| Author |
Topic |
|
Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2012 : 09:24 AM
|
My Photos:
Tripoli Mountain: http://stevensong.fotki.com/canadian-rockies/cadomin--whitehorse/tripoli-mountain-2012526/
Cheviot Mountain: http://stevensong.fotki.com/canadian-rockies/cadomin--whitehorse/cheviot-mountain-2012526/
Little Cheviot (GR752620): http://stevensong.fotki.com/canadian-rockies/cadomin--whitehorse/little-cheviot-2012526/
Eric's photos and Trip Report:
http://summitsearch.org/trip_reports/93-a-fantastic-quintet-of-peaks-in-the-cadomin-area
This is my first trip with Eric Coulthard and his friend, Jim. It's hard to find peak beggers especially in Edmonton. We also have similar fitness level. I hope to go with him for more trips in the future. Eric wanted to explore some places that he never got to before, namely Cadomin area. It's east of Jasper National Park boundary and south of Hinton, located in the front ranges. We drove to Cadomin in Friday evening and we were surprised about how much snow in the first range of front country in late May... Gosh this year isn't a good year for scrambling. We thought Edith Cavell won't get into shape the whole season..... Temperature isn't low generally but the massive amount of snowfall between March and May, especially in March, Oh well...
According to government map, there is supposed to be a camping site in Mountain Park, about 15km further from Cadomin. However, we did see no sign of camping area around except for the massive mine site and a grave area. Oh well, we had to camp at trail head, Cardinal Divide Viewpoint. This area has elevation of near 2000m, and there was lots of snow around. There was a certain feel of going back to winter again..., and none of us brought snowshoes. Eric and Jim didn't even bring ice axe and crampons, nor gaiters. Good thing is we start at treeline, and we might can have a good overnight freeze so the post-holing in the morning shouldn't be that bad.
Sunset Photos:
   
We woke up 5:30AM in the morning and set off at 6AM. Indeed the post-holing wasn't too bad. Mostly calf deep, but the snow always tried to give us surprise. Occasionally we punched through to our knees or thighs. We didn't take long to reach the correct ascent gully. Although it was snow covered, the snow wasn't deep enough to slide.
     
1. Dawn light, looking south from Cardinal Divide Viewpoint
2. Our ascent route
3. Looking down to Rocky Pass area
4. Jim and sunrise
5. Eric breaking trail for Jim and me
6. The ascending gully
The gully looks steep but actually it wasn't bad at all. There was just right amount of snow. If too deep, then we had to post-hole; if no snow, we had to deal with the tedious talus slope. We soon made to the first summit (Tripoli Mountain has three summits) at 8:30AM.
 
Eric and Jim following my steps up the gully.
Non of us has been to these mountains before, the view is breathtaking. Soon after topping out on the first summit, the long rockwall of Blackface Mountain came into views. The other side is the foothills and the prairie.
 
From the first summit, it's very straightforward to traverse to the second one. Again, most of the snow was calf deep, but occasionally knee deep. On the second summit, we got a good view of the third summit (the true summit), and Cheviot Mountain which you can say the 4th summit of the ridge. The true summit of Tripoli definitely looks interesting, several rock bands with mild exposure. And, to traverse to Cheviot would require dropping down to the valley floor and regain all of the elevation because there's a big cliff band blocking the direct route.
   
1. Traversing to the 2nd summit
2. From the 2nd summit. True summit in the foreground, with Cheviot Mtn in the background.
3. Blackface Mountain
4. An interesting cornice on the ridge
Jim wasn't confident with exposure so he decided to wait for Eric and me at the col between 2nd and 3rd summit. We gonna attempt the true summit from the most direct ridge line, which involves 2 short difficult scrambling sections even if dry. We got lots of snow there. I had one axe and crampons, but ended up not using them. To get over the first rock band involves a 2m climb with only very small holds, or precisely, friction holds. Soon after that, cross a narrow snow ridge, followed by a rock ridge with half the width of Lady MacDonald's summit ridge (this is the crux step)... The drop to left was about 5m followed by steep scree so wan't too bad, but you might gonna injure. To right, it's steep snow followed by cliff bands, so might be fatal. After this crux, there's a short 2m downclimb, followed by another rock band, we squeezed under it and traversed on the left. You don't want to slip here. Definitely a difficult scramble, but manageable. We took scrambling photos on the way down.
     
1. Me on the summit of Tripoli Mountain
2. The "squeeze and traverse" part
3. Climb up the 2m band
4. The crux, half width of Lady Mac's summit ridge. Photo doesn't show the exposure on the other side
5. Steep snow step-kick
6. Down-climb the 2m band with only friction holds.
Because the ridge isn't connecting between Tripoli and Cheviot, we had to drop down to the valley floor. From there, the route to Cheviot is straightforward (only an easy scramble), but very tedious due to scree.
    
1. Descending from Tripoli
2. The route to Cheviot and Little Cheviot from the valley floor
3. Looking back at Tripoli.
4. Almost at the col between Cheviot and Little Cheviot.
5. Pushing towards the summit of Cheviot Mountain
The summit of Cheviot is higher than Tripoli so offers better views. Towards east is the big mine site... I think they gonna expand to the whole area, and then these mountains will become inaccessible... Several 11,000ers are clearly visible, including Mount Robson, Edith Cavell, Fryatt, Warren and Brazeau. There's another high glaciated peak between Fryatt and Brazeau in the far distance. We though it would be North Twin, but according to the map, North Twin should be at further south. So the only possibility is Catacombs Mountain, a near 11,000er. Or probably a peak in Hooker Icefield area?
Summit view:
   
Little Cheviot is actually an unnamed peak between Cheviot and Prospect, but due to its location, it worth a visit. From the col, ascent about 200m on steep snow of scree to the summit. You can get a better perspective of Blackface Mountain and Climax Mountain, as well as the approach to Prospect. Clearly, Prospect is better be climbed from the other side.
   
We chose the snow route to descent form the Cheviot / Little Cheviot col. It's quite steep, but again, the snow is too shallow to slide. We glissade the last part of the slope and soon re-joined Jim at the base of Tripoli. From there, actually, the fastest way back to car is to re-ascend Tripoli and glide down its east slope. However, we decided to traverse around the SW side of the mountain. Well, we didn't know, by this way, we had actually about 17km to go, mostly side-hilling, boulder-hoping, post-holing, and bushwhacking, plus several stream crossing. However, the scenery in this alpine environment reduced the pain. We chose to stay high above the treeline, which means, less post-holing and bushwhacking but more side-hilling and boulder-hoping. At the south corner of the mountain we were forced to drop down to the bottom of Cardinal River valley due to several cliff bands. After half an hour's miserable post-holing on isothermal snow covered forest while bushwhacking, we found the ATV trail (the trail to Rocky Pass), which was a relief. This trail is partially covered with isothermal snow as well. The part with no snow was muddy unsupportive. This situation is quite common in spring time if you come back late. We also saw tracks of big grizzly, good thing we brought our bear sprays. The quad trail went on forever to join the road. From the road, we had to re-ascend the hill of Cardinal Divide Pass which is certainly more than 100m vertically.
    
I don't know how long it took us to get through this part, but overall, it's my longest trip so far, 16 hours round trip time is even longer than the one day ascent of Castleguard. I have to thank Eric for bringing me to this obscured place to do peak begging, as well as Jim, who accompanying us for this trip. Eric has good navigation skill. If it was me leading, I would take much longer time to get through the forest to find the quad track. I still remember on Midnight Peak in January, where my poor forest navigation skill led to a wrong ridge, as well as on Morro Peak in February, where I ran into miserable bushwhacking which was not necessary. I'm looking forward to the next trip with him.
On Sunday we were a bit tired so ended up doing a small ridge, Cardinal Divide Ridge. For photos: http://stevensong.fotki.com/canadian-rockies/cadomin--whitehorse/cardinal-divide-rid/
Eric's Summit Search has more information of peak identifying so please check it as well. |
Edited by - StevenSong on 06/14/2012 08:47 AM
|
|
155 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2012 : 5:59 PM
|
| Congrats guys! That was hardcore. Thanks for taking pictures of Blackface Mtn. It`s high on my hitlist. It`s one of the most significant mountains in the Rockies. |
|
|
Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2012 : 6:05 PM
|
Raff,
Blackface looks straightforward from our angle, and it's on our list too. Can't imagine the view from that huge rock wall. There're tens of other scrambles in that area too. We should plan a trip together to Cadomin.
Steven |
|
|
155 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2012 : 6:26 PM
|
| Sounds like a plan, Steven. I assume Blackface Mountain requires 3 days... Can it be done in 2 days? |
|
|
Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2012 : 6:43 PM
|
quote:
Originally posted by MtnNinja
Sounds like a plan, Steven. I assume Blackface Mountain requires 3 days... Can it be done in 2 days?
It can be done in one day. For Eric and I, we had bad snow condition and made bad decisions, and our friend, Jim, isn't as hardcore as us. Add all of these factors, we took 16 hours, honestly we could finish in 12 hours.
Blackface Mountain is longer than our trip, but doesn't involve that much of elevation gain. We had 2000m elevation gain the whole day, but Blackface Mtn should only have about 1100m or so. The ridge on that rock wall is quite straightforward. And the approach is via a quad road, so I would say 10-12 hours for fit party. Not sure if the ridge connects b/w Blackface and Climax, it looks serious but who knows.. If we have a bike for the quad road, then it's even better. |
|
|
155 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2012 : 6:58 PM
|
| This is very good information. Thanks. I will definately take my bike on this trip. |
|
|
Jasper, ab
Canada
1029 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 05:10 AM
|
Very well done. Great report and beautiful pictures of an area that I love.
Heres a picture of the summit block of Climax from the col between Climax and unnamed peak
|
|
|
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
331 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 07:03 AM
|
quote:
Originally posted by lobo
Very well done. Great report and beautiful pictures of an area that I love.
Heres a picture of the summit block of Climax from the col between Climax and unnamed peak
Thanks for the photo. It looks similar to the ridge on Tripoli. I would describe the crux of Tripoli as being similar to the summit ridge of Mount Lady Macdonald only much thinner and covered with snow. I'm still working on my photos. I hope to get them up soon. |
|
|
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
331 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 07:39 AM
|
quote:
Originally posted by MtnNinja
Sounds like a plan, Steven. I assume Blackface Mountain requires 3 days... Can it be done in 2 days?
Definitely 1 day. I drew up what I think would be the ascent route on summitsearch. The first 6.5km can be cycled. Then there is another 9.8km to the summit. The elevation gain would be about 1200m. It didn't look like the connecting ridge to Climax Mountain was easy. So maybe it is best to tackle Climax Mountain separately and grab Prospect Mountain while your there.
http://summitsearch.org/routes/145-blackface-mountain-traverse
Another peak that was particularly striking was Mount Balinhard http://summitsearch.org/features/1221-mount-balinhard. It is 3130m and looks like it could be done in 3 days. I have some good photos of it that I will post.
Other peaks that could be done in a long day are Deception Mountain and Mount Lindsay. Cardinal Mountain and Mount MacKenzie would also be nice day trips. There are lots of quad trails into the first range from the Forestry Trunk Road as well so other peaks like Mount Russel, Ruby Mountain and Thistle Mountain would probably be 1 or 2 day ascents with bikes. |
|
|
Jasper, ab
Canada
1029 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 07:52 AM
|
Eric, here's my TR from '09. You would have no problem summiting Climax and probably Blackface in one day. You could ride to within 4 kms of Climax. It's a wonderful bike trail.
There is a shorter way. You could bike up most of Prospect Mountain from the Prospect creek trail. They are mining in there, but I think the old roads are still there. I'm heading up there in June and I can let you know if the roads are still there.
http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32821
In this TR I mistakenly called the unnamed summit Prospect Mountain, in fact it's known as Little Climax (unofficial)
Usually this time of year there is a huge snow drift that blocks off the road right at the cardinal Divide picnic area. Can you tell me if it was still there or was the road passable to the south?
This picture may be of some help. The two peaks in the distance are Blackface and Climax.It's far, but you can see the ridge between them. I have a close up at home and if you want I can email it to you when I get home tonight. This picture was taken from Leyland Mountain
Here's a picture that I forgot about. I posted it on Summitsearch. It's Blackface from the col
http://www.summitsearch.org/features/5870-blackface-mountain
|
Edited by - lobo on 05/29/2012 09:19 AM |
|
|
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
617 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 08:15 AM
|
| Excellent TR from an area I'm very interested in as well. |
|
|
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
331 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 08:19 AM
|
quote:
Originally posted by lobo
Eric, here's my TR from '09. You would have no problem summiting Climax and probably Blackface in one day. You could ride to within 4 kms of Climax. It's a wonderful bike trail.
There is a shorter way. You could bike up most of Prospect Mountain from the Prospect creek trail. They are mining in there, but I think the old roads are still there. I'm heading up there in June and I can let you know if the roads are still there.
http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32821
In this TR I mistakenly called the unnamed summit Prospect Mountain, in fact it's known as Little Climax (unofficial)
Usually this time of year there is a huge snow drift that blocks off the road right at the cardinal Divide picnic area. Can you tell me if it was still there or was the road passable to the south?
This picture may be of some help. The two peaks in the distance are Blackface and Climax.It's far, but you can see the ridge between them. I have a close up at home and if you want I can email it to you when I get home tonight. This picture was taken from Leyland Mountain
Thanks for the report and photos. Looks so different in there without all the snow. I also think that one could ski up there by going over the first 2 summits of Tripoli and down into the valley the same way we went. Prospect Mountain could be a ski ascent. If we had gone up there a few weeks earlier that would have been a possibility. We might have needed a big truck in order to drive up to the Cardinal Divide though. From your picture it might be possible to grab Climax after getting to the summit of Blackface.
There was a snow patch blocking the road but we could have cleared it with a couple of shovels. It might be gone by the weekend. |
Edited by - ecoulthard on 05/29/2012 08:20 AM |
|
|
Edmonton
20 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2012 : 12:24 PM
|
| Very interesting - I have been meaning to check out this area sometime. |
|
|
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
331 Posts |
|
| gyppo
Intermediate Member
|
Edmonton, AB
Canada
746 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2012 : 10:50 PM
|
I'm pretty amazed you could drive all the way up to the high pass at this time of year. I decided against going there last week-end because I thought the road would still be snowed in! I'll try this week-end after seeing your TR! Thanks for the conditions update. Very nice pictures everyone, too!
I also live in Edmonton and like bagging peaks, especially obscure stuff. I like to do it over a couple of days or more, though!
B |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
Tripoli Mountain to Cheviot Mountain to GR752620
