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Edmonton, AB
Canada
218 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2012 : 10:03 PM
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Cinquefoil Mountain (a sub-peak of Roche Jacques)
Date: Saturday, May 12th, 2012
Peak Elevation: 2,257m
Elevation Gain: 1,261m
Distance Covered: 10km (as described)
Relaxed Roundtrip: 6-8 hours
Vicki (a fellow CTer) and I took advantage of the great weather a week ago to get an early season scramble in on Cinquefoil Mountain. Given that there are already a few reports here about Cinquefoil, I'll try to be reasonably concise with this posting.
Based on what Vern and So had suggested in their writings, Vicki and I parked much closer to the ascent ridge than what the traditional route calls for and took a shortcut through a slightly marshy, forested area adjacent to Edna Lake. This worked very well, and got us going on the climb quite quickly. However, we went through while the area was reasonably dry and before the underbrush could grow in... so this could become more challenging as the season progresses. Nevertheless, if you want to do Cinquefoil, this shortcut is worth poking your nose into the forest before heading for the traditional entry point at the Merlin Pass trail.
   
1. Cinquefoil from the foot of Mt. Greenoch
2. A rough visual of the shortcut
3. The GPS Track
4. Shenanigans
The ascent route is easy... well, easy except for the odd knee-deep snowpatch amongst the trees which lingered, and would support your weight for a few steps before hitting you with a surprise double-leg posthole, slash faceplant... to the great amusement of your climbing partner. But I digress... There's a very well-defined trail running all the way until things open up below what I'll refer to as the false summit. Of course there are several, but this will apply to the BIG ONE (pictured below).
There are two routes past the false summit; the first is a straight scramble over the very steep summit itself (the Kane route, climber's left), and the other is a more modest scree bash over a lower ridge on the climber's right. Since we weren't feeling terribly ambitious, we opted to take the easier route. We tried to maintain a higher line along that route to take advantage of solid rock where possible, but it still kind of sucked.
  
5. The (Major) False Summit
6. The (Easier) Alternative Route
7. Continuing the (Easier) Alternative Route
You're home free once you've made the ridge past the false summit. What snow lingered up there was windswept and fairly shallow. Soon enough we were up the "stairs", a cool pair of rock formations which look like the remnants of a ruin, and on to yet another register-less summit cairn. A witty remark about making the first oxygen-aided ascent of Cinquefoil... was well, foiled!
I took one look at the awesome sub-peak of Roche Jacques ahead and decided that I didn't really need to extend today's ridgewalk.
   
8. Vicki with Mt. Greenoch in the distance
9. Climbing the "Stairs"
10. Vicki powering up the last hill
11. Summit view towards Roche Jacques
For the descent we chose to take the scrambling route down. It's very steep, with a lot of exposure if you mistakenly drift over the east (climber's left) side. But the rock's decent, and it's not too difficult to avoid the exposure. Once we delicately worked our way below a few spread out holds, there was a pair of decent chimneys to descend the rest of the difficult part.
For the sake of this narrative, I'll state that we descended this section gracefully and without trepidation. That there may have been high-fives afterwards in celebration of still being alive is entirely the subject of salicious rumour!
The key difference between the two routes, other than difficulty, is time. The scramble route is significantly faster. If you can handle it, the scramble route should trim close to a full hour off what it would take to follow the alternate route both ways.
 
12. The Crux on the Scrambling Route (the camera's titled about 45° here)
13. Looking down the ridge from the Crux
   
14. Overturn Mountain? (looking east from Cinquefoil)
15. Sirdar Mountain? (looking southeast along the Colin Range)
16. Mt. Colin and Hawk Mountain
17. Indian Ridge, The Ramparts and Pyramid Mountain
  
18. Jasper and Talbot Lakes
19. Some Big-Horned Sheep Enjoy the View
20. Parting Shot
Visit my site for additional information, photos, and to download GPS/Google Earth coordinates. |
Edited by - Arcturus on 05/20/2012 10:04 PM
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1078 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 06:21 AM
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| Nice! Good to see scrambling opportunities are beginning to appear. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 10:29 PM
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Nice TR! Love the shot of Jasper & Talbot Lakes. Looks like Jasper Lake still needs some more water :)
Gonna do it when I return to Jasper someday. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
218 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2012 : 1:03 PM
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| Yeah, there are some rather giant meander belts along the Athabasca River. I imagine it would take some spectacular flooding in the area for Jasper Lake to actually resemble one. |
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| Engor
Intermediate Member
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Calgary
840 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2012 : 6:07 PM
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I went up Cinquefoil 3 years ago on May long via the direct route to the false summit. It's a very steep route that requires some care. I'm surprised that Kane described it as an "easy scramble"
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46 Posts |
Posted - 05/23/2012 : 06:58 AM
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Great Trip report! I'm always going with you since it takes the pressure off me to make one -you do it so nicely.
It was a great day...and yes, there was some amusement in the post-holing. It'd been the same if it had been me, I am sure!
And by saying we "weren't terribly ambitious", you meant Vicki was a big chicken and the direct line looked "scawwwy!"  (Glad I redeemed myself on the way down!)       |
Edited by - Vicki Garford on 05/23/2012 07:07 AM |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
1198 Posts |
Posted - 05/23/2012 : 09:22 AM
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| Nice trip report! This is one I'm missing under the Kane list. It's too bad it's such a long drive. :) |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
607 Posts |
Posted - 05/23/2012 : 9:19 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Engor
I went up Cinquefoil 3 years ago on May long via the direct route to the false summit. It's a very steep route that requires some care. I'm surprised that Kane described it as an "easy scramble"
This is interesting because I didn't even consider Cinquefoil a scramble -- just off-trail hike. Can't remember details (its been 5 years), just that I didn't even have to use my hands at all. It was August and dry; possibly different story in May. Or maybe you went further up the ridge and climbed this
I believe this is what Kane refers to as "rock climb followed by loose rubble". Looked fairly serious. |
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Edmonton, AB
89 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2012 : 11:09 AM
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The easier route is the big gully on the left that leads to the notch in the skyline at the top of the false summit. That's the way I went in 2007. It is mostly a hike, but with a striking view of Jasper Lake on climber's left. There are other scramble routes to the right of this. In particular, there is a scree ramp that takes you to the left of the pyramid looking tree on the skyline, but I found this a bit nasty in places and did not take it all the way. I see from photo number 5 of the TR that the gully was filled with snow at the top, so I guess this was not an option. |
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Cinquefoil Mountain - 5.12.2012
