Looking west from South Baldy, Kananskis Country

Looking west from South Baldy, Kananskis Country

Saturday 27 March 2010

Entrance Ridges, Kananaskis Country

Early view towards Bluerock Mtn area Oh, Mike Potter. The hiking author who goes where others decline to tread. I remember a conversation overheard by old school friend Dan Malcolm, back in England. Paraphrased, it went something like, 'Oh, hey have you been hiking?'.
'Yeah'.
'Cool, we did the Langdale Round. It was awesome'.
'Well I [blows out chest] went Ridge Walking'

It appears that Ridge Walking is indeed a sport apart. I hadn't learned my lesson from following Potter's debatably pleasurable route on Hell's Ridge last year, although the unmoving body on the other side of the bed this morning indicated that my wife clearly had no such problem. So Jason Bazinet and I headed to Starbuck's, from where, fortified by Cherry Mocha (weird stuff), we hit K Country.

Jason ponders the possibilities of cougars in the woodsI probably shouldn't describe the route, in case someone wants to go do it. Well maybe it's not such a bad hike really, although the views are pretty sparse, even with the trees still stripped for winter. We saw a couple of bald eagles - from the car, near my house -plus a mouse, a squirrel, and a lot of moose shit. And elk shit. And horse shit. And cow shit. The first section is OK once you find the route from the car (ignore the guidebook and start from the K Country sign, bearing right up the embankment behind it on a well defined path). After that you give up all your height, possibly terminally if the path is icy, and then regain it. Then you get a view, before the forest swallows you whole.
There is path through there.  Mike says so.
The first ridge is forested, but more of a woodland wander than a ridge walk. The descent to the saddle is rather more woody, in that twigs-down-your-neck way that this part of the Rockies specialises in.

The return is more pleasant, other than a nasty-looking bog which extends for about 300 m, but was, fortunately, still frozen. At this point we gave up on the official trail and took a cut through the corner of the neighbouring ranch (possible without climbing fences). The hike is about 8 km and takes around 3 hours, including route finding and bushwhacking. Banded/Glasgow Group

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Spring Skiing

Someone told me about spring skiing shortly after I arrived. "Yeah man, it's really awesome, like, y'know, you ski in a T shirt".

Well I wore a T shirt last week. And a fleece. And a down vest. And a shell. And I was still bloody freezing.

The skiing was great though. Here's Lou descending Wild Side (Sunshine) in fresh snow. More pictures here.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Frank's Third Winter Visit

Matt Forshaw leads Slurpee, WI4+Frank Wigley made it over again for a week this winter; his third trip to see us in Canada. Th conditions were a little iffy, so instead of just ice climbing, we scrambled Baldy, climbed Slurpee, climbed rock at Wasootch, and skiied at Sunshine. We had a pretty decent week, and Frank even got a decent war wound to make his son proud, and his wife despair. Frank managing to not fall off Baldy

Saturday 20 March 2010

Frank's Visit: Day 1. Baldy Mountain.

Frank Wigley scrambling on Baldy, Kananaskis CountryBaldy had been on my list of early season objectives for a couple of years. I think I'd never got around to it because it seemed pretty minor, but it turned out to be really good fun. It was Frank's first day of his third winter trip to the Rockies, and a great start to the trip. The first 45 minutes is a steep run up to the scrambling step, which is furnished with good holds, although some of them are spares, likes sharks' teeth. The guidebook time is 3-5 hours. I think we were round in about 3.5, without pushing too hard.

More pictures here.