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Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 5:02 PM
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The day after my epic ascent of Mount Fullerton, Nihahi Ridge, and Compression Ridge, I woke up at 10:30am in my car at Little Elbow Trailhead, under mostly cloudy sky. There's no reception in that area, so I couldn't get the latest version of weather forecast. On Wednesday evening, it was forecasted to be partly cloudy...
Cloudy sky always makes me less ambitious. Elbow River was on the verge of flooding, so any mountain that requires fording a river would be impossible. I debated my objective for a while. I was thinking about doing Cougar Mountain (without a bike). If it was a clear sky day, I would definitely go for it, but oh well... And I knew I would get a bike soon, so why not just wait for next time.. I finally kept my eye on Powderface Ridge, a hikers' summit just east of Nihahi Ridge. It has two possible approaches, one from the end of Highway 66, and the other is from 7km up Powderface Trail. I personally want to avoid gravel road for as much as I can, so I chose to park at the end of Highway 66, despite the longer distance and higher elevation gain.
Of course I couldn't go up as fast as the day before, but I still managed to hike with a steady pace. What I couldn't expect was the thunderstorm. Just about getting over the 1st grassy col, I heard thunders from SE direction, and looking back, that area was already soaked in... At my pace, I still need a lot of time to get to the real summit. I continued for about 0.5km to the next col, where I met a group of 4 from Bragg Creek. They didn't make to the summit and they told me the forecasted afternoon thunderstorm... Oh shoot...
I needed to make decision quick. Even though I've done some crazy scrambles, I haven't experienced thunderstorms before. And among the 65 summits I've done so far, I only ran into showers for 2 times (quick rain shower on St Piran; light snow fall on Burstall Pass Peak). I don't have much knowledge about thunders, what I know is, it will strike you if you're on the ridge crest or summit, or things like that. Given the grey sky and the less scenic summit view, there's no need to push on whatsoever. I quickly chose a small outlier 5min away from the col, got quick photos from there, and quickly descent to join the group from Bragg Creek. About 20min from car, we got soaked in...
I've never expected my first failed attempt in 2012 is a just a hike... But there's no joke about thunderstorms, right?
Some quick photos:
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
217 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 5:51 PM
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Turning back was the sensible thing to do. Aside form the strike risk on exposed, elevated terrain, I've heard that mountains can be an interesting place to be once a charge starts building up in the ground (frequent static shocks, sparks off equipment, etc.). Can't say that I'm in any rush to gain any first hand experience of this.
I've been wondering, do you ever get hassled while car camping? Or is that an accepted practice in the rockies?
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974 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 6:00 PM
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thunderstorms and avalanches are my biggest fear out here.
I've had 2 scary experiences with lightning,the first being on mt.wilcox. we were just coming down off the top when sparks started coming off the top of my head inside my toque ,weird noises coming from it aswell and my ice axe was also pinging as we downscrambled as fast as we could.
Don't mess with thunderstorms!!
i car camped in the rockies for almost 2 whole summers and i only had trouble when i parked in an area that was strictly signed as a day use area. If you use pulloffs on the side of the highway,you shouldn't have a problem. It is supposed to be illegal in the park i think,but i just made sure to use the roadside pulloffs,like semis do. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 6:10 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Arcturus
Turning back was the sensible thing to do. Aside form the strike risk on exposed, elevated terrain, I've heard that mountains can be an interesting place to be once a charge starts building up in the ground (frequent static shocks, sparks off equipment, etc.). Can't say that I'm in any rush to gain any first hand experience of this.
I've been wondering, do you ever get hassled while car camping? Or is that an accepted practice in the rockies?
I've never seen a rule on that. If so, I think only in National Parks. But I've car camped most of the nights in the Rockies and never got a problem. Usually on summer weekends, you gonna have some fellow campers in the same parking lot.
Kane mentions park rangers do check sometimes at trailhead, but I would suggest, go sleep after 10pm (find a place to hand around, like city center, or lake shore, etc), or just park at town center (Information center, MacDonalds), or a popular backcountry access trailhead (Bow Lake for example). On April, I just parked beside a Yamuska School bus. There were more than 10 cars at Bow Lk, and I don't think rangers will bother to check these places.
Or, even just driving out of the Parks is cheaper than a 30 bucks per night camping. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
468 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 6:19 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by nmcan84
thunderstorms and avalanches are my biggest fear out here.
I've had 2 scary experiences with lightning,the first being on mt.wilcox. we were just coming down off the top when sparks started coming off the top of my head inside my toque ,weird noises coming from it aswell and my ice axe was also pinging as we downscrambled as fast as we could.
Don't mess with thunderstorms!!
i car camped in the rockies for almost 2 whole summers and i only had trouble when i parked in an area that was strictly signed as a day use area. If you use pulloffs on the side of the highway,you shouldn't have a problem. It is supposed to be illegal in the park i think,but i just made sure to use the roadside pulloffs,like semis do.
Oh yeah, road side pull-off works as well. I slept at Lac Des Arcs on my first winter night. I prefer Info Centers better ;), especially the one in Canmore. Truckers use that one to sleep as well.
Thunder and Avalanche are something we can't control. It's not about experience or ability, it will get to us no matter how good we are... Well, avalanche risk can be reduced by carefully route finding, but thunderstorms... NO way, unless you want to stay at the valley bottom for the trip. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
217 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 8:31 PM
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| Good to know! A picnic table and an outhouse isn't exactly a great return on $35 (the prov. park sites are kind of ridiculous) when all you want is an early start near a particular mountain. |
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Calgary, AB
49 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2012 : 1:48 PM
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Thanks for sharing StevenSong.
Well I have first hand experience of a T-storm in the mountains. Scary sh*t? Yes. Avoidable? If you can predict weather in AB mountains, yes, but last time I checked they couldn't reach 100% accuracy ;). Something to be terrified into unconsciousness? Not likely.
We had our camp set in a cirque by the tarn when we realized that T storm is about to begin. You know how that feels, right? Electricity in the air combined with dark cloud which followed our from tracks from down below left no room for doubt. We grabbed all our iron or metal crap - pitons, ice axes, crampons and hauled it good 200yrds away from the tent (an overkill but it did not fell this way at the moment).
Then small metal parts of tent frame (we had fiberglass poles) buzzed with static, bolts (pink in colour) started to hit cliffs below us in the valley. They were very bright, almost straight, horizontal - hitting cliffs at the same level as clouds. And very, very thick. Each thunder felt like a series of shockwaves, in all body parts.
In 20 minutes or so it was over. If it wasn't camp, I'd stay off the ridges, stay put, and again get rid of all metal as I safely can.
I'm sure there are more reliable sources of guidelines what to do if caught by T-storm in the mountains.
PS My second close encounter was at sea on a little sail boat. I tell you - t-storm in the mountains is NOTHING compared to that! |
Edited by - V1 on 06/12/2012 10:41 AM |
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Calgary, Alberta
47 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2012 : 12:11 PM
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| Had a nice evening "stroll" up Powderface Ridge on Monday evening from Rainy Pass. about 500 M elevation gain. I used my bike from the pass and rode in a SSW direction on old skid roads (no elevaiton loss and monir gain). Started toward eastern outlier of Powderface ridge by climbing SE ridge. do not climb to the summit of the outlier. You can skirt it about 40 M below thesummit which will bring you the pass and offical Powderface trail. Cross the pass and target for left (South) of summit of Powderface Ridge above Pass (not offical summit). There is some flagging and cairns in places but mostly follow your nose. Avoid dense growth (duh). One can link meadows and open areas most of the way. |
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Powderface Ridge Attempt
