Big Sister

27 August 2006
Big Sister Stats, Three Sisters Stats

Climbed this one yesterday as a daytrip from Edmonton with Hank and a sinus/throat infection.
8:30 round trip including at least an hour on the summit with five other scramblers.

All in all found this mountain to be quite enjoyable. The first down-climb was easy and uninteresting, the second one descending to the base of the pinnacles just as easy and a lot of fun.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. Pictures will be added when I get them from Hank.

.......Well, here they are. The pics.


On the trail, Big Sister looms overhead. Summit it out of sight at upper left.


Descending the first downclimb.


Making our way up the sweeping ridge.


Approaching the second downclimb. Here we see a scrambling victim sitting down after he and his girlfriend got slabbed out. The slabs scared them too much and the thought they were off route. The girl is actually out of frame and a bit too far right, she was scared and jettisoned her pack (again, just like when she was halfway down the first downclimb).

Almost immediately above the guy on the slabs is an inside corner to climb, then over the top to the second downclimb. Then we followed the base of the next pinnacles (big wall in photo) up to the summit visible slightly left of centre.


Hank and I at the summit. Pack tosser in the background.

Mount Yukness

Mt. Yukness stats.
5 August 2006

After getting chased away the previous day by sleet/hail/lightning we returned to scramble Yukness from Elizabeth Parker Hut.

Two words on this one. Uberfantastic views.

The scrambling get scrambly below the pinnacles en route to the mountains summit. Otherwise it's pretty easy.
Getting into the right gully helps a lot here. Stay below the pinnacles and pick your route to gain the summit ridge. I think we took the second gully from the climbers left and moved over to the third gully halfway up.

I don't think Yukness (south summit) sees a whole lot of traffic since the register has been there for 14 years (or was it 12, whatever).


Turned back from the Opabin Plateau by this weather. Photo taken from hut.


West flank of Yukness taken from Opabin Plateau less then 24 hours after the above photo.


Trev ascending Yukness.


Hank climbing one of the gully walls below the south summit ridge.


The views abound.

Mount Sparrowhawk

Mt. Sparrowhawk stats.

28 July 2006
Easy scramble with Shawn. We did this one as a daytrip from St. Albert. We hit the road at 04:30 and got back really damn late.
Most of this mountain is a looooong, easy plod. Once you hook around the summit block it is simply a steeper plod on loose scree.
Since it is 10240 feet high, you get some great views. From the summit I could see Assiniboine and Joffre easily. Although Joffre kept slipping behind cloud cover and eluding my camera.



From the ridge. Follow the drainage to get past Reads Tower, then plod plod plod up to the right side of the summit block and curve around the the easily ascended back.


On the summit, Assiniboine in the distance.


The Big Sister stands tall. A layer of stratus cloud kept Canmore socked in all day.


Shawn heading down, Mt. Nestor across the lake.

Return to Indian Ridge

Indian Ridge Stats
2 July 2006

Hank and I returned to Indian ridge on a daytrip from Edmonton for the fantastic ridgewalk offered by the traverse. Visible from Indian Ridge are some of the giants of the Canadian Rockies (Mt. Robson, Mt Edith Cavell, Mt. Fryatt, I think I could even see some of the mountains of the Columbia Icefields).

After catching the first Tram up the cable way, we quickly made it to the summit of the Whistlers. After descending from the Whistler towards Indian Ridge we stashed a litre of water in a convenient snowpatch and continued up the trail.

One bump, two bump, three bump, short scramble, summit bump. At the summit we took some time to eat, take pictures, and seriously considered a nap.

Once underway again, we were determined to find the route as described in the Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies guidebook. That particular route had eluded us the first time we traversed this mountain (and every other party I've seen or met on Indian Ridge).
And find it we did. The trail is faint and steep off the west side, but it is there and is safer than exposed scree ledges on the east side of the mountain. Because we felt it is safer (and no one we met could find it), Hank built a small cairn indicating where the trail drops off the buttress to the south of the notch.


Here I have just spotted the trail a bit further on.


Red dot is where we left the ridge crest.


Where the route drops off to the west side.


This sure is better than the east side.

From here, look at rocks resembling planks of wood and continue down scrambling the entire ridge until you hit grey scree, make a run for the valley bottom and head back over to the Whistlers.


Surveying the scramble down to the grey scree

The water we had stashed in the snow was more than welcome on this near 30 degree day.

The altimeter said this was a total ascent/descent of 1038m from the top tram station and back, and we had a total moving time of 5:08, with some serious lounging and chatting with a Norwegian and a couple from Denver our total round trip time was 8:00.

More Pictures from Indian Ridge

Hank scrambling up to the summit, Mt. Edith Cavell in the distance.


Summit cairn and Terminal Mtn. Tarn.


Mount Robson.


Mount Fryatt and Mount Edith Cavell.


The curled leaves of this small plant high on the mountain resembles a cactus.

Even More Indian Ridge Pictures

Hank descend the scant trail off the ridge and onto the west side of the mountain.


The view of the small trail near the right edge of the frame.


Mystery mountain that I spied from Cinquefoil Mtn last year. I still don't know it's identity.


Incredible rock looks like wood.

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.

Roche Miette

Roche Miette Stats
28 August 2005
Climb for the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition (mountain #78) with Erin, Trevor, Marc, Hank. I am just going to poach the text that I sent the ACME for this trip. See their website for more pictures (very big and long to load).


Roche Miette, Climbed 28 August 2005 on Behalf of the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition.
When I first discovered the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition I was quite excited to volunteer for the project. Soon though, I received an email from Angus and Melany that dashed my aspirations. They had already assigned all of the mountains to other climbers. I had been placed on the backup list and resigned myself to the fact that I had missed the boat.
On the 8th of August 2005 I received a phone call from Angus. The original group assigned to Roche Miette was unable to get to the summit, so now I had my opportunity to participate. I put together a group of five that included my younger sister and some good friends. All of which had some scrambling and backcountry experience.
We planned to make our climb on the 28th of August. During the preceding week we carefully watched the weather, willing it to hold long enough so we could climb without worrying about storms.
At 3:30 AM on the 28th we left St. Albert and drove out to Jasper, meeting two of our group members in Edson. We reached the trailhead under clear skies at 7:30 AM and had geared up and started walking at 8:00 AM. As we began I would estimate the temperature was about 10°C. While walking up the cut line we proceeded in and out of some curious pockets of air that were another 10°C warmer, quite an interesting sensation to say the least.
Soon our group was hiking up the ridge and gaining elevation on our way to the saddle. Once at the upper half of the ridge, we were treated to views across the Athabasca Valley. The upper half of the ridge itself sports some very intriguing vertical flakes and striking layers of purple shale. By 10:10 AM we were enjoying the sunny skies and a bite to eat at the saddle.
Departing the saddle, the scramble begins in earnest with movement to the climbers left as elevation is gained. Most of the scrambling is over loose rock and scree, interspersed with the odd down sloping ledge. None of it proved to be particularly challenging, but it is sustained moderate (fun) scrambling.
At 11:45 AM we topped out on the plateau and were greeted with 10 minutes of sleet generously provided by the weather we had watched build over the previous hour. Wasting little time, we walked easily over to the true summit of Roche Miette approximately 600m to the South. We were standing beside the summit cairn by 12:00 PM.
We were treated to views of the Jacques Range, Mts Hawk, Colin, Perdrix, Fryatt, Pyramid, De Smet and numerous others. Photo taking and lunch commenced while we discussed how to remove the existing summit canister secured with a cable by Alan Kane. Replacement proved easy as the cable was frayed and easily released the PVC canister. As we took the requisite 360° photos we knew that we’d need to leave the summit soon. Somewhat ominous looking weather had been closing in on us since we arrived.
At 1:00 PM our group left the summit, scrambled down the mountain, and arrived at the saddle at 2:45 PM where the weather was much nicer. We descended the ridge under partly sunny skies, spotted a whitetail deer watching us from the cut line, and reached our cars at 4:30PM.
After a number of parting glances towards the striking mountain we had just spent the day with, we began our drive home with feelings of accomplishment. Of course making the necessary stop for food at Vic’s Steak, Pizza, and Curry in Hinton.
I would like to thank Angus and the Alberta Centennial Mountain Expedition on behalf of our group for affording us the opportunity to be a part of this project.
Troy Rossmann.

Climbers: Erin Rossmann, Trevor Graham, Hank Kirouac, Marc Boudreau, Troy Rossmann.Trip Stats: 1323m elevation gain, 11.1 km, 8.5 hours round trip.




View of the mountain from the adjacent ridge.


Our group takes a break at the saddle.



Marc negotiating typical terrain on Roche Miette.


Trevor getting within striking distance of the summit plateau. This is such a hero shot.


At the cairn. The true summit of this mountain is a leisurely 600m walk to the south from the point where you get onto the plateau, it is not at the top of the cliffs guarding the north face. The reason why is apparent when the mountain is viewed from the west, it's the highest spot from that vantage.

Ha Ling Peak

Ha Ling Peak Stats
21 August 2005
I convinced Hank and Marc to climb this little one the day after doing Mt Temple, and I had to be back in St. Albert for a family dinner at 5:00. Neither of them were too impressed, but I think they agreed only because I was driving.
We set a quick pace and did this one in 3 hours car to car including 30 minutes on the summit. I was home in St. Albert at 4:30, then showered and at the in-law's house at 4:52.


Hank looking around for the summit register. Mt Rundle (EEoR) behind him.
I think in the distance you can see Mt Temple also.




Troy, Marc, Hank.


Susan likes this one because it "makes you look 12".

Mt Temple Extras

Summit shot.


66km in the distance is Mt Assiniboine. In the foreground is the Consolation Lakes surrounded by Panorama Ridge, Mt Bell, Mt Quadra, Mt Bident, Mt Babel, and the Tower of Babel.

Mount Temple

Mt Temple Stats
20 August 2005, scramble with Hank and Marc.
Even with the hordes of people, I really enjoyed this one. Maybe it's because it's an 11,000'er, the weather was also fantastic, allowing endless views. We could even see Mt Assiniboine, 66km away.
The approach to this mountain takes you through Larch Valley which is subject to bear restrictions for most of the summer. We had no problems teaming up with others at the parking lot to make the minimum group size of six. In fact I think we had a group of nine including one person from Calgary, two from Toronto, and three Dr's from Lacombe.


Hiking towards Sentinel pass, Mt Temple above.


Above Sentinel Pass enroute to the grey band.
Behind Hank and Marc is Paradise Valley. Just out of view on the left is Mt Hungabee, to it's right is Ringrose Peak, Glacier Peak, and Mt Lefroy. A glimpse of Mt Victoria is on the right.


My ass.
This is the grey band, here is am checking out a chimney that we would use to descend. For the ascent we used an easy (well, not easy, but not hard either) upclimb to the right of this feature. This is all to the right of the gully recommended by some.


The Yellow Band. There are plenty of options for getting through here.


Hank eyes up the final slog to the 11,625' summit.