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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
1193 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2012 : 1:56 PM
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2012-07-28
Distance: 22 km (roundtrip)
Elevation gain: 1400 meters
I've hesitated doing Copper Mountain because of the bike approach. I had never gone on the Redearth Creek trail and I didn't know it was basically a road. The bike approach was quite easy. A few hills on the way up, but lots of fun on the way down.
What I wasn't expecting on this trip were the insane number of mosquitoes. I can't describe how bad they were. I thought about turning twice, mainly because of the mosquitoes. They were aggressive and they seemed to be biting even with bug spray on. I reapplied bug spray five times, the most I've ever done this. I still got bit. They bit me on the face, between the fingers, and I almost got bitten on the eyelid! One landed on my eye lash. I could see it, but because I was riding down hill, I could not safely reach it. These swarms of mosquitoes made this scramble one of my most miserable trips to date.
We stashed our bike at the small campsite following the bridge crossing of Redearth Creek. We followed a faint path from the food storage area to the open slopes below the mountain. Here I could see how it would be tempting to look for a way up, but we circled around the pinnacle on our right and looked for a weakness in the way of a gully. We stayed pretty high and approached the ascent gully in a diagonal line. I would suggest staying low until you see the gully, because the steep hillside was not all that fun to traverse.
The gully we ascended was fairly straight forward and looked like an obvious way up when we first saw it. The scrambling is mainly easy but could go into moderate depending on the route. Near the top was a snowpatch. We topped out just to the left of it. The way the terrain was, we expected to top out on a ridge which we would take to the summit. Instead, we topped out on a fairly flat top the size of a football field!
The views were quite nice from the top. Several prominent peaks could be seen in the distance. A summit marker and a large cairn marked the highest point. There was a cord that looked like it may have been linked to one of those centennial registers, but the register itself was no where to be found. Unless it's buried deep in the summit cairn. A very cold wind and stormy skies ushered us off the summit.
Photos
         
Map
[Download GPS Track]
More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markostavric/sets/72157630833469794/ |
Edited by - Marko on 07/31/2012 1:56 PM
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
467 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2012 : 3:51 PM
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| I wear long pants for these days just because of the mosquitos. Terrible... |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
110 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2012 : 4:01 PM
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| Nice scramble :-) How did it look across the way on Pilot? |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
1193 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2012 : 5:02 PM
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| Steven, I wrote long pants. I still got bitten everywhere. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
1193 Posts |
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Golden, BC
37 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2012 : 10:56 AM
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| Sweet...I feel your pain with the bugs, they are bad everywhere.... |
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972 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2012 : 11:18 AM
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| i was thinking of trying this one this summer. i like the big football field sized summit. |
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737 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2012 : 1:57 PM
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Marko: Sweet photo of Pilot! I went up there last summer and you can easily see Spirko's route (which I took).
Regarding the mosquitos, I have a funny story that relates to the same area last week. My family and I were driving to Windermere last Tuesday when just before Castle Junction on Hwy 1 my 2 1/2 year old son shouts out, "Pipi!" Not thinking that he was going to make it to Castle Junction, we pulled over at the side of the road. It didn't take long before the mosquitos found me (not my son, thankfully!). I was completely defenseless...holding my son in a semi-squatting position with one arm while directing his 'thing' with my other hand. I had 3 mosquitos on my arm in an area the size of a twoonie, not to mention legs, neck, face, etc.
No word of a lie, I think it was my son's longest pee, too! If I was to measure my success as a parent by how dry my son's pants were by the end of the experience...
Regards,
Granticulus
P.S. Don't tell me, "Too much information!" |
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737 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2012 : 1:59 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by nmcan84
i was thinking of trying this one this summer. i like the big football field sized summit.
nmcan: Have you seen Pilot's and Whymper's summits? |
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972 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2012 : 4:40 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Granticulus
quote:
Originally posted by nmcan84
i was thinking of trying this one this summer. i like the big football field sized summit.
nmcan: Have you seen Pilot's and Whymper's summits?
i have been up whymper,but not pilot yet. when i was on whymper it was foggy,so i didn't get to see how big the summit area was. |
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Copper Mountain
