Saturday, September 03, 2005
Mt. Indefatigable
I've been thinking about this one for awhile, and when Nony recommended it, well, that decided it. I was out there just after 8:00 in the morning, and after getting a little lost for a few minutes (ended up at the boat launch on the Upper Kananaskis Lake), I'm in the parking lot.
As I started across the dam to the trailhead, there's a conservation officer holding an antenna thing in the air. I asked what he was tracking, and was told there was a juvenile grizzly wandering along the east shore of the upper lake. So, OK, um... is this a good idea to be wandering the woods with grizzlies wandering the same area? Actually, he was quite reassuring, in that they spend a lot of time tracking and "training" the bears to avoid areas where humans concentrate. And while there are three or four grizzlies that den on Indefatigable for the winter, the berry crop is so good this year that they are staying in the low elevations for now. *whew*
Anyway, the time in the forest is pretty short, and then I'm scrambling up a fairly steep stretch, over rock slab and loose gravel. After that, there's a lookout, with a bench, and a nearly sheer drop to the Lower Kananaskis Lake behind it. This is the view of the upper lake and Mt. Sarrail.
Here is the parking lot between the upper and lower lakes.
I don't have a name for the valley in the background, but the ridge on the left is the Elk Range. The Alberta - B.C. border cuts across the valley a couple of kilometres south of the lakes, and follows the top of this ridge.
As you go along the edge of the cliff from this point to the official end of the trail, the view just keeps improving. About twenty metres from the end of trail sign, is a path leading away from the ridge edge into the forest. This leads to a cirque below the peak of Indefatigable. That's it on the right of the first picture, and the left of the second.
Off the right edge of the last picture is a ridge with a path that I followed to the top. Over this ridge, it drops all the way to the lower lake again, about 700 metres. This is a look at the saddle between it and Indefatigable from that ridge.
And another shot once I was totally lined up with the ridge.
And I played with the timer thingy on my camera again. This is the top of the ridge, with my hand on the top of the highest point of it. The lower lake is about two metres farther to the left of this picture, and 700+ metres down, which is why I'm not standing. The edge was just a little too close.
The view from this point is breathtaking. To the west is the Opal Range on the opposite side of the valley. You can see highway 40 following it into a gap between it and the Elk range. Straight north is the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail, which leads to Canmore.
In the bottom of the saddle between the ridge and the peak of Indefatigable, there is a curious line. One side is mostly a rusty orange gravel, while the other is the light grey stuff. It's about as sharp as if it had been masked and painted.
The line seems to follow the absolute lowest line of the saddle. Very strange.
The far side of the ridge drops steeply into a deep bowl with two small lakes at the bottom.
And this is the look back toward the south.
As I continued toward the peak, I met another gentleman stopped for a snack. He and I talked for awhile, then continued on. He was game to try and go to the top, and there was a path of sorts that zig-zagged toward it over the rock. It looked dicey to me, but I was game for awhile. We finally got to a small overhang that I couldn't get past, so I said good luck and headed back down. The overhang looks like a cave in the picture. If I curled up in the fetal position, I would probably just fit inside. It was because it was so small that I couldn't get past it. If I could have stood up, I think I would have been able to continue.
According to the GPS data I later downloaded that point is only twenty metres below the top of the peak, so I was close.
Just before I went down, I took this picture of the ridge to the south that this guy was following.
Standing below this looking up at it, you don't see how narrow it is, like a knife-edge that goes for a couple of kilometres. I watched him as I decended into the cirque, and finally lost sight of him as I entered the trees again.
Looking the other way from the top, is another ridge looking over the valley with the two lakes. The ridge leads to another mountain in the series, Mt. Invincible. It's rather impressively narrow, too.
The smaller peak over the ridge is Mt. Nomad. I don't have any info on the ridge behind that.
The trip down was uneventful, as it always seems to be. All the interesting stuff has already been discovered on the way up, and after four or so hours, I'm tired and hungry, and looking forward to getting to the car. Lot's of people were coming up, though. I supposed it was one last outing before the school year starts.
As I started across the dam to the trailhead, there's a conservation officer holding an antenna thing in the air. I asked what he was tracking, and was told there was a juvenile grizzly wandering along the east shore of the upper lake. So, OK, um... is this a good idea to be wandering the woods with grizzlies wandering the same area? Actually, he was quite reassuring, in that they spend a lot of time tracking and "training" the bears to avoid areas where humans concentrate. And while there are three or four grizzlies that den on Indefatigable for the winter, the berry crop is so good this year that they are staying in the low elevations for now. *whew*
Anyway, the time in the forest is pretty short, and then I'm scrambling up a fairly steep stretch, over rock slab and loose gravel. After that, there's a lookout, with a bench, and a nearly sheer drop to the Lower Kananaskis Lake behind it. This is the view of the upper lake and Mt. Sarrail.
Here is the parking lot between the upper and lower lakes.
I don't have a name for the valley in the background, but the ridge on the left is the Elk Range. The Alberta - B.C. border cuts across the valley a couple of kilometres south of the lakes, and follows the top of this ridge.
As you go along the edge of the cliff from this point to the official end of the trail, the view just keeps improving. About twenty metres from the end of trail sign, is a path leading away from the ridge edge into the forest. This leads to a cirque below the peak of Indefatigable. That's it on the right of the first picture, and the left of the second.
Off the right edge of the last picture is a ridge with a path that I followed to the top. Over this ridge, it drops all the way to the lower lake again, about 700 metres. This is a look at the saddle between it and Indefatigable from that ridge.
And another shot once I was totally lined up with the ridge.
And I played with the timer thingy on my camera again. This is the top of the ridge, with my hand on the top of the highest point of it. The lower lake is about two metres farther to the left of this picture, and 700+ metres down, which is why I'm not standing. The edge was just a little too close.
The view from this point is breathtaking. To the west is the Opal Range on the opposite side of the valley. You can see highway 40 following it into a gap between it and the Elk range. Straight north is the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail, which leads to Canmore.
In the bottom of the saddle between the ridge and the peak of Indefatigable, there is a curious line. One side is mostly a rusty orange gravel, while the other is the light grey stuff. It's about as sharp as if it had been masked and painted.
The line seems to follow the absolute lowest line of the saddle. Very strange.
The far side of the ridge drops steeply into a deep bowl with two small lakes at the bottom.
And this is the look back toward the south.
As I continued toward the peak, I met another gentleman stopped for a snack. He and I talked for awhile, then continued on. He was game to try and go to the top, and there was a path of sorts that zig-zagged toward it over the rock. It looked dicey to me, but I was game for awhile. We finally got to a small overhang that I couldn't get past, so I said good luck and headed back down. The overhang looks like a cave in the picture. If I curled up in the fetal position, I would probably just fit inside. It was because it was so small that I couldn't get past it. If I could have stood up, I think I would have been able to continue.
According to the GPS data I later downloaded that point is only twenty metres below the top of the peak, so I was close.
Just before I went down, I took this picture of the ridge to the south that this guy was following.
Standing below this looking up at it, you don't see how narrow it is, like a knife-edge that goes for a couple of kilometres. I watched him as I decended into the cirque, and finally lost sight of him as I entered the trees again.
Looking the other way from the top, is another ridge looking over the valley with the two lakes. The ridge leads to another mountain in the series, Mt. Invincible. It's rather impressively narrow, too.
The smaller peak over the ridge is Mt. Nomad. I don't have any info on the ridge behind that.
The trip down was uneventful, as it always seems to be. All the interesting stuff has already been discovered on the way up, and after four or so hours, I'm tired and hungry, and looking forward to getting to the car. Lot's of people were coming up, though. I supposed it was one last outing before the school year starts.
# posted by Kelly @ 5:22 p.m. 
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