Saturday, June 09, 2007
Moose Mountain Reprise - The North Peak
Today was planned to be a group hike, but the group couldn't make it, so it ended up being a solo. On the plus side, I was able to connect with a friend for coffee this morning, since I didn't have to rendezvous with people, but I didn't get to the trail head until just after noon.
This is an interesting one to get to. The road up branches off Highway 66 just before Elbow Falls, and continues several kilometres up to the top of the ridge. And, you leave the highway at around 1500 metres altitude, and arrive at the parking area at just under 2000 metres. It's quite a climb.
The trail along the ridge to branches in a couple of places, to trails that run down the east side and back to Bragg Creek. This makes it a popular loop for mountain bikers, and they were out in spades today. I passed several on the drive up, and there were several more on the trail and even on the mountain. The trail on the lower front peak is actually a road, probably built before they got a helicopter pad on the top. It's also likely it was built for access to the many gas wells in the area.
The parking lot was full when I arrived, and there were several cars lining the road outside as well. I found a spot, changed my shoes and headed out. It was a pretty grey day up there, though for some reason, this didn't impinge on my consciousness until I was above the tree line and wondering if I would get to use my rain gear.
I met several groups coming down, and passed a few going up. The trudge through the forest was uneventful, though. Much like any other trudge through the forest.
At the front peak, which is more rounded flat, there were several climbing the straight up path, several more taking the switchback, and four cyclists leaning into it, near the top. I did the straight up path, though I took the road along the north side instead of straight over the top. There were even people running down the path. It made my knees ache just to watch.
I finally put my Air Miles to good use and got a camera. This is the first view of the main and north peaks.
You can see that formidible northeast face, and to the right, the north peak, which is what I was aiming for. Here's another view, across the chasm east of the ridge that joins the peaks.
Check out that inviting sky!
I climbed to the helicopter pad, signed the guest book, and sat and snacked, and contemplated my objective.
The trail is well marked, but the first four hundred metres, is accompanied by a vertical drop of about 130 metres. There's a bit of scrambling, and in a few places, I had to back down so I could hold on to things with my hands. One particularly tricky scramble didn't have much for feet or hands to grab on to, in addition to being slicked up by seeping water. But I did find some.
Once past the trickiest part, I found myself at the south end of the ridge where it met with the cliff face that you can see in the first picture. Here's a shot looking the other way.
Yup, the top is about a hundred metres up. And I believe that's downtown Calgary on the horizon, roughly centred on the picture.
And this is the ridge from there to the north peak.
At this point, I have a little over a kilometre to go.
The ridge was a little challenging. It's almost all loose rock, flakes of limestone and larger boulders. In some places the rubble isn't too stable, and it moves when you step on it. Not too bad for the hand-size flakes, but some of those boulders are likely a couple of hundred kilograms or more. Mostly they just rock underfoot, but that puts demands on your balance. Every edge is sharp, so falling on this stuff would hurt.
There was a large boulder, actually a part of the ridge that hadn't collapsed yet, and it stood up blocky and in the way. I ended up climbing along the west side, as it wasn't quite as intimidating as the other side. Here and there, I had to scramble up some steeper parts.
In one stretch was a crevasse, not deep, but with a large snowbank in the middle. I sidled along one side of it, until the crevasse narrowed enough for me to step over it.
The farther I got, the easier it became. I found that if I stayed on the very top of the ridge, it was flat, and even grassy. It was just that shear drop a metre to the right that was a little unnerving. But eventually it spread out a little, and after some scrambling on the scree, I was at the top.
Not much to it really. It's a sort of grassy space, about the size of my back yard (not large), with a small pile of rocks in the middle. This is the view back to the fire lookout, with the rock pile.
Even though it wasn't that big, it felt incredible to be there. I'd just scrambled some eight and a half kilometres over some amazing terrain, and I had a view of half of Alberta. Cloudy and grey and hardly a breath of wind. This unbelieveable silence, occasionally punctuated by voices from the helicopter pad a kilometre and a half away.
Those clouds. The mountains to the west were in and out of mists and fogs. I started to wonder if any of the rain would get to me before I got out of there. Time to head back.
The walk back was much easier, since the trail was startlingly visible from that direction. I stuck to the top of the ridge, by this time almost immune to the effect of the vertiginous drop to my immediate left.
At the end of the ridge, against the cliff face, I spotted something moving on the apparently not so shear face.
Aside from a couple of wolf spiders and a raven, this marmot was the only wildlife I saw up there. He found a tiny ledge from which to sit and watch me.
The final scramble beside the shear face was done quickly, and I decided to head down immediately. It was getting late, I was tired and sore, and those rain clouds weren't looking any friendlier. It was a long walk down, made slow by adhering to Joe the firewatch guy's admonition to keep my steps small. The walk down to the tree line seemed to take ages, and then the walk through the forest seemed to take an equal number of ages.
One of the most remarkable characteristics of the day was the silence. Very rarely did the wind make itself known. And aside from the dozens of hikers out, there were little else making any noise. A beautiful hike.
Moose Mountain and north peak
Starting elevation: 1976 m (6483 feet).
Highest elevation: 2447 m (8028 feet).
North Peak: 2383 m (7818 ft).
Lowest elevation: 1903 m (6243 feet).
Elevation gain: 471 m (1545 feet).
Distance: 17.2 km (10.7 mi).
Time: 5:26.
This is an interesting one to get to. The road up branches off Highway 66 just before Elbow Falls, and continues several kilometres up to the top of the ridge. And, you leave the highway at around 1500 metres altitude, and arrive at the parking area at just under 2000 metres. It's quite a climb.
The trail along the ridge to branches in a couple of places, to trails that run down the east side and back to Bragg Creek. This makes it a popular loop for mountain bikers, and they were out in spades today. I passed several on the drive up, and there were several more on the trail and even on the mountain. The trail on the lower front peak is actually a road, probably built before they got a helicopter pad on the top. It's also likely it was built for access to the many gas wells in the area.
The parking lot was full when I arrived, and there were several cars lining the road outside as well. I found a spot, changed my shoes and headed out. It was a pretty grey day up there, though for some reason, this didn't impinge on my consciousness until I was above the tree line and wondering if I would get to use my rain gear.
I met several groups coming down, and passed a few going up. The trudge through the forest was uneventful, though. Much like any other trudge through the forest.
At the front peak, which is more rounded flat, there were several climbing the straight up path, several more taking the switchback, and four cyclists leaning into it, near the top. I did the straight up path, though I took the road along the north side instead of straight over the top. There were even people running down the path. It made my knees ache just to watch.
I finally put my Air Miles to good use and got a camera. This is the first view of the main and north peaks.
You can see that formidible northeast face, and to the right, the north peak, which is what I was aiming for. Here's another view, across the chasm east of the ridge that joins the peaks.
Check out that inviting sky!
I climbed to the helicopter pad, signed the guest book, and sat and snacked, and contemplated my objective.
The trail is well marked, but the first four hundred metres, is accompanied by a vertical drop of about 130 metres. There's a bit of scrambling, and in a few places, I had to back down so I could hold on to things with my hands. One particularly tricky scramble didn't have much for feet or hands to grab on to, in addition to being slicked up by seeping water. But I did find some.
Once past the trickiest part, I found myself at the south end of the ridge where it met with the cliff face that you can see in the first picture. Here's a shot looking the other way.
Yup, the top is about a hundred metres up. And I believe that's downtown Calgary on the horizon, roughly centred on the picture.
And this is the ridge from there to the north peak.
At this point, I have a little over a kilometre to go.
The ridge was a little challenging. It's almost all loose rock, flakes of limestone and larger boulders. In some places the rubble isn't too stable, and it moves when you step on it. Not too bad for the hand-size flakes, but some of those boulders are likely a couple of hundred kilograms or more. Mostly they just rock underfoot, but that puts demands on your balance. Every edge is sharp, so falling on this stuff would hurt.
There was a large boulder, actually a part of the ridge that hadn't collapsed yet, and it stood up blocky and in the way. I ended up climbing along the west side, as it wasn't quite as intimidating as the other side. Here and there, I had to scramble up some steeper parts.
In one stretch was a crevasse, not deep, but with a large snowbank in the middle. I sidled along one side of it, until the crevasse narrowed enough for me to step over it.
The farther I got, the easier it became. I found that if I stayed on the very top of the ridge, it was flat, and even grassy. It was just that shear drop a metre to the right that was a little unnerving. But eventually it spread out a little, and after some scrambling on the scree, I was at the top.
Not much to it really. It's a sort of grassy space, about the size of my back yard (not large), with a small pile of rocks in the middle. This is the view back to the fire lookout, with the rock pile.
Even though it wasn't that big, it felt incredible to be there. I'd just scrambled some eight and a half kilometres over some amazing terrain, and I had a view of half of Alberta. Cloudy and grey and hardly a breath of wind. This unbelieveable silence, occasionally punctuated by voices from the helicopter pad a kilometre and a half away.
Those clouds. The mountains to the west were in and out of mists and fogs. I started to wonder if any of the rain would get to me before I got out of there. Time to head back.
The walk back was much easier, since the trail was startlingly visible from that direction. I stuck to the top of the ridge, by this time almost immune to the effect of the vertiginous drop to my immediate left.
At the end of the ridge, against the cliff face, I spotted something moving on the apparently not so shear face.
Aside from a couple of wolf spiders and a raven, this marmot was the only wildlife I saw up there. He found a tiny ledge from which to sit and watch me.
The final scramble beside the shear face was done quickly, and I decided to head down immediately. It was getting late, I was tired and sore, and those rain clouds weren't looking any friendlier. It was a long walk down, made slow by adhering to Joe the firewatch guy's admonition to keep my steps small. The walk down to the tree line seemed to take ages, and then the walk through the forest seemed to take an equal number of ages.
One of the most remarkable characteristics of the day was the silence. Very rarely did the wind make itself known. And aside from the dozens of hikers out, there were little else making any noise. A beautiful hike.
Moose Mountain and north peak
Starting elevation: 1976 m (6483 feet).
Highest elevation: 2447 m (8028 feet).
North Peak: 2383 m (7818 ft).
Lowest elevation: 1903 m (6243 feet).
Elevation gain: 471 m (1545 feet).
Distance: 17.2 km (10.7 mi).
Time: 5:26.
# posted by Kelly @ 8:22 p.m. 
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