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Edmonton, AB
Canada
464 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2012 : 9:46 PM
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Here is the list of my top 6 of big days:
1. Newman Peak to Anderson Peak 8-Traverse (July 2012)
2. Mount Fullerton to Nihahi Ridge to Compression Ridge, no bike, no car-shuffle (June 2012)
3. Castleguard Mountain, snowshoeing (May 2012)
4. Mount Gordon to St Nicolas Peak, snowshoeing car to car (April 2012)
5. Tripoli Mountain to Cheviot Mountain to GR752620, isothermic snow, postholing (May 2012)
6. Opal Cone to The Gargoyles, Vancouver, BC (October 2009)
After finishing Crowsnest Mountain, we drove to Pincher Creek. The plan for Monday was to head to Waterton for one of the three long traverses, Blakiston to Lineham, Newman to Avion, or Anderson to Bauerman. None of them would require more than 10 hours though, so we decided to just sleep at Pincher Creek, rather than driving to trail head. This way we could have better food in the morning.
I always have trouble waking up early, both in the mountains and at home. The only way to let me wake up early is being dragged up by someone else. My mom dragged me up for the ascent of Mt Lawrence Grassi and Windtower 3 weeks ago. We set alarm at 4:30PM, which obviously didn't work. It did wake me up, and I reset it to 5:30AM, and it failed again... Okay we woke up pretty much at 7:30AM. After some quick breakfast in Tim Hortons, we started the drive to Waterton at 8AM, and arrived at trail head almost 8:40AM. Because Mount Anderson was covered in clouds by the time we arrived, we chose our objective to Newman Peak. 5 minutes into the trail, I realized I left my food in trunk, damn, we had to go back again. So we really just started at 9:00AM.
Road Trip Photos:
  
Route Map:
Stats:
Distance: 43.2km
Elevation Gain: 3700m
Difficulty: Easy Scramble
Round Trip Time: 15.75 hours (On full force)
The initial trudge on Snowshoe Trail went by pretty fast. Actually you can bike on the approach, and we did saw several mountain bikers. My advise for taking a bike is, if you indeed only plan on Newman to Avion traverse. If you changed your plan like we did, you gonna have to add distance to retreat your bike. I usually don't have an exact plan (or won't follow my plan), especially if I can link up several mountains together. I planed on Mount Fullerton, but ended up doing Fullerton to Nihahi to Compression Ridge with only 1 car, and no bike. I should have added Mt Olive to the already-long day of Gordon + Nick, if I have more space in my camera memory...
  
We soon reached the junction where Goat Lake Trail starts, and we took a right turn. On Goat Lake Trail, we were distracted by the flowers and waterfalls. I've never seen these colorful stuffs in the Central Rockies though. The trail was a bit overgrown at places, but easy to follow even according to hiker's standard. We arrived at Goat Lake under a cloudy sky, but we were still lucky to have the reflections in the lake. The trail beyond the lake was snowbound, but good sets of foot prints led us up, skirting around all the rock bands. The snow was very supportive. If we had to post-hole like the day on Cheviot Mountain, we wouldn't have made it. After reaching treeline, we didn't have to deal with snow, and a good trail led us to the col between Avion and Newman. Newman Peak was just to our right, so we ascent it without taking a break. From the summit, we could see a higher point immediately to our east, after double checking my Gem Trek Map, we were confirmed that this is Newman Peak, and that is an unnamed peak GR127513 (11:58AM).
        
We left our packs on the summit, and started the descent to Spionkop Ridge soon. To get there, you have to lose about 200m elevation, which is quite tedious and you have to re-ascend it on the way back. If you want to admire the colors in Southern Rockies, I highly recommend doing Spionkop Ridge, especially under a partially cloudy sky. You gonna see blue, white, red, orange, yellow, black, green, all in one photo. On the way down, we saw a couple of people descending from Spionkop. I told Eric that they would have been Jeff and Andrea, because I knew exactly their plan for the weekend (my shoulder would die if I have to carry those packs for 5500m elevation / 60km distance in 3 days, actually I've never done a backpacking trip so I don't know the feeling of big pack). Indeed, they were Jeff, Andrea, and Aga. They were surprised that I didn't go to Jasper according to the plan. The rain and flood prevented us from heading to Jasper though. The scree on Spionkop Ridge was very firm which helped a lot. Just as mentioned above, the view towards Drywood / Loaf / Roche was extremely colorful. You won't get this in Banff and K-Country for sure. Because we didn't bring food nor water up, we didn't stay on the summit except for taking panoramas (1:00PM).
  
The next thing to do was to get back to the summit of Newman Peak, note the 200m elevation re-gain... We used more rocks on the way up that section. I managed to get back to Newman summit about 20 second after Jeff's group left. Okay, the next thing I found out was the rocks in my pack... Thanks guys. Checking the map, I found that it might be possible to traverse to Mt Glendowen from GR127513, therefore Eric and I carried our packs while ascending GR127513. It's just a slog to get to this higher unnamed summit (2:10PM). Again, unnamed doesn't mean not-worthy. This viewpoint is considerably higher than the surroundings including Newman Peak. Eric named this one "New Glendowan Peak". We weren't 100% sure about the possibility to get to Glendowan, better safe than sorry, so we went back soon. Since we didn't left our packs on the summit of Newman, we were able to side-slope around to save some elevation.
     
Our next objective was Avion Ridge. I saw Jeff, Aga, and Andrea's packs sitting at the col between Newman and Avion. The route on Gem Trek map shows skirting around the first summit, but we didn't feel like doing this. We'd like to stay on the ridge top. We did get some interesting views from the first summit of Avion Ridge, especially the forested snow and trees, with the red rock in background. To get to the true summit of Avion Ridge, we had to descend about 100m to a col. The scree ski was pleasant and fast. We met Jeff's group again on the way up to the true summit. We briefly discussed our plan for the rest of the day. On a near-windless day in Waterton, it's worthy to push on. In no time we were standing on our 4th summit of the day, Avion Ridge. It was already 3PM, and we had to make an important decision at here.
1. Go back via Goat Lake Trail
2. Get to Twin Lakes for photos, then descent via Snowshoe Trail
3. Get to Sage Pass, grab several unnamed summits on the continental divide and Kishinena Peak, and go back via Blakiston Valley.
4. Get to Bauerman Divide, do the Anderson - Bauerman traverse reversely, get back via Blakiston Valley.
Option 1 was very unimpressive and less ambitious. We both felt optimistic about energy and time so our goal was to at least get to Twin Lakes and make the final decision at there.
  
 (Avion 1st summit)
  
 (Avion true summit)
There was a trail leading us down the other side of Avion Ridge towards Castle Rive Divide. The trail was snowbound at places but a good set of footprints helped a lot. We got a good glance towards Lost Lake and Twin Lakes, and our destination, Bauerman Divide looked quite far away. And we had to drop all the way down to valley floor first. Once getting down into the forest, we lost the views. My strategy for perseverance here was, dividing this part into several smaller sections. We had to get to Castle River Divide first, then descent to the junction to Lost Lake, then to junction at Snowshoe Trail, followed by ascending to Twin Lakes, and then ascending to Bauerman Divide. The trail was snow free from Castle River Divide to junction at Snowshoe Trail, and partially flooded to Twin Lakes. Since we couldn't get distracted by the views, we passed by this section on a fast pace. There was a huge avalanche slope down the north face of Mt Bauerman, and the debris buried a good section of the trail. We briefly discussed the option of directly ascending this slope but Eric wanted to see Twin Lakes first so we kept our original plan. It was 3.5km from Snowshoe Trail to Twin Lakes, and we were treated with spectacular views at the Lakes. Eric was out of water here and had to refill. The streams were too shallow for his water bag, but I managed to use my small water bottle to fill water, so we were okay. The crux of the trip was to get to Bauerman Divide. Note we didn't have an ice axe so ascending that big slope was a bit nervous. Nothing too dangerous though, but we didn't want to slide neither cause we didn't want to lose unnecessary elevation. We managed getting up to the Divide without incidence but because I did the step kicking, the snow exhausted me quite a bit.
          
It was 6:45PM when we arrived at Bauerman Divide, so we still had 4 more hours of daylight time. None of us felt short of energy so I said "I don't see a reason why we can't make to Anderson". It made no sense if we couldn't get to Anderson in 4 hours.. The lower section up Mt. Bauerman was step-kicking on forest snow with slight bushwhacking. Again, it was all about perseverance to get up this peak. I had to slow down quite a bit on the upper slope because I haven't been eating much (one chocolate bar and one muffin by this point). I told myself to have a short break on the summit, so because I hadn't reached the summit, I wouldn't stop to eat. Eric wasn't too fast at this point neither so I didn't slow down the group. I had one of my A&W Papa Burgers on the summit (7:30PM).
 
No summit stay except for the burger, we soon started the descent towards Bauerman - Kootenai Brown col. It looked like involving quite a bit of elevation loss, but when we got there, it wasn't too bad. At this time of the day, the only good view is towards east, due to the low angled sun (not low enough for sunset shots). We were happy that our route was towards east. There were some treed sections on the col, but no bushwhacking involved. At one time, we used a large cornice to get around trees (not recommended though). Eric took the lead for the rest of the way up Kootenai Brown Peak (8:26PM). Nothing difficult, but just slog and slog.
   
From the summit of Kootenai Brown, we could see the rest of the way up Lost and Anderson. I can describe the route from Bauerman Divide to Anderson Peak as 4-big-slog. The descent parts were pretty fast and easy and you can just ignore them. On the way down Kootenai Brown, we did probably the first hands-on scrambling of the day. It definitely added some fun to the boring slogging. There were several big boulder fields to negotiate on the way up Lost Mountain, and we had to be extremely careful not to twist ankle (I almost did and that moment scared me a lot). I would be in a big trouble if I got injured. For the summit panorama on Lost, I had to use sunset mode towards NW, and scenery mode towards SE. I waited for about 10min on the summit but Eric still didn't show up (9:00PM), in order to beat sunset on Anderson summit, I started the final trudge on my own.
     
There were still quite a bit of boulders to deal with to get down Lost Mountain. When I got down to the Lost-Anderson col, Eric showed up on the summit of Lost. I left my backpack on the col, and started the final trudge. This slope is very foreshortened and according to topo map, you gonna have to ascend more than 200m here. From here to the summit of Anderson, I got probably the most spectacular view of the day, sunset towards NW over the peaks in the Purcells; giants in Glacier National Park with low angled sun beams on towards south; a full moon rise over Mount Blakiston towards SE ! I successfully beat the sunset on the summit of Anderson (9:42PM). I also found the first summit register of the day, but the pen was in very bad shape... I could hardly write on the book. 15min later, Eric showed up and we cheered for this giant achievement! What a day. It was not the time to think about the descent, but rather just admiring the views. (Too bad Marko wasn't here, or with his skill and camera, oh well).
             
We used the ascend gully (between Lost and Anderson) to descent. I was too lazy to read thoroughly Nugara's direction. Big lesson... The initial part went by pretty quick, scree ski and short cliff bands. After about 20min down, Eric said we should have went left to the major snow line which would be much faster. We refilled water as well. The downside for the snow line was, we couldn't stay too close to the middle, as we could see a big hole from above, just like crevasses. Eric has better skiing skill and he enjoyed boot skiing down that line, while I used the grass and scree / talus on skier's left. The gully went on forever, and we eventually reached the bush part. We thought the bushes were better to skier's right so we crossed the stream... BIG MISTAKE. (In Nugara's book, it says climber's right, so skier's left...) We didn't even know there was a big scary waterfall down, especially doing all of these on headlamps. For the next 1 hour or so, it was mainly negotiating thick bushwhacking just like our first day in west Castle. Oh man, and we had to try not slipping as a fall would send us down to that waterfall... Extremely miserable. Eric has the better skill so he took the lead. Even just following, I almost fell once for every minute... Need more bushwhacking experience! Anyway, we made it down to Blakiston Valley trail without mishap. I didn't take photos in the dark so I don't know how long it took us to get down. Looking back, the mountain was shone by moon light, and view was very spectacular. Too bad my camera sucks at taking picture in dark (blur for 99 our of 100)... Again, Marko you should be here :) That gully we took on descent was extremely long, and went on forever. I don't know how's the feeling of ascending it. Most people use that for ascending Anderson though.
The rest of the day was a 4km slog on a maintained trail back to car, on headlamps of course. There was nothing to describe here except for perseverance. The downside was, we missed all of the views in this valley. Anyway, I had to come back for Lone Mountain, Kishinena Peak, and a couple of unnamed peaks on the continental divide. We made back to car by 0:45, so a total of 15 hours 45 minutes for the entire day.
I ate my other burger in the car, and rested for about half an hour. Eric had to work on Tuesday, so I had to drive to Edmonton all the way from Waterton Lakes. I didn't feel like driving fast in dark, so mostly 10-20kph BELOW the speed limit. I took 4 breaks along the way, the most terrible and exhausting part of the trip. The gas stations in Pincher Creek were closed, damn, but thankfully I could drive to High River for gas, or we would have been stuck. We got sunrise views in Calgary. Arrive at Edmonton by 8:30AM, so Eric was about 2h late for work. But he told me his boss's a big fun of his trips so it should be okay. I managed not to sleep the rest of the day, in order not to mess up my sleeping schedule. I need to mention here that, I've done lots of all nighter things during the past 2 years, mostly in Grade 12 though, including a drive from Vancouver to Jasper & Hinton to Edmonton, starting at 10PM.
I'm not sure if this will qualify for the "summer trip of the year", as I have at least three other plans that can potentially beat this loop:
1. Mount Northover to Worthington to McHarg
2. Berg Lake to Snowbird Pass to Titkana Peak
3. Turbine Canyon to Mount Jellicoe to North Kananaskis Pass |
Edited by - StevenSong on 07/05/2012 12:56 PM
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Peak scrambling, camera dodgin', knife toting gal who hikes with panties on pack & hangs clothes in trees
Port Coquitlam, BC
Canada
412 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2012 : 11:34 PM
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| Looking forward to it! |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
1186 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2012 : 12:15 PM
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| Nice shots Steven! Thanks also for the nice comments. |
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 Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13440 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2012 : 12:23 PM
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That is one awesome kickass trip.
Did you guys did some sleep-walking to catch some rest and remain sharp ?
Awesome writeup, and beautiful pictures, of a lot high alpine country. Looks like a ton of fun....
I wonder how far can the human body be pushed to cover that distance and time with only a small amount of nourishment.
K |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
216 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2012 : 3:19 PM
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| Wow... that's all I have to say. And then driving all the way back to Edmonton!!~ |
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calgary
32 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2012 : 6:25 PM
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| Too bad about the rocks in your pack. |
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Newman Peak to Anderson Peak, Big-8-Loop-Traverse
