ground, expecting these able bodied climbers to take a detour around us. They, however decided to stand their ground as well. After realizing that Taras and I were the guests in the Bighorn's home we began moving off the ridge to the east - onto increasingly steeper ground.
A wonderful tactic these animals use is to step up the intimidation when they see an opponent back down. For every step we moved off, the males would take two or three towards us. A few more moves and they were getting too close for comfort. This is when the ice ax and the bear spray came out.
It took a while for most of the adults and yearlings to move past us while the males kept the lambs higher on the ridge. About thirty minutes later all of the sheep had gone and the lambs had seemingly vanished with their guardians. We later saw them lower on the ridge.
Taras with the step behind him. The true summit is not visible yet.
Having enough of that business with the sheep, Taras and I continued towards the step before the ridgewalk to the summit.
This time, instead of taking the ramp I took last time, I took the rock rib on the right side of the ramp. Then halfway up the step, switched sides to the rock rib that forms the left side of the ramp.
Last year's route up in green, this year's route in red.
I found this to be fun climbing as opposed to trudging up the loose rubble. This rubble seemed smaller last year, but was just as loose.
A short while later we found ourselves on the summit and enjoyed a perfect, near windless stay.
I'm not really sure why I'm looking so miserable here. It really was nice.
What lies beyond Cinquefoil summit.
posted by Troy at 2:11 PM
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